When legislative sessions end or lawmakers return home for recess, many advocacy teams see a sharp drop in supporter activity. Fewer alerts go out, email calendars slow down, and organizations often assume there’s “nothing to mobilize around.” But recess is one of the most important windows for building relationships, collecting stories, and strengthening your grassroots base.
If you’re searching for how to engage supporters when lawmakers are on recess, how to keep your list active between campaigns, or how to prevent your advocacy program from going dormant, this guide outlines practical, field-tested strategies you can use year-round. These insights come directly from Brian Rubenstein of Rubenstein Impact Group, who has spent more than 15 years designing high-performing engagement programs for national advocacy organizations.
The biggest mistake we see advocacy organizations make when lawmakers are on recess…they stop communicating with their supporters.
After a big campaign push, when advocacy organizations are sending weekly emails, constantly engaging supporters, and running full steam ahead, the weeks and months that follow are challenging.
How do we engage with our list year-round, especially at the state level, when most legislative sessions are no longer than four months? We met with Brian Rubenstein of Rubenstein Impact Group to get the inside scoop on how we can build a better advocacy movement for our supporters, and the most common mistakes he sees advocacy organizations fall into:
“The worst thing you can do is stop communicating and stop engaging, because then what happens is you're essentially starting all over again.”
Advocacy teams often struggle with the same question:“How do we engage supporters year-round, especially when state sessions only last a few months?”
Brian emphasizes two core questions every organization must ask:
But if you run out of engagement ideas during the downtime, don’t panic. Here are some of Brian's ideas.
Have volunteers print something out and deliver it to their lawmaker's local office.
If you have an online volunteer who has been particularly active, invite them to join an ambassador program for your super supporters.
Use downtime to strengthen your bank of supporter stories.
Bring in a lobbyist or senior staffer and give supporters behind-the-scenes insight.
Ask supporters what issues they care about, how they prefer to engage, and what motivates them—
and always include a tangible follow-up.
Hold virtual or in-person happy hours to keep supporters connected.
This is probably the most essential tactic for keeping supporters engaged. Ask them directly how they want to be involved. How often do they want to hear from you? Do they have opinions on their favorite ways of getting involved? Do they want to share ideas with you? This demosntrates to your supporters that they are not just volunteers doing work for you. They are a member of a community and are essential to your organization.
“People love to answer. They love to have stake in the game. They love to feel like you care about what they have to say."
Brian reminds us, "Relevance is the number one factor for determining if you should communicate with your volunteers. If it's content they will care about, then send it. This might be several times per month or even more often during an urgent campaign."
These ideas sound easy enough, but most organizations that have tried to run a story-collection campaign can attest that engagement isn't guaranteed!
We turned to Brian to ask for his expertise in building engagement amongst these supporters:
Prepare for your major campaigns months in advance by conducting recruitment or acquisition in targeted districts and states that will be key to your success. Then, work to understand those volunteers’ interests and collect stories before the campaign launch.
Collecting stories takes time and staff capacity. Don't try to collect everything you need in an online form. Ask a few simple multiple-choice questions, then seek permission to follow up with them individually by phone or email.
And don't forget to tag their contact record with these responses so you can easily find and leverage them during your campaign.
And our hot tip for automations: Don’t send autoresponders immediately. Wait a day or two to make the engagement feel more personal.
The end of a legislative session doesn’t mean taking a break from your supporters. It means you get to be more creative, learn more about your audience, and give people reasons to stay involved.
If you want hands-on guidance in developing stronger engagement strategies, supporter journeys, or year-round grassroots programs, you can connect directly with Brian Rubenstein of Rubenstein Impact Group. Brian brings more than 25 years of experience creating digital strategy campaigns, including leading volunteer engagement for the American Cancer Society’s advocacy affiliate, and has built award-winning programs across email, social, SMS, and web.
Contact Brian → https://www.rubensteinimpactgroup.com/
If you’re looking for a tool that supports everything described above—story collection, automated journeys, targeted outreach, supporter data, and smarter engagement—AdvocacyAI gives you the infrastructure to run it all. From conditional surveys to personalized email workflows and district-level insights, the platform helps you understand your supporters’ motivations and take action at scale.