Collaborative Advocacy in Action: Prop 4, GGRF, and funding for the region
We’re bringing people together to work on all kinds of things, including securing funding for the San Francisco Bay Area region.
The most recent example is an advocacy day in Sacramento on August 20. Fifteen people who work for TOGETHER Bay Area members traveled from the fog of the Bay to the heat of the Sacramento Valley to advance our 2025 Policy Priorities. We broke into teams to meet with 19 legislative offices urging decision makers to:
- Appropriate funding from Proposition 4 / Climate Bond this year in budget trailer bills
- Direct a portion of greenhouse gas reduction fund (GGRF) dollars to the natural and working lands sector.
We highlighted our members’ projects and programs that would benefit from Prop 4 and GGRF funding. And we encouraged them to be leaders on these causes in order to increase the state’s climate resilience now because the cost of climate change impacts will only increase over time.
But it’s not just the “what” that matters, it’s also the “how.”
We take a collaborative approach to advocacy. First, we center equity by being transparent, building a culture of belonging, and advocating for funding for those who haven’t had access to it in the past. Second, we engage in collaborative advocacy, which means:
- We prioritize relationships over transactions
- We choose an abundance mindset
- We design our meetings and events to be positive and productive
- We bring joy into everything we do
And third, in all that we do, we work to center our values of trust, joy, belonging, equity, learning, and hope.
The temperature was hot – literally and figuratively – in the Capitol, with many high stakes issues still to be decided. Our values and approach to advocacy were a well received cooling balm. Legislative offices were excited to meet with us, and scheduling 19 meetings was relatively easy to make happen.
At the end of the day in Sacramento last week, we took the time to debrief what each of us learned from our various meetings. This was an opportunity for the participants to be experts and learners, regardless of how much experience they have in advocacy. And we handwrote personal thank you notes to everyone we met with. We acknowledged the time they spent with us, and thanked them for their leadership. All while enjoying food and beverages at a very happy hour before heading west back to the Bay.
The coming weeks will be critical as the State Legislature makes big decisions about state budget appropriations and fate of the state’s cap-and-trade program and resultant expenditures. We will continue to engage with our state legislators until the session ends.
Our Policy Committee is open to people who work for our member organizations with any degree of interest and experience. This is one way that we’re making policy and advocacy more accessible to more people and bringing new and different voices to the table. The Committee works to advance our collective priorities through strategy development, messaging, direct advocacy and educational opportunities. Learn more here.
