Communicating to Congress

[Available Format - Video (1 minute)]

Congress' relationship with technology has changed over the last 50 years. Thanks to legislative action centers and the wide adoption of social media, which have made it very easy to communication with Congress, Congressional offices are overwhelmed. The volume of correspondence in Congressional offices in-boxes pales in comparison to the volume in Congressional outboxes. Yet the basic system for responding to constituents hasn't really changed in 50 years. That's why it's important that constituents communicate effectively if they want their voices to be heard.

I admit it. I launched my fair share of grassroots advocacy email campaigns in the two decades I spent working as a professional advocate for national nonprofit organizations. Once a campaign was launched, my government affairs team would track success measures that reflected our ability to mobilize our supporters to take action. Metrics included click-through rates, open rates, and the number of letters sent.

Unfortunately, we didn't have a good way to measure how well our citizen advocates' emails were influencing decisions made by their Members of Congress.

In 2015 and 2016, CMF conducted "advanced advocacy academies" with food bank representatives to determine whether more purposeful and extensive training would have an impact on citizens' interactions with their elected officials. In our latest report, Citizen-Centric Advocacy: The Untapped Power of Constituent Engagement, we highlight some of the results of this novel training, including personal stories from some of the participating advocates.