Pathways to citizenship
New Americans Campaign
Today’s climate has fueled anti-immigrant vitriol and has made the future of immigration in America uncertain. Now, more than ever, it is critical that immigrants have access to credible information and resources from a trusted source like the New Americans Campaign. The Campaign’s partners have been helping eligible immigrants apply for citizenship for six years.
Several national foundations invest in the Campaign because they believe immigrants can, and do, make profound contributions to our communities and our economy. That’s why the Campaign approached Spitfire to provide strategic counsel and technical assistance to both national and local Campaign partners in 18 cities throughout the country.
Spitfire has successfully positioned the Campaign as a model for coalitions seeking to make change in tumultuous times. We have developed powerful messaging, stories and talking points, produced social media toolkits to encourage eligible immigrants to apply for citizenship and secured strategic local and national media placements, including an op-ed in the Chronicle of Philanthropy encouraging other funders to join the campaign.
We work closely with each region to provide tailored technical assistance to meet their needs. We’ve created radio PSA scripts in Spanish to reach Spanish-dominant immigrants in Charlotte, North Carolina, and worked with partners in Silicon Valley to optimize their Facebook ad campaign. We also trained the campaign partners on tailored messaging, creating media opportunities, and effective social media content at their annual convening.
In addition to partner support, Spitfire works on the national level to strengthen the campaign’s communication. We helped the campaign redesign its website to more strategically showcase all the resources it offers eligible immigrants. Before the redesign, information was buried on one hard-to-find page on the website. Now, without leaving the homepage, website visitors can find a local partner near them, a hotline to call for help, dates and times of upcoming application-processing workshops in their area, and a link to Citizenshipworks, the campaign’s innovative online platform where immigrants can apply on their own.
Spitfire also manages the campaign’s Twitter account and has focused this year on engaging influencers that support strong naturalization policy as well as local efforts to help immigrants become citizens. These influencers include the campaign’s own national partner organizations, immigration reporters, thought leaders in the field, and city and state level elected officials who support immigrants in their regions.
To date, the campaign has helped more than 287,000 immigrants apply for citizenship. We continue to successfully tap into the urgency that many immigrants are feeling in the current political climate and local partners are seeing record numbers of aspiring Americans attend their workshops to apply for citizenship.