750 First Street NE
Suite 1040
Washington, DC 20002
Phone (202) 783-7100
Fax (202) 783-2818
www.results.org
To Catch a Dollar Film Screening
RESULTS Follow-up Tips
Page 1
Be Sure to Follow Up with Leads from To Catch a Dollar Screenings
After the March 31 nationwide screening of To Catch a Dollar, we hope that you will have a number of people from
the screening who indicated an interest in getting involved with RESULTS. Because these folks could become
potential new members of your group, you’ll want to make sure to follow up with them while their interest is still high.
Here are some tips for doing good follow-up:
1. Follow up soon. Be sure to follow up within a week of the screening. You want to get them while their
interest is still high. Plus, it shows that you value their interest in our work. The longer you wait, the better
chance the person has forgotten about RESULTS and has moved on to something else.
2. Follow up personally. The best form of follow-up is a phone call or in-person meeting (coffee, lunch, etc).
The real time interaction from a conversation makes it much easier to build a relationship with the person. If
you cannot call right away, send an e-mail as the first post-movie contact but be sure to follow up the e-mail
with a call. Do not simply send a blanket e-mail to everyone who expressed interest; it is impersonal and will
likely get ignored; personalize the e-mail to each person. This takes a little more time but is worth the effort.
3. Share the workload. Be sure to have everyone in your group help with follow-up. Divide up the names of
the people who needs follow-up and assign them to each person. This will help to get it done quicker and
minimize the risk of overload if only one or two people do it. Also, if a group member personally spoke to
someone at the screening, that member should do the follow-up with that person.
4. Be prepared what to say. As you prepare for your follow up call, have an idea of what you want to say. You
don’t need to script every word of the conversation but it is a good idea to have an outline of what you want
to cover. There will be certain things you’ll want to make sure you discuss (why they are interested in
RESULTS, when the next local meeting is, etc.). See below for ideas.
5. Practice, practice, practice. Practice doing the call with one of your group members, a family member, or
even alone if need be. This is simply to get an idea of how what you say will sound and also release any
jitters you might feel before calling.
Sample Outline for Your Follow Up Phone Calls
Introduction. Introduce yourself, remind them of who you are and why you are calling. Be sure to ask if this is a
good time to talk:
Example: Hi Mary. My name is Joe Smith; I’m a volunteer with RESULTS. We both attended the “To Catch a Dollar”
screening last week and spoke afterward about RESULTS. At the screening, you signed up to get more information
about our local RESULTS group and I am following up with you about that. Do you have a few minutes to talk?
Build the conversation. Start the conversation off with some simple questions to help break the ice and link the
film with RESULTS’s work. Be sure to share your own answers to these questions as well.
What did you think of the movie? What inspired you about the movie?
Have you worked on poverty reduction before? What types of things have you done?
What about RESULTS interests you? Had you heard of us before?
Introduce RESULTS to them. Now that you’ve gotten into a conversation and established a rapport with the
person, introduce (or re-introduce them to RESULTS). Be sure to share why you got involved with RESULTS.
Example: Let me briefly tell you what RESULTS is. We are a grassroots advocacy group working to end hunger and
poverty here in the U.S. and around the world. We primarily do this by lobbying our members of Congress in support
of programs and policies that address the root causes of poverty. For example, right now we’re working to protect
programs like Head Start and child care assistance from budget cuts that would force hundreds of thousands of atrisk children out of these programs. We are also beginning work on an idea called the Saver’s Bonus that would
help low-income families build up savings by opening a savings account on their tax return. In addition, we generate
media on the issues, like letters to the editor and op-ed, and help educate our local communities about the solutions
to poverty, like partnering on the “To Catch a Dollar” screening. RESULTS trains us how to take these actions.
Have you ever done any advocacy before? What have you done?
I got involved with RESULTS in __________ because [your story]. Since then, I have done [actions you and your
group have done] which to me has been very empowering.
750 First Street NE
Suite 1040
Washington, DC 20002
Phone (202) 783-7100
Fax (202) 783-2818
www.results.org
To Catch a Dollar Film Screening
RESULTS Follow-up Tips
Page 2
Share more about your local group and what you are working on. Paint a picture of your local group for the
person so they can see what it might be like to participate:
Example: So let me tell you a little bit about our local RESULTS group. Our group here in ____________ focuses on
ending poverty here in the U.S. We meet twice per month. Our first meeting is on the 2nd Saturday of each month,
which is a national conference call with RESULTS volunteers around the country. We hear from guest speakers and
staff about what’s going on in Congress, and also from other RESULTS groups so we can learn from each other.
Our second meeting is on _________________ each month and this is where we plan the activities of our local
group. If the action for the month is to write letters, we write our letters together at that meeting. If we are trying to
set up a meeting, we’ll plan it out, see who is going to do what, and then practice what we’ll say. One of the things I
like most about RESULTS is that when we have a meeting, we always do something (write a letter, make a plan, set
up a meeting). These actions not only help get us closer to our goal of ending poverty, they build my confidence in
this work and connect our work here in ________ with the work of our fellow RESULTS volunteers around the
country.
Does that sound interesting to you?
Do you have any questions?
Invite them to a meeting. Ask the person to attend your next RESULTS meeting.
Example: Would you be interested in coming to our next meeting? That’ll give you the chance to see how we do
things first hand and also to meet our other group members. They are great people; I know you’ll like them. After
that, if you like what we’re doing and want to get involved, we would welcome you to join our group. If not, that’s OK
too. But I think you’ll like what you see. How does that sound?
Our next meeting is
you need directions?
[date]
at
[time] . We are meeting at
[location]
. Do
Conclude the call. Once all questions are answered, ask if it would be OK to send the person an e-mail with links
to the RESULTS website so they can learn a little more about us. Thank them for their time, tell them you are
looking forward to seeing them at the next meeting, and provide your contact information if they have any other
questions.
Follow-up e-mail. If you are sending a follow-up e-mail to the person, include these components:

A thank you for speaking with you on the phone.

A reminder of when and where the next local RESULTS group meeting is.

Include the following RESULTS website links that will give them a better idea of who we are:
o
RESULTS website: www.results.org
o
RESULTS For New Activists page: http://www.results.org/skills_center/for_new_activists/
o
2011 Campaign Summary: U.S. Poverty issues:
http://www.results.org/issues/us_poverty_campaigns/us_current_campaigns/ OR Global Poverty
issues:
http://www.results.org/issues/global_poverty_campaigns/overview_of_results_global_campaigns_for
_2011/
o
Take Action page: http://www.results.org/take_action/
Taking the time to do good follow-up will pay large dividends down the road. These tips are designed to help you but
of course, it is your personality and experiences that bring this process to life. Simply sharing who you are and why
you’re involved with RESULTS will go a long way in engaging others in this work.
Thank you for all your hard work during the To Catch a Dollar campaign. You can be sure that your work has helped
raise awareness of U.S. poverty in your community. Hopefully, it has also gained you some new RESULTS group
members and community contacts.