Contacting Templates
Calling Script
Introduction and Ratings Request:
- Identify yourself: "Hello, my name is [first name] and I am calling from Project Vote Smart"
- Getting to the right person:
- If you have a contact person, ask if you may speak with him or her
- If you don't have a specific contact, ask to speak with the person responsible for legislative affairs
- If there is nobody with that job description, explain that you are calling to inquire whether the organization does evaluations of the state legislature, such as scorecards, ratings, voting records or endorsements, and is there someone with whom you could speak
- If nobody answers, or you end up with the voice mail of your contact, leaving a message is fine; just be sure to leave all of the following:
- Your name
- Phone number: 406-859-8683 (MT Office)
- Hours when you can be reached: 8:00am to 5:00pm (Mountain Time)
- A brief message that you are calling to learn whether their organization does evaluations of members of congress, such as scorecards, ratings, voting records or endorsements
- When you have reached the appropriate contact person, identify yourself again and ask if they are familiar with Project Vote Smart. Make sure to give a brief description:
- Explain that you are looking for performance evaluations, ratings, scorecards for members of congress or the state legislature (depending on whether you're collecting Federal or State Ratings)
If they have ratings:
1. If we have received information from the group in the past, mention the most recent year that we have and ask if the group has released more current ratings.
2. If we have not received ratings from them before, ask if they would be willing to send us their evaluations for inclusion on our website.
- Ask if they keep a regular mailing list, and request that PVS be added to it-that way we will get regular updates in the future.
- Ask when and how often they generally release their ratings (especially if the most recent year is not yet ready) so that we know when to contact them in future.
If they do not have ratings:
- Ask if they know of an affiliated organization that does compile performance evaluations; many groups that do not provide their own ratings will know of similar groups that do.
For Hesitant Groups:
- Explain that we fully attributed to the group.
- Tell them rating are accompanied by contact information, mission statement and web link to their homepage.
- Suggest that they look at our website to learn more about Vote Smart and the ratings program.
- Cite similar groups that already work with us-either a group with a similar mission, or a national parent-group, for example.
- Alternately, you can mention that we have received ratings from an ideologically opposite group, and we would really like to balance the information with their own ratings.
Getting the Ratings:
Request that they email, fax or mail the ratings (in that order-the more immediately they are sent, the less chance that our request will get lost in the shuffle).
Email: ratings@votesmart.org
Fax: 406-859-8680
Mail:
Attn: Ratings Coordinator
Project Vote Smart
1 Common Ground
Philipsburg, MT 59858
Official Ratings Request Letter
[Organization]
[Address1]
[Address2]
[City], [State] [Zip]
Dear [Contact] or [Organization]:
"Project Vote Smart is a national library of factual information on some 40,000 public officials and candidates for public office. We cover candidates for president, congress, governor, statewide office, state legislatures and some local officials. Our information is available on the internet (www.vote-smart.org) or by calling our toll-free hotline (1-888-Vote-Smart).
Project Vote Smart provides information about incumbents in six basic areas: biographical information, voting records, campaign finance records, issue positions (gathered from our own survey, the Political Courage Test), public statements, and special interest group ratings; it is regarding this last category that I contact you today. If [Organization] compiles scorecards, ratings, voting records, endorsements or any other type of performance evaluations for state legislators, we would like to make them available to voters through our database. Any ratings that we include will be fully attributed to your organization and will be accompanied by your mission statement, contact information and a direct link to your web site.
In order to maintain our legitimacy as a resource for unbiased information, Project Vote Smart will not accept money from corporations, political interests or the government. Similarly, we do not lobby for or against any issue, cause or candidate. We are funded by a combination of donations from over 45,000 members and grants from charitable foundations such as Ford and Carnegie.
We look forward to this opportunity to collaborate with [Organization]. If you have any questions or would like more information about Project Vote Smart, please feel free to contact me at [phone number]. If you would like to send us ratings, please fax them to 520-626-8722, email them to ratings@vote-smart.org, or mail them to Project Vote Smart, [mailing address]
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Title]
Sample Email Requests
Dear [contact name]: or To whom it may concern at [organization]:
Project Vote Smart is collecting ratings of elected officials from national interest groups such as your organization. Our goal is to provide free nonpartisan information about candidates and elected officials to the American people. The most recent scorecard we have from your organization is from [year]. Have you done any scorecards for the [congress that last finished] Congress ([years of that congress])? If so, would you please email them to me or provide a link to them.
If you would like more information about Project Vote Smart, you can go to
[an appropriate link on our website] or email me.
Sincerely,
[first and last name]
[signature block with title, email and phone...]
