Public Affairs & Government Relations
Ronald C. Rice spent twelve years as a registered federal lobbyist for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, where he grew congressional Democratic support for charter school priorities from 5 members to 48 and worked with his team to raise federal appropriations from $254 million to $500 million. Before that he served as Special Assistant and Chief Policy Analyst at the New Jersey Department of Education and, as a two-term Newark council member, sponsored the city’s ethics reform, abandoned-property and “Ban the Box” laws.
We help organizations understand government, engage decision-makers, build relationships and advance public-policy objectives. Access is not the goal. The goal is a strategy, a set of relationships, a message and a coalition that can carry an objective all the way through.
From landscape analysis to the vote
Services may include any of the following, scoped to the objective in front of you.
- Government relations strategy
- Legislative advocacy
- Policy analysis and positioning
- Legislative strategy
- Government stakeholder mapping
- Policymaker engagement
- Coalition development
- Grassroots and grasstops advocacy
- Public affairs campaigns
- Advocacy planning
- Legislative meeting preparation
- Public-private partnership strategy
- Advocacy training
- Government and political landscape analysis
Three things have to line up
Government relations works when a clear ask meets the right people, delivered by the right messengers, with enough organized support behind it that saying yes becomes the easier decision. Most stalled efforts are missing one of the three.
We start with a government and political landscape analysis: who decides, who influences the decider, what else is competing for their attention, and what has already been tried. From there we map the stakeholders and build the plan: which policymakers to engage and in what order, with what message and what evidence, and which coalition partners, grassroots voices and grasstops validators need to be visible along the way.
Then we help you execute. That means preparing for legislative meetings and hearings so nobody walks in cold, running a public affairs campaign when a quieter approach will not be enough, developing public-private partnership strategy where government and private capacity have to meet, and training your own advocates so your organization can carry its case in its own voice long after the engagement ends.
Organizations with a policy objective and a deadline
A bill, budget line or regulation
Something needs to pass, be stopped or be amended, in Annapolis, at a county council, in the District or in Congress, and you need a strategy rather than a lobbyist’s business card.
Schools, nonprofits and associations
Organizations whose funding, charter or operating rules are set by public bodies, and whose members or families can be organized into a credible voice.
Developers, institutions and employers
Projects and operations that depend on approvals, partnerships or public support, where community standing and government relationships are the same problem.
Government relations rarely travels alone
Community Engagement & Coalition Building
The organized support behind the ask: stakeholder mapping, coalitions, grassroots and grasstops engagement, advocacy mobilization.
Learn more →Strategic Communications & Marketing
The public side of a policy campaign: message architecture, audiences, earned media and an integrated plan.
Learn more →Executive Communications & Thought Leadership
Testimony, talking points, op-eds and spokesperson preparation for the leaders who carry the message.
Learn more →Tell us about the policy objective
What needs to happen, where it will be decided, and when. If you already know who is for it and who is against it, say so. If you do not, that is the first thing we will find out.