Communicating with Federal Lawmaker Offices

Congressional staff gripe that they receive too much “low effort” communication, based on third-party strategies and inefficient online communication tools. This according to the OpenGov Foundation in a February 2017 report.

It’s easy to see why legislators rarely acknowledged constituents. Who sorts and counts of thousands of individual emails and phone calls:

  • Usually unpaid or low paid interns who may not grasp the impact of any one person’s message.
  • Once the emails and calls are received, Congressional offices rely on slow and balky technology to process messages. (Read more about this in Wired)
  • Organizations attempt to compete for policy attention using this inefficient communication.
  • Organizations often pay thousands of dollars for platforms that are too complicated and unresponsive for their needs.
  • Communication strategists offer processes for advocacy that are intricate and take too long to implement.

Capitol Contact creates precise targeting of federal, state, or local government lawmakers and staffers involved in particular issues.  Professional associations and nonprofits benefit from the simplicity of the platform.

Typical federal advocacy platforms make organization members fill out online forms. These forms sent to Congressional offices. However, they don’t support messaging federal committees or policy or communication staffers.

State and local legislators

State and local legislators are in a worse situation because they typically don’t have offices full of interns. Thus email and calls go unanswered.

Capitol Contact reinvents email advocacy tools.  Therefore, increasing efficiency for Congressional, state, and local government officials to process online communication,

Organizations and association leaders can put out their Call-to-Action collecting hundreds, even thousands of emails from members on a single issue.

  • The single email package contains every member’s individual message.
  • The package distributes as ONE email rather than hundreds or thousands of individual emails.
  • The emails package are easily sorted and packaged by district, zip code, or state.
  • The package allows legislators or their staffers to reply to constituents and collect the contact information of advocates. Policy or legislation influenced by a single message instead of thousands.

This simple reinvention in email advocacy can transform legislator to constituent relations.  In addition to, this gives organizations and associations a leg up in communicating with the policymakers. Those who influence their members’ lives and work.