We know you are always looking for tools to help you empower arts advocates in your state. I’d like to share some new advocacy resources from NASAA. NASAA’s The Practical Advocate series is designed to encourage grass-roots constituents (primarily state arts agency grantees) to become advocates and to educate public officials about the impact of their work. I’m pleased to announce three new editions in that series:

• Meetings Matter! recommends easy and effective ways to conduct meetings with a legislator or their staff.
• Advocacy vs. Lobbying: An Arts Primer sheds light on the crucial difference between advocacy and lobbying and debunks common misconceptions around nonprofits’ ability to speak up.
• Three Simple Ways to Advocate for the Arts (revised for 2019!) offers easy steps artists and arts organizations can take to encourage support for the arts.

Please help NASAA get these materials into the hands of your constituents. Disseminate them via e-mail, propagate them via your social media accounts and use them to prepare for your own consultations with elected officials. We also have shared them with statewide arts advocacy groups.

Apart from these advocacy tools, NASAA offers in-depth research resources, including comprehensive arts funding data, information on best practices and grant-making statistics. You may contact NASAA’s research team anytime for objective, accurate research that can help inform your agency’s planning and policy development. And be sure to like NASAA’s Facebook page to stay abreast of our latest releases.

Thank you for all your good work.

Best regards,

Pam Breaux
President and CEO