Learning to Lobby

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Lobbying 101: Getting Your First Yes or No

April 27, 2010 in Learning to Lobby | No comments

Once you’re ready to approach your member of congress with a request, RESULTS has a great set of helpful instructions called “Activist Milestones” to help you go from being just another anonymous constituent to a face your rep will be able to pick out in a crowd. The goal: to get a yes or a no.

1. Learn who your representative is.

Once you learn his or her name, take a moment before you do anything to browse through your rep’s website, especially the bio section. Then find out what committees he or she is on. Just get a general idea of what is important to your rep and to the constituent base. Keep your request in the back of your mind. Have you learned anything about your rep that you think would make it either easier to get a “yes?”

2. Find out the name of your representative’s Aide for Foreign Affairs.

From the RESULTS Elected Officials Page, find your representative and click on “staff.” It’s always good to call the office and make sure the information is accurate before you start.

3. Send your request via email to the aide.

As you get ready to send your e-mail with your specific request, make sure the information you want them to receive is in the body of the e-mail, since their spam filters can be quite brutal with attachments. The RESULTS website has great coaching on writing a good e-mail. The best bet is to keep it short and to the point. (Think Hollywood but without the sequins. They don’t got all day.)

4. Call the aide directly to follow up.

Just call with a friendly check-in to make sure they got your e-mail. If you leave a message and they don’t call back within a day, try again every day or so until you get confirmation that they know who you are and what you’re asking for.

5. “Checking with the boss” or: purgatory.

If you’re satisfied that they know who you are and what you’re asking for, they’ll likely say something like, “I’ll check with the boss and let you know what she says.” Now it’s time to be courteous and treat the aide like you would any business contact. Give them a few days before checking back, but keep the conversation going until you get a yes or a no. Just don’t let it go too long between check-ins. You need a yes or a no.

If you get a YES – let us know so we can celebrate!

If you get a NO – get in touch with a local RESULTS leader to help you formulate a new strategy.

Happy lobbying!

Some of my favorite resources for getting started:

HOW TO: Build a relationship with your congressional aide

HOW TO: Make a phone call to your member of congress

HOW TO: Send an e-mail to your member of congress

See all RESULTS Activist Milestones

Tags: lobbying basics

Relationship Building: A Step Beyond “Click Here…”

March 5, 2010 in Learning to Lobby | No comments

Don’t get me wrong. I love the way the internet and email petitions have brought new ways for busy people to engage. But I really believe that the most important way we can engage is to build relationships with members of congress. You can’t do that with just one click.

I think it would be helpful to take the idea from

the general = Lobbying Congress (Sounds hard and scary – easy to put off when we’re busy)

to the particular = Forming deep and lasting relationships with our particular representatives in congress

The goal = To get our reps to see us as a vital source of information about issues related to global or domestic poverty and feel accountable to us where these issues are concerned because of our work with their offices, the media and the community.

What this relationship isn’t:

Warm and fuzzy. We’re not working to get our representatives’ approval and make sure we’re all best buddies.

What this relationship is:

More like our relationships with people we supervise at work. Ken Patterson, the RESULTS Global Grassroots Manager, came to LA and did a series of talks to our groups. He talked a lot about how we have to see ourselves in more of a supervisory role – that too often, we put them into the position of ultimate power in the relationship when we are the ones who voted them into their current job. We wouldn’t be good supervisors if we just sent an occasional email indicating our approval or disapproval for their work. We can’t do a good job as supervisors unless we actually know who the person working for us actually is. What makes her tick? What are his work habits? How do I get her to participate as an effective team member in the fight against global and domestic poverty?

They also need to know us well enough to understand the consequences of not doing their jobs well.

The fruits of our relationship-building efforts:

I wasn’t very excited about anything with the word politics in it when I started. But I did understand building relationships, friendships even. Now my rep (and his staff) knows my name and hopefully knows me as “the microcredit girl.” He knows that a very particular someone in his district is holding him accountable. When I go to his town-hall meetings and open house events, he recognizes me and knows exactly what issues I represent.

It’s important to sign on to petitions that we truly believe are important. But just remember, the corporate lobbyists aren’t relying on petitions. They’re in our representatives’ offices every day pushing their agendas. The poor don’t have corporate lobbyists. They have us. Let’s go the extra step.