| Please note that legislative contact is, by default, constituency based. In order to contact a particular legislator, your supporter will have to enter an address in their district. Please see this article for more information on that. |
The Targets page of the advocacy campaign editor can be simple, or it can be specific - depending on your needs and how you want to approach advocacy.
If you just want to set up your campaign so that all your supporters can contact all their legislators at the appropriate levels and you don’t have to make any changes until the issue is over, then your task is simple. Choose the appropriate chambers from the dropdown menus and set the scope of the targeting to “all targets from the chambers selected above.”
This article is focused on more complex scenarios in which you may want to do things such as...
- Change the targeting to follow a bill throughout the legislative process.
- Send one message to cosponsors and another message to non-cosponsors.
- Send one message to Democrats and another message to Republicans.
- Send one message to committee members and another message to non-committee members.
- Send one message to Senate committee members, a second message to senators not on the committee, and a third message to House members.
- Have users submit messages to someone other than elected legislators.
Changing the Targets Mid-Campaign
There is no problem with adjusting the targets of your advocacy campaign at any time. The changes will be reflected live, but you do need to hit continue to move past the Targets page in order to save your changes each time.
You may want to begin by targeting just a House committee. Select the House as your target, and then “members of a specified committee” under the scope of the targeting. Continue to choose the committee.
If the bill gets out of committee, you will want to move to the full floor. Just change the scope of the targeting to “all targets from the chambers selected above.”
When the bill moves on to the Senate, uncheck the House and select the Senate instead.
If the bill passes, you may want to deselect the Senate and choose the Governor / President to urge them to sign the bill.
Just remember to hit the continue button at the bottom of the page to save any changes you make.
Different Messages for Cosponsors and Non-Cosponsors
You can have your supporters send different messages to different officials within a single chamber. This often takes the form of a “thank you” message for legislators cosponsoring a bill and a “please cosponsor” message for everyone who is not already doing so (or vice versa).
To begin, select the appropriate chamber from the targets section and "bill sponsorship or voting status as the scope of the targeting.
Continue to the next page. You will need to enter the session, bill type, and bill number.
You will then choose the option to target based on sponsorship rather than voting status (as voting status would be used after the roll call vote) and select the sponsorship types you wish to receive a message. In this scenario, choose all three.
When you continue to the next page, you will be able to specify one or more of the previously chosen groups to receive the first sample message. Select all groups that can get the same message - in this case, the sponsor and cosponsors.
When you have completed that first sample message, our system will loop you back to the page above to create a second message for the non-cosponsors.
| Please note that targeting based on bill sponsorship or voting status only applies to the originating chamber of the bill. To add the other chamber, please use "individuals or custom groups of officials" as the scope of your targeting. |
Different Messages Based on Political Party
To send different messages to different groups of officials within the same chamber (when not doing so based on sponsorship or voting status), you need to choose "individuals or custom groups of officials" as the scope of your targeting. This option allows you carte blanche to separate the legislators based on whatever criteria you wish.
In this example, we will create one message for Democrats and another message for Republicans. When you continue past the page above, you will come to a new page where you will click the option to add targets.
In the resulting pop-up, select the chamber you chose previously and then opt to sort the list of officials by party.
Highlight all Democrats and click the right-facing arrow to move them from the list of available officials to the list of officials you've selected for this group. This may be done individually or all at once.
Name your group. This is an important step in order to ensure that some users do not see the names of every Democrat / Republican in the US House listed as the recipients of their message.
When you are done adding the group of Democrats, click to add another group, again selecting the chamber you targeted. The only officials left will be the Republicans. As you did before, move them all to the panel on the right and name the group.
When you continue to the next page, you will be able to specify one or more of the previously chosen groups to receive the first sample message. Select all groups that can get the same message - in this case, just the Democrats.
When you have completed that first sample message, our system will loop you back to the page above to create a second message for the Republicans.
Different Messages for Committee Members and Non-Committee Members
Differentiating the messages based on committee membership can be done just like the party affiliation example above. Rather than having to go through and look up committee members to select them one at a time, though; there is a shortcut in the VoterVoice system that allows you to easily select all the committee members at once.
Select the appropriate chamber and "members of specified committee" under the scope of the targeting.
Choose the committee you want to receive the first sample message. In the interface shown below, choose "selected members" rather than "all members."
This will open a pop-up with the same selection tool used when selecting individuals or custom groups. Move all committee members to the left, click OK, and continue forward.
You will come to the same page where you select individuals or custom groups, but now there is a group already created with all the committee members. Click the edit icon to name that group.
Now click "add targets." As in the previous example, all remaining legislators will be those not yet assigned to a group - in this case, the non-committee members. Name this group as well.
When you continue to the next page, you will be able to specify one or more of the previously chosen groups to receive the first sample message. Select all groups that can get the same message - in this case, just the House Agriculture Committee.
When you have completed that first sample message, our system will loop you back to the page above to create a second message for the non-committee members.
Different Messages for Committee Members, Non-Committee Members, and the Other Chamber
This final scenario is accomplished much like the example above. The first difference is simply that on the Targets page, you select both chambers and the first two options under the scope of the targeting.
This will allow you to create separate messages for the representatives based on their committee membership and also a third message for the senators. Continue forward.
Choose the committee you want to receive the first sample message. In the interface shown below, choose "selected members" rather than "all members."
This will open a pop-up with the same selection tool used when selecting individuals or custom groups. Move all committee members to the left, click OK, and continue forward.
You will come to the same page where you select individuals or custom groups, but now there is a group already created with all the committee members. Click the edit icon to name that group.
Now click "add targets." As in the previous example, all remaining legislators will be those not yet assigned to a group - in this case, the non-committee members. Name this group as well.
When you continue to the next page, you will be able to specify one or more of the previously chosen groups to receive the first sample message. Select all groups that can get the same message - in this case, just the House Agriculture Committee.
When you have completed that first sample message, our system will loop you back to the page above to create a second message for the non-committee members. It will then do so again to create a third message for the Senate.
Contacting Non-Legislators
You can also have your supporters send messages to agencies or people who are not elected officials.
- You can have your supporters reach out to non-elected public officials by setting them up as custom targets.
- You can have users submit comments to certain federal agencies (such as HHS or the Office of the Attorney General) by selecting them from the “agency contacts” dropdown menu.
- You can also have users submit comments on dockets presented on regulations.gov.
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