Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund were today awarded the Lobbying Strategy Innovation Award in recognition of their lobbying innovations. The Public Affairs Council presented the award at their annual advocacy conference, along with two other awards for Grassroots Innovation and Communications Innovation. The Council represents more than 700 leading corporations, nonprofits, associations, consultants, and universities that employ nearly 10,000 public affairs professionals.
The first 501(c)(3) organization to receive the Lobbying Strategy Innovation Award, Americans for the Arts is recognized for its advocacy integration with the Arts Action Fund and the creation of the Arts + Social Impact Explorer. The Explorer is a data visualization tool that creatively displays all the important ways the arts intersect with Americans’ day-to-day lives while encouraging deeper investment in the arts through policy and funding. The tool has become an essential advocacy component.
The award also recognizes the Arts Action Fund for their work in preventing termination of the National Endowment for the Arts during the 2017–2018 congressional session as called for in the Administration’s FY 2018 and FY 2019 budgets. Through a comprehensive lobbying plan, both organizations incorporated a deep bench of in-house policy expertise; the activation of grassroots activists nationwide; produced original research and case-making materials which resulted in strategic communications to every congressional district and state.
Further information about the Arts + Social Impact Explorer is online here and a catalog of Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund’s advocacy efforts can be viewed in the Arts Mobilization Center.