Larry Skidmore, Polk's director of human services, said that's exactly what was planned: "If it's just grass tops and not grassroots, we won't get a good result."
2007, Roger H. Davidson, Walter J. Olezek, & Frances E. Lee, Congress and Its Members, CQ Press (2007), →ISBN, page 399:
Mass mobilizations have become so common that some firms specialize in "grass tops" lobbying.
2007, Susan J. Ferguson, Mapping the Social Landscape: Readings in Sociology, McGraw-Hill (2007), →ISBN, page 423:
Along with the ads, industry worked to mobilize local politicians and business executives in what business groups called a "grass tops" campaign.
2010, Chuck Sudetic, The Philanthropy of George Soros: Building Open Societies, PublicAffairs (2010), →ISBN, page 74:
In 2010, after an intense grassroots and "grass tops" campaign by the U.S. PWYP movement, with support from George Soros as well as U2's Bono and his ONE campaign, the transparency movement secured its biggest victory.
"We need to have the muscle, the political strength, and the united community to get what we want," said Wilson, who added that most of the political advocacy for the arts in Massachusetts over the past decade has been more "grass tops" than grass roots, the bulk of it done by leaders and boards of cultural institutions.
2004, Richard G. Shell, Make the Rules or Your Rivals Will, Crown Business (2004), →ISBN, page 39:
A variation on Household's vote-getting efforts is something called the "grasstops" campaign. Rather than try to get all the way to the grassroots level of the individual worker, a grasstops campaign engages middle managers — leaders of plants, factories, and divisions within larger corporations — to lobby their local representatives.
2004, Peter H. Stone, "Business Readies Its Battle Plans", The National Journal, 7 February 2004:
Depending on the circumstances, the roundtable is looking to help its favored candidates in as many as two dozen districts through issue ads and "grasstops" efforts that involve reaching out to political, business, and civic leaders in the community.
Schwartz said Clinton’s campaign in California — which has been heavy on endorsements and organization — is more “grasstops” than “grassroots,” while the Illinois senator has “a campaign of inspiration and not obligation.”
2010, Tom Wolff, The Power of Collaborative Solutions: Six Principles and Effective Tools for Building Healthy Communities, Jossey-Boss (2010), →ISBN, page 176:
The grasstops group worked to bring the issue of education to the forefront of the city's major institutions (the Chamber of Commerce, clergy, and so on) and get their support for the ambitious goal.
"Foster kids don't have a union," testified one witness, Ed Howard, from the Children's Advocacy Institute. "They don't have a Chamber of Commerce. They can't vote. They don't have PACs. They aren't hiring PR firms. They don't do grass-tops or grass-roots organizing."
2008, David Dempsey, Great Lakes for Sale: From Whitecaps to Bottlecaps, University of Michigan Press (2008), →ISBN, page 34:
The environmental grass roots had delivered a powerful message to the grass tops.
2008, David G. Smith & Judith D. Moore, Medicaid Politics and Policy, Transaction Publishers (2010), →ISBN, page 234:
They also had important connections to advocacy groups and the local "grass tops."
2010, Alan Khazei, Big Citizenship: How Pragmatic Idealism Can Bring Out the Best in America, PublicAffairs (2010), →ISBN, page 258:
Develop a comprehensive strategy that engages both the "grass tops" and grassroots and that leverages the collective reach of the coalition.
2011, Leslie R. Crutchfield, John V. Kania, & Mark R. Kramer, Do More Than Give: The Six Practices of Donors Who Changes the World, Jossey-Bass (2011), →ISBN, page 221:
Hire staff with adaptive leadership skills including proven ability to work across sectors, a commitment to creating systems-level change, and finesse at motivating leaders at the grass tops and individuals at the grassroots to act collectively to solve problems for themselves.
2008, Christine Mahoney, Brussels Versus the Beltway: Advocacy in the United States and the European Union, Georgetown Univeristy Press (2008), →ISBN, page 43:
For example, Bacheller (1977) suggest that large mass-membership groups will be more likely to use the grassroots while non-membership groups will be more likely to use the grasstops.
2010, Joshua W. Busby, Moral Movements and Foreign Policy, Cambridge University Press (2010), →ISBN, page 168:
Here, I focus on elite messengers, or what in policy circles are known as the "grasstops."
2010, Wendell Potter, Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR IS Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans, Bloomsbury Press (2010), →ISBN, page 35:
Or, when just the 'grasstops' are needed, we recruit just a few of a target's key friends or contributors to join us.
Noun: "a lobbying strategy which aims to involve people with power or influence at a local level"
2000, Elizabeth Drew, The Corruption of American Politics: What Went Wrong and Why, Overlook Press (2000), →ISBN, page 78:
As the "grass roots" method became widely used, a still newer approach was added, as was a new term in the lobbyists' liturgy, "grass tops."
2004, Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, "Lobbyists Try to Parlay a Presidential Campaign", The Washington Post, 12 April 2004:
The companies specialize in a cutting-edge form of influence peddling called "grass tops," which attempts to get prominent local citizens and organizations to lobby on behalf of interest groups.