Communicating

with Congress

30 years working with Members & staff Research, training, consulting, publications

Communications integral to CMF’s mission Mail management was one of our first topics Internet and e-mail are changing things CMF follows the trends

CMF Gets Capitol Hill

Communicating with Congress: How Capitol Hill is Coping with the Surge in Citizen Advocacy Research with 350 staff from more than 200 offices

Communicating with Congress: How the Internet Has Changed Citizen Engagement Survey of more than 10,000 citizens

Communicating with Congress: Recommendations for Improving the Democratic Dialogue Report to be released in December 9, 2008

Insights from CMF’s Communicating with Congress

Project

Roll Call Newspaper, March 26, 2001

Offices Are Doing a lot More Since the 1970’s

Staff sizes same since 1970’s

US Population: +100 million

District Populations: +183,000

Casework: Barely existed

Faxes: Didn’t exist

E-mail: Didn’t exist

Advocacy campaigns: Rudimentary

Internet/Web Sites: Didn’t exist

Faster pace!

Asked on a Survey of Congressional Staffers . . .

"If your Member/Senator has not already arrived at a firm decision on an issue, how much influence might the following advocacy strategies directed to the Washington office have on his/her decision?"

The Most Influential Communications are Personal

3%

3%

3%

34%

44%

47%

60%

30%

20%

15%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Form Faxes

Form E-mail

Form Letters

Lobbyist Visit

Phone Calls

Individualized Faxes

Individualized E-mail

Individualized Letters

Constituent Representative

Constituent Visits

A lot of InflunceSome Influence

57%

96%

96%

94%

99%

93%

88%

91%

65%

63%

“Most advocacy campaigns of identical form messages are sent without the constituent’s knowledge or approval.”

Mistrust of Identical Form Advocacy Campaigns

Strongly Agree – 15%

Agree – 35%

Neither AgreeNor Disagree

25%

Disagree – 24%

Strongly Disagree – 1%

Prevailing attitude:

“I don’t believe that many of the people who belong to the advocacy groups know that the letters are being sent out with their names on it.”

– House Chief of Staff

Staff Question Constituent Involvement

Survey research conducted by Zogby International Online survey of 9,536 adult Internet users

Lengthy survey about practices and perceptions for communicating with Congress

Applied usual weights, plus contact/no contact weights Phone survey of 1,017 American adults

Five question subset of the online survey Applied usual weights

Survey Methodology

A New Outlook on Citizen Engagement

Almost half of Americans had contacted a U.S. Senator or Representative in the past five years

The Internet is part of public life The Internet is changing political engagement Congress needs to adopt the technologies and adapt to

the techniques of new media

Those Who Had Contacted Congress Were More Politically Active in Other

Ways

Internet is Primary Source for Learning About and Communicating

with Congress

Internet Users Contacted Congress Because They Cared Deeply

1. There is an untapped opportunity to communicate with more engaged, politically active, and motivated constituents.

2. Congress needs to improve online communications.3. Congressional offices need to rethink their constituent

communications strategies.4. Congressional offices should reconsider how they handle

grassroots advocacy campaigns.5. Congress needs additional resources to effectively

manage its 21st Century workload.

Implications to Congress

1. Organizers can help facilitate more positive communications between Members and citizens.

2. Organizers have a greater role in – and responsibility for – democratic dialogue than merely winning legislative battles.

Implications to the Organizers of Grassroots Advocacy Campaigns

Not enough resources Messages aren’t “real” Too easy to send Must come through the

Member’s Web site

The messages ARE real Interferes with rights Interferes with organized

campaigns Congress’ responsibility

We Are at an Impasse

House and Senate Member Offices Vendors that Provide Tools to Congress Congressional Committee and Leadership Offices House and Senate Support Offices

Stakeholders On Capitol Hill

Citizens

Organizers of Grassroots Advocacy Campaigns

Vendors that Provide Tools to Facilitate Grassroots Advocacy Campaigns

Stakeholders Off Capitol Hill

Personalized messages are more persuasive than a large quantity of messages.

Communications should always be sent because of constituent action.

Communications should only come from constituents. The organization behind a grassroots campaign

matters. Seek to influence public policy, not overwhelm an

office.

Recommendations for Organizers of Grassroots Advocacy Campaigns

The Do’s and Dont’s

Target Members who have not made up their mind Send messages when they can have the greatest

impact. Send personalized messages that tells how a bill

affects you Combine advocacy strategies Send thank-you messages to Members who support

your issues

Do:

The Do’s and Dont’s

Target every Member in the same way Send your messages too early or too late Send general messages that aren’t about a specific bill

or issue Just send repetitive and impersonal form messages Send the same message over and over Convey your position on multiple issues in a single letter

Don’t:

1. Easily aggregating communications Demonstrates strength in the collective voice of engaged and organized citizens.

2. Help to verify that communications are sent from real citizens Communications should never be sent without the knowledge, consent, and action of the individual citizen.

A New Model for Constituent Communications

3. Identify the bill or topic of the messages Identification of the topic allows congressional offices to more quickly process and reply to constituent correspondence.

4. Identify the sponsoring organization and vendor Identification adds credibility to advocacy campaigns; the transparency helps staff trust the validity, resolve technical problems, and get more information.

A New Model for Constituent Communications

Aggregated Communications Dashboard Model

Next Steps

Communicating with Congress: Recommendations for Improving the Democratic Dialogue

Final Report Released on December 9, 2008

Convene an Implementation Taskforce

First Meeting in the 111th Congress

Tim D. HysomDirector of Communications and Technology Services

thysom@cmfweb.org

For more information about CMF, our Communicating with Congress Project, or

our other products and services, please visit our Web site at

www.cmfweb.org.