May Meeting Recap: Stakeholder Mapping
Hi friends, and happy Pride Month! We are NOT having a meeting this month as Emily & I (Stephanie) have conflicting schedules and we’re sure you’re all busy with summer reading.
Our next meeting will be held at Rockford University on Friday, July 18th at 10:30am (click here to register). We’ll meet in the Howard Colman Library’s Map Room. Since it’s summer, you are welcome to park behind the library building or in any other spot that’s normally designated for faculty & staff only.
Our topic of discussion will be staff training — please bring ideas, questions, examples, or anything else! As always, we will reserve plenty of time for information and issue sharing.
Meeting Recap:
If you couldn’t attend our last meeting but were interested in the topic of community stakeholder mapping, here’s a link to the slide deck that I made and summed up what we went over below:
Stakeholder mapping is a way to visualize the power of individuals or groups through charting their interest and influence over a specific issue. It can help you figure out where to invest your energy on various issues.
To get started, identify the following things:
The issue (program challenge, funding, etc.)
The key players (who are your stakeholders?)
Draw a chart with quadrants and an X-Y Axes. X = Interest, Y = Influence. Mark “low” on the left bottom corner, and “high” on the top left and bottom right corners.
Work through each individual or group, asking questions about their interest and influence over the issue. Can they make policy decisions? Do they have a large online following? Who have they donated money to/taken money from? Are they showing up to board meetings? Once you’ve decided their interest and influence (low or high), chart them on the map.
I recommend looking into the following when doing your research:
Campaign Finance Disclosures
Past Communications
Social Media Profiles
Google News
If you want to chat about this further, reach out to me anytime!
-Stephanie (& Emily)