Legislative Outreach Checklist

Tips to help you engage your legislators	Tips for writing a letter to your legislators	How to address letters to legislators
Tips for calling legislators	Tips for writing a fact sheet

Tips to help you engage your legislators

• Schedule a meeting or take your legislators to lunch to introduce them to your collaborative and to Georgia Family Connection. Acquaint them with the Family Connection process, highlight achievements, and let them know how your collaborative, the statewide network, and you, can be a valuable resource for them.
• Invite your legislators to a collaborative meeting to meet the entire collaborative. Share the goals, strategies, and programs from your community plan. Prepare a fact sheet highlighting positive results you achieved.
• Invite your legislators to observe a successful program in the community funded by state dollars. Have parents or children talk about the positive impact the program has made on their lives.
• Collaborate with other counties your legislators represent and host a reception or a get-acquainted session, such as a legislative breakfast.
• Discuss GaFCP’s statewide initiatives—grade-level reading, low birthweight, infant mortality, and the Georgia Supermarket Access Task Force—and your community’s involvement.

Caution: Nonprofits cannot endorse or support any candidate for public office. Any invitations to attend events during the time the official is a candidate should be on a non-partisan basis with no mention or distribution of campaign materials.

Resources

• Legislative primers
• Policy Counts (updated versions will be available in January 2012)
• 2011 KIDS COUNT Data Book
• EARLY WARNING! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters, National KIDS COUNT special report
• Great Expectations: Every Child in Georgia Will Read At or Above Grade Level, GaFCP’s grade-level reading report
• Low Birthweight Compendium

Tips for writing a letter to your legislators

• Be brief. Keep your letter to one page.
• Identify yourself and the bill. If you’re a constituent, say so in the first paragraph. Include all your contact information.
• Address one issue in a letter.
• Personalize your letter. Personal stories and observations are very persuasive.
• Include a sentence or two about your personal experience with the issue, or about the local impact of the legislation in question.
• Use only one or two relevant data points from your county to support your message.
• Be polite, respectful, and reasonable.  
• Be clear. Avoid jargon or overly technical language. 
• Ask for a response and share it with your collaborative and partners.
• If you don't hear soon, call to be sure the official got your letter. 
• Follow up and find out how the policymaker acted on your issue. Write a thank-you letter, if appropriate. 
• Recycle the language in letters to other policymakers or on a fact sheet.

How to address letters to legislators:

State Senator
The Honorable John Doe
State Senator
(Atlanta or District Office mailing address)

Dear Senator Doe:

State Representative
The Honorable John Doe
State Representative
(Atlanta or District Office mailing address)

Dear Representative Doe:

Governor
The Honorable Nathan Deal
Governor of Georgia
State Capitol
100 Washington St.
Atlanta, GA 30334

Dear Governor Deal:

United States Senator
The Honorable John Doe
United States Senator
(Wash., DC or District Office mailing address)

Dear Senator Doe:

Member of Congress
The Honorable John Doe
Member of Congress
(Wash., DC or District Office mailing address)

Dear Representative Doe:

Tips for calling legislators

• Prepare for the call. Write down the issue you’re calling about and what you would like the official to do.
• Identify yourself.  Give your name, where you live and tell why you’re calling. 
• Ask: Is this is a good time to talk? If not, when would be a good time to call back? 
• Be polite, courteous and respectful of their time. 
• Ask for the action you want, then listen. Don't interrupt or argue. 
• If they want more information, let them know you’ll get it to them. 
• If they have questions you can’t answer, say so. Then get the answers and call them back. 
• Finish the call by thanking them for their time and their support. 
• If you speak to a staff member or an answering machine leave a brief message with the issue you’re calling about, your name, number and the best time to reach you. 
• If they don’t return your call in a few days, call back.

Tips for writing a fact sheet

• Keep the text brief. One page is best.
• Make it readable. Use at least 11-point font size.
• Use bullets when you can.
• Leave lots of white space.
• Keep the most important information in the first paragraph—the issue, the action, and label the main message.
• The fact sheet must be self-contained. Don’t refer to previous documents or assume your readers remember the information.
• Give references for more information—in electronic communications insert links.
• Make your call to action clear. Bold, text boxes, and graphics add emphasis
• Give your readers all the tools they need to take the action. Give them phone numbers and e-mail addresses, and give legislators the bill number.