Aristotle is very pleased to announce the winners of the first annual Aristotle Excellence Award, recognizing singular achievement in political campaigns around the world. Held in conjunction with Politics Magazine, the awards attracted a wide array of worthy nominees this year. We’re confident that our 2010 winners can be counted among the very best in our business.
Carlos Fara, Argentina/Bolivia Carmen Fernandez, Venezuela Ajmal Ghani, US/Afghanistan Steven Joyce, New Zealand Mixo Kochakidze, Georgia Necati Ozkan, Turkey Sami Panah, Afghanistan Kostas Sazmatzoglou, Greece Klaus Schuler, Germany Mauricio de Vengochea, US
Congratulations to the winners and many thanks to everyone who submitted a nomination.
For more about the Aristotle Excellence Awards, visit: www.aristotle.com/excellence
January 20-23, 2010
Loews Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando®
5601 Universal Blvd
Orlando, Florida 3281
We’re just a week away from the P.A.C. Grassroots Conference. We had a great time in St. Petersburg last year and know that this year’s conference will be just as successful.
We wanted to drop you a line and let you know that we’ll be back as a sponsor and would love to meet you at the conference – Aristotle’s Grassroots team will be available at our booth in the Resource Marketplace on January 21st. This year we’ve unveiled our Grassroots “Cash for Clunkers” program and we’ll be giving away an iPod Shuffle – stop by to hear about the program and register to win.
If you’d like to set up a time to get together during the conference or if you have any other questions don’t hesitate to contact us at sales@aristotle.com.
As someone who regularly advises PAC and grassroots managers on their websites, I found the National Journal’s recent survey of House and Senate Committee websites fascinating.
We often talk about how Congress is, for practical purposes, made up of 541 small businesses with their own processes and cultures. Nothing proves that point better than comparing the highest scoring site – House Education and Labor to the lowest scoring site – Senate Armed Services Committee. A pretty striking contrast.
Where do you think your PAC or grassroots website falls on the spectrum?
On Friday, Women in Government Relations (WGR) held a conference on PACs, Politics and Grassroots, here in Washington, DC. The all-day event helped attendees not only learn about best practices from leaders in the profession, but also gave everyone a great opportunity to network and meet other WGR members.
The day began with a captivating presentation by Dr. Heather Boushey, Senior Economist with the Center for American Progress. Dr. Boushey’s presentation focused on her recent research for a project with California First Lady Maria Shriver. The project, titled “The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything”, explores the current role of working women, and how the increase in women in the workplace has affected the economy and family life. Based on the questions and comments from the audience, it was clear that the essential questions in The Shriver Report resonated with many women at the conference. Click here to learn more about this report.
The morning and afternoon breakout sessions focused on a wide array of issues facing the PAC/grassroots profession. Topics ranged from ethics in grassroots to PAC fundraising to implementing a social media plan. The PAC fundraising session (moderated by Aristotle Senior VP Jeff Ashe) was especially interesting because attendees had the opportunity to ask the speakers detailed questions about best practices for PAC fundraising in a challenging economy. You could definitely tell this topic was popular – the session room was completely packed, with people standing in the doorways! But it was worth it; attendees came away from the session with innovative new ideas to take back to their PACs.
Many thanks to the WGR volunteers and staff for putting on such a great event!
The most important thing to ask yourself when writing anything is: Who is my audience? And, what do I want to accomplish? You may think that I’m stating the obvious, but unfortunately, that is not the case. What do you want to achieve by writing a letter to an elected official?
Increase support for or opposition to a particular piece of legislation?
Get them to help obtain services from a government agency?
Find out where they stand on an issue?
Once you identify the purpose, you then need to find the appropriate official to write or call. There are numerous websites, books, videos and seminars that explain the federal executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government and have contact information. If you are targeting a local or state legislator, go to that state’s website to find information.
Tips for writing the letter:
Be specific and informed about the issue and position of the official, and when possible, use the correct bill number;
Be to the point; officials receive a lot of constituent mail and do not have time to read a three-page letter from everyone;
Provide as much information as possible about the problem and clearly state how the official can help;
Be sure to send a thank you letter when your request has been filled.
