By Brad Fitch

In the spring of 2007 the Society of American Florists (SAF), a Capitol Advantage customer since 1999, wanted to make a distinct impression on lawmakers during their annual Congressional Action Days. About 150 retail florists, distributors, and importers came to Washington, D.C. to support a legislative agenda focused on agriculture, research, and trade. Like many groups, SAF’s Washington staff prepared background kits for their fly-in participants.

Unlike other groups, SAF provided attendees with an extra advocacy tool: a one-page
report created through Knowlegis Advocacy Event Manager featuring the time, place, and map of the meetings with Members of Congress and staff, as well as a section detailing the economic contribution of their industry in the Member of Congress’ district or state.

“Asset maps,” or economic/political footprints, have long been used in the corporate lobbying community. Recently the price of these types of advocacy tools has come down significantly, offering association and nonprofit organizations on tight budgets a new tactic for their grassroots and government relations strategy. Knowlegis unveiled its new Asset Manager tool at the Capitol Advantage 2007 Customer Day Conference in November 2007. All participants received their own custom asset maps with the locations of activists, or messages sent to Capitol Hill, providing them with a strategic overview of their political footprint.

Asset mapping allows government relations and grassroots professionals to present and analyze useful data. First, advocates can use informative reports or maps to quickly persuade legislators to act by demonstrating the political or economic impressions of a particular group in a state or district (similar to what the SAF created).  Second, government relations directors can use these maps to identify opportunities and to assess weaknesses. Asset maps can display activists, employees, facilities, payroll expenses, charitable contributions – any data points that might offer an innovative way of thinking about their legislative and grassroots outreach.

To create an asset map, you will first need to identify and collect data from within your organization.

Suzanne Zurn, Vice President for Political Involvement Initiatives at 720 Strategies, says getting internal cooperation is a crucial step in getting started. “Typically,the authorization is obtained at a higher level, such as a VP or Executive Director,” said Zurn. “Then you need to shop the approval down through the ranks to get assistance and release of the relevant information. In the end, everyone benefits…but the business owners of the data may need some coaxing at first.”

Data can also be integrated from external sources.
In 2004, Americans for the Arts created asset maps for every congressional district to demonstrate the economic and social impact of National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) funding. Each map showed the ancillary benefits of arts funding – kids programs, museums, art supply stores – so that Members of Congress didn’t just look at the NEA through the lens of one particular grant or artist.

Zurn also suggests that organizations determine how often the data should be updated, reminding everyone that “You need a mechanism for refreshing the data, but it usually doesn’t have to be monthly or even quarterly.” One Fortune 500 company Zurn works with finds an annual update sufficient. In many cases you might be working with fixed facilities, or a certain number of employees or activists, which does not shift significantly from month to month.

To organizations in tough legislative battles, asset maps can often make the difference between success and failure. Demonstrating to legislators the political or economic footprint of your group makes a powerful impression on undecided lawmakers. In 2004, when Americans for the Arts engaged in their campaign to protect the NEA from spending cuts, the group actually achieved a spending increase for arts funding in a year when Congress and the White House was controlled by Republicans, many of whom had criticized the NEA in the past.

Brad Fitch is the CEO of Knowlegis, a Capitol Advantage company. For more information about Knowlegis and its suite of online tools, please call us at 703.289.9816.