The NEXT American Opportunity needs YOU! As always, our work in Washington needs a strong grassroots component to make the recommendations you helped us turn into policies that make opportunity finance—and through it, America—stronger.

One easy way is to send a message on a current issue: send a letter to the editor or an email to your elected officials highlighting topic from The NEXT American Opportunity. Click here for the current campaign.

A key goal for the NEXT American Opportunity is to inject opportunity finance into the policy dialogue this season. We encourage you to share the policy recommendations and papers with policymakers in your district. We have two important tools for that work:

• A brochure summarizing the issues and recommendations. The “short version” of the book is an excellent piece to hand out to introduce officials to the potential of opportunity finance. Click here to order the brochure. You can print out stories from your state or individual policy papers that reflect your work from this site to add to the pocket in the back of the brochure and customize it for your elected officials and your CDFI’s activities.
• “Town Hall” questions related to each chapter that you can ask at candidate forums, town hall meetings, or in questionnaires.

Information on using The NEXT American Opportunity as an advocacy tool is available in the special Advocacy Handbook we prepared to accompany the publication. OFN has also published a general Advocacy Guide that will help you get started or get better at advocacy.

Use the “Opportunity Finance Message” guide for hints on highlighting your successes, talking about your markets, and discussing your impact.