The National Restaurant Association: Developing A Dynamic, Action-Based Network of Local Stakeholders To Advocate For The Restaurant Industry

The Challenge:

The National Restaurant Association (NRA) is the largest foodservice trade association in the world, supporting nearly 500,000 restaurant businesses.

In partnership with its state restaurant associations, the NRA represents and advocates for foodservice industry interests—taking on financial and regulatory obstacles before they hit their members’ bottom line.

In recent years, policy debates and regulatory challenges have expanded beyond Washington, D.C. and state capitals and into the city halls of America’s largest metropolitan areas. Given this new and evolving landscape, a need existed for the restaurant industry to quickly develop a more robust grassroots network of industry leaders and stakeholders, specifically at the local level, that could be the on-the-ground force and “face” of the industry.

The ALIGN Solution:

Align developed and continues to execute a grassroots stakeholder engagement initiative for the National Restaurant Association along with their state partners in targeted urban markets throughout the country.

As part of the program, we identified and cultivated a working group of meaningful industry assets in each market that could then be leveraged in numerous ways; from individual meetings with local elected officials, to engagement with opinion leaders including submitting op/eds, letters to the editors and contributing to reporter's stories on industry issues or events, to representing the industry in front of numerous community organizations or engaging in community events that enhance the reputation of the industry and its members.

In partnership with its state restaurant associations, the NRA represents and advocates for foodservice industry interests—taking on financial and regulatory obstacles before they hit their members’ bottom line.

Continued growth and cultivation of this group of advocates and their opportunities for engagement will strengthen the industry position as political players, community stakeholders and civic leaders.