For Policy Makers
Capwiz is Capitol Advantage’s online service to enable advocacy groups to contact their elected officials about issues of importance to them. Since 1986, Capitol Advantage has been devoted to facilitating communications between constituents and their elected officials. Today, approximately 1,500 associations, corporations, media groups, and nonprofits use our online advocacy tool to connect their supporters with lawmakers.
In order to ensure that each message is unique and sent by an individual, Capitol Advantage has a clear and transparent process allowing Congressional offices to see the authenticity behind each Capwiz-generated message. Capitol Advantage works closely with Congressional offices and the Congressional Management Foundation to establish and engage in honest advocacy, including best practices to facilitate continuous improvement in communication between elected officials and their constituents.
- Capitol Advantage helped sponsor the study released by the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF), Communicating with Congress: How Capitol Hill is Coping with the Surge in Citizen Advocacy, and we have embarked upon initiatives to address some of the concerns found in this study.
- We spearhead and participate in ongoing discussions about best practices to ensure that we are delivering constituent messages in a way that allows your office to easily process incoming messages and to subsequently prepare and send out replies without complication.
- Our door is always open to lawmakers to discuss questions and concerns about messages, letters, faxes and phone calls received through Capwiz. We employ a full-time Government Outreach Director to maintain an open dialogue and exchange of ideas to develop more effective communication strategies.
Our Promise
Transparency: Our process
Periodically, you may see a test email with the subject "Testing Web Form" to check Capwiz integration with your office's Web form. No reply is necessary. We send these to make certain that our database is synchronized with the latest updates to your form, including any new issue areas, required fields, or authentication measures. We usually input your district address to send this test message through your system in order to guarantee that we have a correct district-based address.
Trust: Capwiz∙XC messages are authentic
Each email sent through our system has been created by a legitimate citizen who used Capwiz to submit the message. Messages are NEVER generated from lists. More than 95 percent of Capwiz messages are sent by constituents residing in the recipient's state. While a number of these messages are form communications, an individual is behind each message sent.
When you receive a communication (email, letter, fax, hand-delivered letter, or phone call) facilitated by the Capwiz suite of online tools, you can trust that it was generated by a legitimate constituent. You do not get messages generated from a list; you do get messages personally sent by your constituents about issues important to them.
Our Commitment
Capitol Advantage is the sole third-party email-vendor employing a Government Outreach Director, who is charged with coordinating effective constituent communication between Capwiz clients and elected officials. The Government Outreach Director serves as the primary contact between Congressional offices and Capitol Advantage for all questions and issues regarding constituent message delivery.
We are committed to engaging Congressional and state offices as well as their staff to solicit their opinions on how to improve the mail process. We welcome feedback and are always eager to discuss improvements and to participate in forums aimed at establishing a consensus between constituents, advocacy groups, and elected officials. Our Director of Government Outreach and Constituent Communication is available to meet with offices about Capwiz, best mail practices, and to answer any questions you may have.
