Integrating Advocacy
Engagement into Your
Organization
Determining where the advocacy engagement function lives within an organization and how to staff it can be challenging. Because of the variety and number of advocacy groups you may engage with, and the many potential ways to engage with them, advocacy engagement could fit within any number of departments, from medical affairs to corporate communications or even compliance.
While there is no “one size fits all” solution, Orangefiery has learned several key principles for organizing advocacy engagement over the years. We provide our clients with operational best practices and offer customized recommendations on where the advocacy engagement function should live, and how it should be organized.
Why Cross-Functional Organization is Critical for Advocacy Engagement
Because advocacy groups interact with your organization in a variety of ways, entering through multiple doors – particularly if they’re trying to raise money or garner support – it’s critical to have cross-functional awareness about what your organization is doing and what the goals are.
Without shared strategy and internal communication between departments and functions, your advocacy efforts become scattered. You may miss key opportunities for advocacy collaborations and co-created programming, and overlook valuable insights that advocacy groups can provide, such as what patients are looking for, what can help from a quality-of-life standpoint, and what the reaction might be to a myriad of issues, from how a product is delivered to pricing and access programs. You may also discover that your company is unknowingly engaging with and providing support to the same organization through multiple functions/departments.
When you have a cross-functional committee for advocacy engagement, you not only have a single team that represents all aspects of the decision-making process – including strategy, finance, communications, medical, compliance and so on – you have a committee that is meeting regularly to talk about what has been done, what still needs to happen, what new opportunities should be pursued and what insights you’ve gathered from each advocacy group.
How Orangefiery Can Help with Advocacy Organizational Design
From an organizational design standpoint, Orangefiery provides customized recommendations for setting up a cross-functional team, as well as norms and governance around who needs to know what, when they need to know it, and how to decide which advocacy projects to pursue.
We provide a cross-functional team charter and recommendations on where the advocacy engagement function should sit and how it should be organized.
We share norms and governance for deciding which advocacy collaborations, sponsorships, and programming to pursue, and when and how to engage senior leaders.
We offer ongoing support on everything from creating regular meeting agendas for cross-functional or steering committees to coordinating advocacy relationships and project management.