The Big Picture

What's your association's ROPI?

In Matt Miller's Poltics column in Fortune magazine (Feb. 6, 2006), he recommends that in the midst of the Abramoff/lobbyist backlash businesses need to take notice of their return on political investment (ROPI) - a company's return on lobbying and campaign contributions. Since our association members repeatedly mark advocacy as the main reason they pay our dues, it made me sit up and take notice for a minute.

He argues that a company's ROPI is astronomically higher than any real investment it can make. When it comes to ordinary investment decisions, companies calculate their cost of capital - currently averaging around 12% - and pursue the most attractive projects exceeding that "hurdle rate," Miller says. In lobbying, a 12% ROPI is often surpassed every two hours.

Lockheed Martin spent $55 million lobbying since 1999, during which time it won roughly $90 billion in defense contracts. ROPI: 163,536%. Boeing spent $57 million lobbying over the same period, producing about $81 billion in contracts. ROPI: 142,000%.

Whether or not you agree with his argument (some say lobbying and campaign expenses are consumptions, not investments), the idea of a calculated ROPI is something I think a hospital CEO paying our association dues might relate to much better than a glossy Value of Membership report. If you showed a nurse at a hospital the ROPI on the $25 we are asking her to give to our PAC, it might be an easier sell.

And it's not just the money either. If, as associations, we could come up with an equation that factors in promoting grassroots awareness among employees and other actions that cost no or little money, it might be easier to convince higher-level employees to encourage it organization-wide. Not that it would be saying anything new or radical...it would just be speaking in a language they understood.

Return on investment.

Congress Votes Database

The Congress Votes Database was recently put together by Derek Wills and Adrian Holovaty from The Washingotn Post. "A congressional votes database that covers the 102nd-109th congresses (1991-present)." Currently browsable, a search engine should be available soon.

[ via Resource Shelf ]

RNC Names eCampaign Director

I am heading to Washington DC the weekend before Thanksgiving for a full day of CapWiz training during their annual Customer Appreciation Day. We use our CapWiz frequently - even as a distribution software for e-newsletters not related to advocacy. But if you needed further proof that the next frontier for advocacy is the online arena, here it.

From the Republican National Convention press release:

RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman today announced that Patrick Ruffini has been selected to assume the role of RNC eCampaign Director.

Patrick Ruffini will return to the RNC where he previously served as Deputy Director of Online Communications until June of 2003. Patrick left the RNC to serve as Webmaster for Bush-Cheney ’04 where he was responsible for managing President George W. Bush’s reelection campaign website.

“We are very happy to welcome Patrick back to the RNC as eCampaign Director,” Chairman Mehlman said. “He has been at the forefront of innovative political communications and he will enable the Republican Party to become even more effective at communicating our positive vision for the country.”

Patrick also developed the official website for the 55th Presidential Inauguration.

[ via Rexblog ]

P.S. If you live near the Washington area and have any tips on what I should see while I'm there, let me know. It's my first visit. (And the farthest north I've ever traveled.)