THE 2011 DAVID J. BRUGGER GRASSROOTS ADVOCACY AWARD

The Association of Public Television Stations presented the David J. Brugger Grassroots Advocacy Award to the more than 400 local public television and radio stations, national organizations and producers who partnered together to launch the incredibly successful 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting grassroots campaign. Jeff Freeland Nelson, managing director for public strategy at American Public Media (APM), accepted the award on behalf of the campaign.

This groundbreaking campaign, launched in December, has enlisted more than 350,000 citizen advocates in a station-led grassroots campaign that uses the power of new media to engage Congress and change the tone of the political debate about public broadcasting. The 170 Million Americans campaign leverages the potential of new media like Facebook and Twitter, while utilizing “traditional” techniques like emails and a dedicated website, to alert public broadcasting supporters when Congress is about to take action on a funding issue critical to public broadcasting. In less than four months, advocates in this campaign generated more than 450,000 emails messages to Congress, and countless more telephone calls.