On Letter-Writing Campaigns

How do you change minds and influence things? Well, as I hope youre beginning to see, through a variety of techniques. You form groups, you plan events, you promote them, you issue press releases to get the press interested, you write guest opinions to reach the newspaper-reading public, and you try to get people to write letters to lawmakers advocating your position.

Many people may want to be a part of your cause and help it in some way, but if you just tell them to write a letter without any guidance, they probably won't do it. They may not feel that they've researched the issue fully, or they may not feel they have all the facts at hand to write a convincing letter. You can help them out by providing some of that information.

These sample letters may be as simple as a postcard or as the "pink slips" the University of Iowa Student Government created for us all to sign so they could take them to the Regents' meeting. The letter-writing tips and samples IÕll hand out should give you some ideas. If you want more, check out the website for a group that supports your favorite cause--they'll probably have a "take action" section with just this sort of thing.

Things you need to include in your sample letter:

• Name and contact information of the official to whom the letter is to be sent--you may want to include mailing address, fax, and e-mail so that people can choose their method.*
• A brief (no more than a couple sentences) statement of just what you want this official to do.
• Reasons why said official should do this--background information on the issue, pertinent arguments, etc.

Keep it short and fairly simple--after all, you want people to write, and read, these letters, not pitch them because they get bored--but also keep them clear, concise, and professional--after all, you want the official who receives this letter to pay some attention to it.

*You can pick up a handy pamphlet called "How to Reach Your Elected Officials"* from the Iowa City Public Library which will help if you're targeting local, state, or national officials. If your organization is trying to influence UI policy, you should be able to find addresses and such for any UI administrator via the UI website.

*This pamphlet used to be available on the ICPL website, although at this writing it no longer seems to be there. They may or may not have a hard copy of it available.

by Laura Crossett, 1998-2008