06/17/2021

Educate Your Board on the Value of Government Relations

Start at the beginning to ensure the board has a clear understanding

Associations often run on tight budgets. Depending on your organization’s culture, your board may also dissect the budget and want to know the justification for every big-ticket expense. And with most associations losing income from in-person events being cancelled due to COVID-19, this scrutiny will be more intense now.

In this environment, how can you justify the cost of a government relations (GR) program? While some results of your GR efforts are easy to quantify, such as engaging your members in advocacy activities, others are not. If your board wants to see your GR program “move the needle” on issues, it probably won’t be satisfied by hearing that you had a 50 percent increase in member engagement.

As with most issues, it helps to start at the beginning and ensure the board has a clear understanding of what the GR team does. A helpful definition was provided by Mark Ames, director of government relations at the American Industrial Hygiene Association: “Government relations alters incentives and disincentives to change the behavior of entire populations of people.” Ames provided the definition during a recent ASAE webinar [member login required] he conducted with incoming ASAE Government Relations and Advocacy Professionals Advisory Council Vice Chair David Lusk, founder of Key Advocacy.

Please select this link to read the complete article from ASAE's Center for Association Leadership.