National Journal Guest Blog - PWIA 2021

The past year has been filled with several firsts for National Journal: our first full year operating remotely, our first year separated from Atlantic Media, the list goes on. While these have come with their own challenges and opportunities, there is one first that stands out as an exciting new venture for our organization.

While many organizations, including our own, spent the last year taking a hard look at our diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, National Journal Research (NJR) also looked externally, evaluating the ways we could develop products that help corporations better adhere to those internal values.

First, we launched our PAC Vetting Service in November 2020, analyzing the behaviors of political candidates to help corporations ensure their political giving aligns with their corporate values in diversity and inclusion, and integrity and ethics. Even more recently, we’ve begun exploring a more comprehensive level of support, helping corporations understand social issues, such as voting rights or LGBTQ+ equality, that they may be asked to weigh in on and create frameworks to guide their engagement strategies.

Combined, these products represent NJR’s first step towards helping government relations executives advise their C Suites on the intersection of politics and social issues, keeping their corporate values at the forefront. These products are a “first'' for our organization, combining our expertise in in-depth stakeholder analysis with our new understanding of the changing landscape surrounding social issues, and the new ways in which corporations and government relations professionals in particular are interacting with them. We look forward to celebrating these firsts alongside the organizations that have come on the journey with us!

Kendall VanHoose is the Senior Director for New Products & Consulting at National Journal Research. We are honored to work with incredible women in advocacy across the Washington D.C. community, and we are thrilled to be a part of the PWIA conference to amplify the voices of women in the advocacy community.

WGR’s annual Professional Women in Advocacy Conference provides professional development and leadership training to women in all areas of advocacy. To learn more, click here.