Understanding how to connect directly, intellectually, emotionally, and consistently is the key to getting through to people of diverse constituencies bombarded with political messages from every angle.

Our Mission

CandleLight’s mission is to help responsible citizens decide what to do after the protest. The era of “Fake News” created by deliberate targeted disinformation campaigns has transformed the public sphere into an environment of mistrust, animosity, and chaos. It has also ignited a rebirth in civic activism, with responsible citizens from all elements of society looking to play their part in supporting the democracy and civil society at the bedrock of the American story. Many in this wave are not traditional activists, lacking the technical campaign and advocacy experience to know how to best put their unique skills to use. CandleLight’s objective is to work with these citizens to find the best niche for them to create meaningful, lasting social impact.

This new wave of activism comes in many forms. From corporate-sponsored multi-million-dollar add campaigns supporting social justice reform, to hundreds of thousands of protesters demonstrating in the streets of Washington DC supporting gender equality or sensible gun control, to an unprecedented number of new candidacies at all levels of elected office, millions are looking for an opportunity to do their part. As the sheer volume of this movement is inspiring, there are still necessary steps to ensure this energy translates from activism in the moment into lasting change. As clearly as many protests demonstrate power in numbers, they fail to articulate clear policies that deal with their targeted cause. As passionately as activists channel the voice of the victims, they often lack strategy for building coalitions with nontraditional partners to broaden support. And as much success as the new wave of candidates has demonstrated in getting elected, many still lack adequate support from outdated party structures in implementing public policy programs.

CandleLight helps its clients capture this moment and create lasting impact through targeted advocacy initiatives. These initiatives identify core concerns of communities, advocate for specific achievable policies that directly address these concerns, build large diverse coalitions that broaden support, and develop strategies to sell these proposals to policy makers. CandleLight’s goal is to demonstrate to anxious citizens the power they possess if they are willing to block out the noise on social media, focus their energy on concrete achievable policies and act. When citizens believe their voice matters, they stay engaged and collectively strengthen our democracy.

CandleLight Principles of Advocacy