ACTION PLAYBOOK:
Contact Your Governor
Step 1: Gather contact information.
Enter your address in the usa.gov database. Click “State Officials” and locate the governor.
Write down their:
Phone Number
Email address
Social media handle (preferably where they’re most active, otherwise your preferred channel)
You may have to click through to their official website to find all the contact info!
-
Create a new contact for each of your governor. Include their office phone number, email address, website, and social media. This will make it so much simpler to contact them in the future.
While you’re at it, follow them on social media, and look for a “Subscribe to my Newsletter” option on the official website. Receiving their content in your feed & inbox on a regular basis will make you an infinitely more effective advocate. You’ll get a sense of their priorities, get the chance to meet them at community events, and learn about new issues to contact them about.
⚠️ If you live in Washington D.C., you do not have a governor, so pick a state where you formerly lived or have close ties.
Step 2: Send a personalized email.
It might be tempting to sign your name to the bottom of a completely prewritten email, but personalized emails are much more attention-grabbing. They also get processed individually, whereas identical letters are batched. It’s always worth it!
Use the issue-specific templates below to craft an email to your governor.
Tips & reminders:
Customize the sections in brackets - or more if you’re up for it!
Save a copy of your email text to use as a phone script in the next step
Step 3. Make a call.
Next, call the number you found in Step 1, using your email from the previous step as a script.
If you’re nervous, just remember that your reps and their staff are fellow humans. They’re also professionals being paid to listen to you! Your job here is to convey your authentic concern about an issue – you do not need to be an expert.
If they don’t pick up, don’t worry—your voicemail will be documented. And if you prefer to leave a voicemail rather than talk to a real person, call after hours.
Step 4. Tag your governor on social media.
Onward! Making your ask publicly has the power to grab the attention of policymakers and elicit a response. Elected officials are sensitive to public perception, so they take note of what their constituents say in public. Also, some policymakers run their own social media accounts, so you may even reach some of them directly with your post. You can even try sliding into their DMs!
Use the template below to start a post, customizing it everywhere you can. Be sure to tag their handles!
Step 5: Report back and follow up.
If you haven’t heard back in a week, follow-up! A friendly nudge, just checking in that they received your email and the resources, is totally appropriate and often appreciated.
If you receive a response, please share it with advocacy@climatechangemakers.org. You can simply forward email responses or send a screenshot. This enables us to more accurately track our collective impact.
👎 Did they seem skeptical? Anything you learn from your governor’s response is valuable—including barriers to action. We’re trying to grease the wheels for deploying climate solutions, so the more we know, the more effective we can become as connectors and advocates.
👍 Did you get an enthusiastic response? Awesome! In addition to forwarding to advocacy@climatechangemakers.org, consider sharing your response publicly in our epic Slack #wins-shoutouts channel — other changemakers will find it motivating, inspiring more action-taking!
Step 6: Multiply your impact.
Now that you’ve taken action, increase your impact by talking about it!
📲 For an easy option, start with a social media post. Start from scratch, or repost from Climate Changemakers (@theclimatevote) with your own commentary on Instagram, BlueSky, or LinkedIn. You can do this in writing, or better yet, in a quick selfie video. The algorithms love video.
Whether you’re drafting from scratch or reposting with commentary, here’s an effective message arc:
🤓 What did you learn: I just learned that [insert most interesting factoid].
❤️🔥 Why do you care: This is really [emotional adjective like ‘exciting’ or ‘worrying’] because [why do you feel that way].
✅ What did you do: I just contacted my governor, which was honestly way less intimidating and way more empowering than I thought it would be.
❓ Invitation/Call to Action: If any of my people in [places where this is relevant] want to do this with me, here’s a step-by-step playbook: https://www.climatechangemakers.org/preview-governor
-
Take this step to the next level by reaching out to a friend who lives in a state where the governor needs a nudge.
To make it as easy as possible for your friend, you can even “ghostwrite” for them. Just do this playbook again as if you were your friend and deliver them a ready-to-send email, phone number to call, and social media post to amplify. The more people get involved, the stronger the public pressure. The more targeted the public pressure, the more likely we are to succeed.
And that’s it, playbook complete! Feel accomplished.
Thank you for taking action.
🎉 CUE CONFETTI by clicking COMPLETE! 🎉
Want more action?
Go to the current Action Plan
© 2023 Climate Changemakers