The Professional Services just keeps growing, and we’re excited to have three new team members on our staff.
Justin Phillips joins Aristotle as an Account Manager in our outsourcing group. Most recently, Justin worked for Deloitte, where he managed a $2 million PAC.
Shawn Rahmani is joining our outsourcing team as a Senior Account Manager. Those of you who have been around Aristotle for a while may recognize Shawn’s name – he worked in our Tech Support department for several years, and we are very excited to have him back!
Brandi Travis joins the grassroots team as an Account Manager. Brandi has worked as Communications Director at several charities and trade associations and brings a wealth of experience in website development and communication strategies.
Check out our careers page to learn more about working for Aristotle.
Early bird registration for the Women in Government Relations PACs, Politics, and Grassroots conference on Friday, December 11 is going on now!
Discount registration ends November 2nd, so be sure to visit the Women in Government Relations website to sign up soon. Since Aristotle is sponsoring the event, we would love to see you there.
Learn how to transform political program auditions into leading roles in your organization’s show. Industry experts will be on hand to provide insight on topics like legal guidance using social media, lobbying the new administration, and creative fundraising in a challenging economy.
Participants will also have time to grow their portfolios and network with other government relations and PAC professionals during the Networking and Professional Development Lunch.
Thanks to everyone who made it out to Karaoke in the Capital last Wednesday night – the singing was great (really!), the crowd had a blast, and our fearless President Dean provided some excellent backup support for a winning rendition of “Material Girl.” Proceeds from the event go to The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, which provides musical instruments to children who couldn’t otherwise afford them. Success all around!
Dean Phillips (President, Aristotle)
Bud Jackson (President, AAPC Mid-Atlantic Chapter), and Bob Schieffer (CBS News, “Face the Nation”)
I’m the Marketing Manger at Aristotle International with an expertise in online marketing. I’ll be publishing our new blog series “Website Gurus,” where Aristotle’s team of online marketing experts will be discussing the “black box” that is online marketing and how your organization can leverage these ideas.
If you have any questions or suggestions for future articles, please email me at jeremy.geltman@aristotle.com.
Calls to Action Part I
You’re probably aware that your political website can do a lot more for your organization than simply serve as an online brochure. Those additional functions include fundraising, recruiting volunteers, event signups, and collecting emails for e-newsletters. Good web design includes relevant page content, organization branding, and, dare I say most importantly, loud and clear calls-to-action. These are essentially prompts to the visitor to move them toward completing the other goals on your website.
For example, if you want to collect emails for your newsletter you’ll include a small, but clearly visible section with text saying something like, “Stay informed about upcoming events and news” or even “support us with your email,” with a field for entering an email address right below the text. These emails are then used for your email marketing (link to article) purposes, whether your reminding voters to go vote, informing them about important issues or simply sending them a newsletter.
You also may want site visitors to donate to your organization. If that is a goal of your website, make a large “contribute” button in a highly visible place, perhaps right at the top of the website. This button brings visitors to your donation page (link to fundraiser page). Or you can even go a step further and build the donation form right into the sidebar.
As we’ve mentioned before , there’s a lot of fear when it comes to receiving letters from the FEC. Despite the many jokes about treasurers going to jail, there’s no need to worry about donning an orange jumpsuit, especially if that’s not your color.
When you receive a letter, most of the time it’s for clarification on a report or more information on a particular transaction.
The time to get nervous is when you simply don’t respond to the letters and file amendments.
As long as you answer in a timely matter, you’re showing the FEC you’re doing your best to answer its questions.
So when do you worry? Well, obviously any knowledge of illegal activity an issue.
But a recent release from the FEC shows a new enforcement of an updated fine schedule for late filings.
The most important thing we tell our clients is to file on time- even if you have to go back to amend something.
And a friend who works over at the FEC tells me they plan to start invoicing, so get your reports in on time
February 2nd, 2010 
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