The first thing we do is consult our CAB to get suggestions as to who may be interested and invested in the research. Then we sit as a group and brainstorm possible interested parties. If we have a study that is similar to a previous study, I will sometimes reach out to those past participants to see if they have any ideas (and to see if they may be interested). We then contact those possible stakeholders. I usually contact them through social media, email, phone calls and sometimes letters. If I am looking into stakeholders I haven’t worked with in the past, I will call upon my contacts from CAB, research staff or other stakeholders to have an introduction and them will schedule a meeting to discuss our program and to get info.
I think time spent trying to communicate with the possible stakeholder correlates to how much we feel we will be able to have a long term partnership with that stakeholder. We are going to send out general information to anyone we think may be interested in the study, but we will spend more time building relationships with groups/organizations/stakeholders who may have a long lasting relationship with us.
