Effective Lobbyism: Lessons from 5 years of practice

by Johnny Stengel – Political Advisor, Lobbyist, and Member of Effective Altruism Germany e.V.

Introduction

When people in the Effective Altruism community talk about “policy impact,” lobbying often comes up as one of the highest-leverage activities. But the practice of lobbying is rarely demystified. What does it actually look like? Who can do it effectively? How do you measure whether your hours in Brussels or Berlin truly shifted anything?

I want to share my experience — as someone who built a volunteer-based lobbying network from scratch, moved into federal and then EU-level policy engagement, and who now works across climate, AI, and governance issues. My aim here is not to glorify “influence” but to make the practice tangible, to outline what skills and strategies matter, and to highlight the systemic levers where lobbying may make the most difference for future generations.

How I Found Myself in Lobbying

In 2020, I co-founded GermanZero Hamburg, the second local group in what was then a small climate NGO. The founder, Heinrich Strößenreuter, had an ambitious vision: a volunteer-driven lobbying network spanning Germany. At the time, we were told something very basic: “Go for a walk in the forest with your local Bundestag member.” No grand theory, no existing blueprint — just learning by doing.

From there, the network grew: today, over 1,000 volunteers conduct lobbying discussions across Germany. I helped by writing guidelines, adapting techniques from union representatives, and experimenting with strategic visuals to make policy demands digestible.

We started by approaching the the most open-minded Green MPs, then expanded to other parties (excluding the AfD, because it is a anti-democratic right wing party in Germany), and eventually fed into national election programs. Fridays for Future (FFF) recognized the value, and I joined their lobbying group — which today remains just a handful of people conducting the movement’s main policy dialogues.

Over time, this expanded further: to state-level lobbying (with Hamburg senators and climate policymakers across parties), to federal-level negotiations (on the German Climate Protection Act), and eventually to European institutions — Commission, Parliament, Council — and to COPs in Glasgow and beyond.

This trajectory illustrates an important point: you don’t need to begin with connections. You can build them by showing up, persisting, and systematizing what works.

What Lobbying really looks like

Lobbying is less glamorous than many imagine. A large part of my work involves:

Building trust-based relationships: the single most valuable currency in lobbying.
 

Knowledge management and information exchange: monitoring timelines, who holds power at which moment, and which neglected issues might open “windows of opportunity.”
 

Strategic matchmaking: often I am not the right messenger. But I can bring the right policymaker into contact with the right scientist, union leader, or business voice. That combination is what convinces.
 

Attending conferences and shaking hands: as banal as it sounds, being physically present, looking someone in the eye, and sharing informal conversations is what unlocks access.

A concrete example: for months, I lobbied ministries to host workshops on planetary and social tipping points, based on cutting-edge science from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Eventually, we succeeded: civil servants across nearly all German ministries attended a four-hour workshop with PIK scientists, discussing findings from the Global Tipping Points Report. Officials later told me that this fundamentally shifted how they framed climate policy. Without our intervention, they would never have read the 500-page report, let alone engaged with its authors.

That is lobbying at its best: not persuading with slogans, butcurating neglected expertise, convening the right actors, and embedding it into decision-making.

Skills, Characters, and Misconceptions

Many imagine lobbyists as slick operators spinning empty phrases. That is the opposite of what works in high-stakes policy. Effective lobbying requires:

Genuine interest in people — because relationships drive influence.
 

Substantive knowledge — not just slogans, but policy detail. A minister’s advisor doesn’t need passion; they need precise proposals.
 

Cross-sector awareness — how does climate policy intersect with farmers’ associations, feminist groups, conservative think tanks, or industrial lobbies?
 

Endurance — impacts are often invisible, indirect, or delayed.

A lesson I learned: emotional appeals rarely work on their own. I recall a case where activists told Olaf Scholz, then German Finance Minister, that their island would sink due to climate change. He listened politely but was unmoved. What mattered was when a union secretary presented specific, constituency-relevant proposals — grounded in his political incentives.

