• How to Start and Grow a Think Tank
• Grassroots Leadership Guide to K-12 Education Reform
  • Prologue
  • Decide What Type of Organization You Want to Become
  • Building and Maintaining an Effective Board
  • Get Things Up and Running
  • Legal Reference Material
  • Organize Your Staff and Volunteers
  • Examples of Programs and Operational Materials
  • Building Coalitions
    • Overview
    • Local Credibility, Local Connections
    • Creating Local Networks: The Power Behind the Virginia Coalition Meeting
  • Getting Your Message Out/Media Relations
  • Talking with Legislators
  • Raising Money
  • History of School Choice
  • Education Reform Research and Resources
  • Resources
• Taking Donors Seriously
• Fundraising Fundamentals

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Local Credibility, Local Connections

by Edward T. McMullen, South Carolina Policy Council

The South Carolina Policy Council, Tom Roe's first state think tank, is turning 20 in the New Year. Over the last two decades, we have been a part of almost every major policy debate in the state. We won many of those battles - our state has been praised for its success with welfare reform, there has not been a tax increase in over a decade and we worked with a diverse group of state leaders to shut down a video poker industry that was sucking half a billion dollars out of our economy. Conservatives lead in the governor's office, the House and the Senate.

We are proud of our success in promoting limited government and free enterprise in our state. But like our counterparts across the country, we have a lot of work ahead of us. Many of the issues we faced in South Carolina are the same ones facing think tanks throughout the nation. School choice, tax reform, Medicaid and property rights have hit headlines at a record pace in the last year. While our friends in Washington, DC are fighting those policy issues at the federal level, it is up to us in the state trenches to achieve results at home.

Over the last two decades, South Carolina Policy Council (SCPC) has put together a successful formula for promoting reform in South Carolina. That formula includes building relationships with policy leaders, bringing together like-minded groups to exchange ideas, promoting research through the media, and taking our message to the grassroots level.

Relationships with Policy Makers

SCPC has spent 20 years working with our state's leaders, many of whom became familiar with us when they ran for office the first time. While think tanks do not get involved in the election process, we have always been the first place market-oriented candidates come to study ideas as they formulate their message.

SCPC identifies bright, free market leaders when they are elected. We make sure they are invited to our events and placed on our mailing list. Many of those elected officers started out as friends of SCPC, and our reputation for consistent, practical policy information keeps them coming back. For example, House Majority Leader Jim Merrill was a SCPC member before he ran for office, as many other elected officials have been. In addition, SCPC works very closely with policy makers' staff members - they call us first when they need innovative policy ideas, scholarly research, and relevant economic data.

We form relationships with policy leaders in several ways:

• Credible and timely research and information. Policy makers know they can rely on our research, but we want to make sure they get more than just a study in the mail. Before we send out a major publication, we brief key leaders in advance so they know what to expect, and possibly act on it. For example, we discussed our plans to release a study of South Carolina property rights in the wake of the Kelo decision with key leaders, and provided them with an advanced summary of our research. Afterwards, Governor Sanford held a major press conference with all the leaders in the SC House and Senate in which he outlined the information in our study, and promised to address SC property rights. Such advance marketing and communication before the release of a study or project keeps policymakers in the loop and may even encourage them to be part of the roll-out process.
• Briefings with state and national experts. Shortly after the Kelo decision, SCPC brought together state business leaders, national experts and leading SC policy makers, including the Speaker of the SC House and the chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. We provided detailed insight into Kelo and gave policy makers an opportunity to ask specific questions. By spearheading this effort, SCPC became the in-state resource on this issue.
• Delegation meetings across the state. During the six months when the General Assembly is not in session, SCPC takes our message to the members of the General Assembly in their districts. We set up briefings in all areas of the state on issues such as school choice, Medicaid and tax policy in which we provide the latest research and information to local media and their constituents. These face-to-face local meetings powerfully move our message forward as well as generate new and increased support for our organization.
• Board of Directors' Retreat. The SCPC's retreat is an opportunity to bring our policy leaders together with our major supporters and board to discuss our agenda for the following year. We host a dinner on Friday night, and then a private briefing the next day with House and Senate leaders, as well as constitutional officers. They provide our board and staff with insight about what research they will need from us in the coming session. Together with our member survey, this briefing help the SCPC board outline the priorities for the coming year, a process that aligns our projects to the most pressing policy needs of South Carolina. It brings our ivory tower scholarly work down to earth and relevant to our state.

Bringing Organizations Together

Many of the issues we face are of interest to national groups. It is often difficult for these groups (from DC or other parts of the country) to come into a state and form the necessary relationships to achieve results. Rather than have them come in and start from scratch - which is an ineffective way to build local consensus around a reform movement - we bring groups together with South Carolina leaders at SCPC. We are the clearinghouse for research and ideas. Like other state-based think tanks, SCPC has the local credibility and connections to generate media attention and get things done. Our proven reliability is an asset for like-minded organizations, who do have a great deal to offer state think tanks in terms of information and resources. Policy makers know and trust SCPC - that is why we are the first place national groups come when they have something to add to the discussion.

Promotion Through the Media

SCPC has a simple approach to the media -- we contact them when we have news. That means resisting the temptation to send out a press release every day, or to comment on anything and everything that happens in the state. If we have new research or information, we promote it through the press. As a result, we get coverage when we want it, and reporters take us seriously. We take the time to cultivate and protect these relationships by providing valuable insights, useful quotes, and factual data on deadline and in plain terms. We also target our op-eds, and we never miss opportunities to respond to editorials or opinion pieces. We visit editorial boards across the state, and while they may not always agree with us, they do respect our research and often allow us to present our side of the debate. In fact, many editors regularly ask us to submit articles when they want to examine both sides of an issue.

Message to the Grassroots

SCPC members are leaders in their communities all across the state. They are business men and women who belong to civic clubs and serve on local boards and councils. We make ourselves available to come to their meetings to speak on the major issues. Their meetings include local officials, editors of the local papers and the most prominent members of the business community. These meetings lead to new members and multiple requests for information about our work. SCPC goes to great lengths to cultivate these relationships allowing us to expand our scope and impact.

Twenty years invested in our relationships have made SCPC the most respected public policy voice in the state. Like the other state-based think tanks in our movement, we research issues substantively and in great depth, but we go much further than just producing a study. We make sure our ideas are debated across the state -- in the media, in large public forums, in small briefings with top leaders, and even in one-on-one meetings. With that strategy in place, we expect even greater success in the next 20 years.

Edward T. McMullen, Jr. is president of the Columbia-based South Carolina Policy Council Education Foundation, South Carolina's free market state think tank.