Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities
Reaching the California Legislature via social media.
In 2019, the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU) came to 3fold Communications with the task of crafting a social media-centric message to the California Legislature urging them to pass Assembly Bill 1307. AB 1307, known as the College Opportunity Act, proposed that a Cal Grant funding formula similar to the one used to calculate public college student awards be used for those attending private colleges as well.
The challenges we faced were firstly, how to communicate with legislature members via social media, as well as how to simultaneously mitigate private education’s reputation for being only attainable by the affluent.
I was the campaign concept creator and copywriter over the course of this project. I thought up the idea to unite the campaign behind the hashtag #CalGrantCan - a friendly, easy-to-remember phrase that we could pair with the phrase “make independent education affordable.” We would rotate the last word out for other relevant adjectives like “achievable,” “happen,” and “possible.” By rotating out the last word of the sentence, we were able to show the breadth of impact the Cal Grant funding formula would have on students across the state.
My social media copy was heavily geared toward catching the attention of legislature members. Adding the use of the hashtag #Vote4Opportunity, we educated, reminded, and reminded them again to pass the College Opportunity Act, often in 280 characters or less. AB 1307 ended up passing the Assembly and the Senate, prompting us to create new messages on social media directly addressing Governor Newsom. Ultimately the California Governor decided not to sign the bill, but we were proud that our powerhouse effort helped get it so far.
This campaign included:
Social media graphics highlighting the #CalGrantCan hashtag, the subsequent #Vote4Opportunity hashtag, and the variations on the “#CalGrantCan make independent education affordable” message.
A one-sheet detailing the ins and outs of AB 1307.
Social media toolkits that were shared with AICCU member schools who were then encouraged to post and spread the word about AB 1307 as well.
Email templates using the same messaging in the header and footer areas.