In other words: effective lobbying is as much about alignment with decision-makers’ constraints as about normative urgency.

Collective Impact, Not Ego

One pitfall in advocacy is the temptation to push one’s“favorite issue” regardless of the broader ecosystem. But lobbying that maximizes impact requires altruistic coordination:

Sometimes, if another NGO has the best proposal on a higher-priority measure, I step back and let them take the lead.
 

Sometimes, it is more effective to amplify farmers’ concerns about renewable rollout than to present climate NGOs’ talking points.
 

Sometimes, the role is not to “win the meeting” but to connect others who will.

This requires humility — but also clear strategic thinking. The The Good Lobby calls this “citizen lobbying” (source): not pushing narrow interests, but broadening democratic participation in influence.

Windows of Opportunity

Timing is everything. On the EU level, influence peaks when a law is still in committee stage or when rapporteurs are shaping their drafts. Once texts enter trilogues between Commission, Parliament, and Council, changes become far harder.

Tracking these windows requires disciplined monitoring. Resources that help:

The Good Lobby Tracker (link) for transparency around EU influence.
 

European Youth Forum Lobbying Guides (e.g., Youth Forum resources) for practical entry points into EU policymaking.
 

EU Transparency Register (link) to identify who is talking to whom.

The earlier you engage, the more shaping power you have.

Big Levers Beyond Traditional Lobbying

Lobbying is not the only way to shift systems. It interacts with — and sometimes depends on — outside pressure. Public campaigns, protests, and litigation can all create the context in which lobby conversations gain traction.

Examples:
- The European Commission itself admitted that the 2019 surge in Green votes was pivotal in making the European Green Deal politically viable.
- The German Constitutional Court ruling on climate protection (2021) was influenced by youth plaintiffs and campaign momentum, shifting the legal baseline for policymakers.

At the same time, lobbying can also achieve results withoutexternal noise — if the right trusted relationships exist. Both approaches are complementary.

Where the Biggest Impact Might Lie

From an EA perspective, the question is: where are the highest-leverage points for lobbying? A few candidates:

Tipping points governance: preventing ecosystem collapse (e.g. Congo Basin, Amazon, peatlands) yields disproportionately large benefits.
 

Social tipping dynamics: plant-based diets, billionaires’ taxation, or AI-driven media regulation may shift societal pathways quickly.
 

Democratic governance reform: designing institutions that represent future generations, non-human animals, or planetary commons (see Rockström et al.).
 

Platform and AI regulation: the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA) show how EU law can set global standards, including indirectly for climate misinformation.

These are not speculative — they are concrete areas where lobbying can determine whether neglected leverage points are seized or missed.

What Kind of People We Need

To scale effective lobbying, movements need:

Ambitious, system-level thinkers who don’t get discouraged by “it’s not possible.”

Well-connected individuals who already have access, but use it responsibly for collective goals.

Bridge-builders who think beyond silos — listening to unions, farmers, feminists, business associations, not just NGOs.

What we lack most are people who think in terms ofcollective impact, not individual credit.

Concluding Thoughts

Lobbying is not glamorous. It is patient, sometimes invisible work. But when done effectively, it can alter the trajectory of laws, institutions, and — ultimately — the lives of future generations.

The Effective Altruism community often emphasizes cause prioritization and quantitative impact assessment. Those are essential. But the reality of political influence is messy, relational, and rarely measurable in neat RCTs.

Still, if we neglect lobbying, we leave one of the most powerful levers for systemic change in the hands of others. If we engage seriously, strategically, and altruistically, we can open doors that would otherwise remain closed — and in doing so, keep windows of opportunity open for a more just and sustainable world.

If you have any questions, feel free to book a 1on1 with me at EAGxBerlin on 04.10.2025, Johannes Ackva will also be there, so I hope to see you in Berlin!

References & Resources:
- The Good Lobby, European Guide to Citizen Lobbying: link
- The Good Lobby Tracker: link
- European Youth Forum lobbying resources: link
- EU Transparency Register (overview): link