Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What are the spending expectations for advocacy funds?

WESTAF encourages advocates to utilize funding to support additional work by a lobbyist, participation (including retrospectively) in federal advocacy training (for example the National Arts Action Summit), arts advocacy technology (such as VoterVoice), staff time devoted to federal advocacy, or other costs you deem appropriate in carrying out this work.

When should advocacy funds be spent?

We expect all funds to be spent out by September, 2021

What is required for the reporting of funds?

You will be asked to respond to a question or series of questions in the final report for Advocacy Funds, which we'll be preparing and sending out shortly. It is a simple Google Form.

Is it appropriate to retroactively pay staff for time spent on this type of work?

Yes you can apply the funds retroactively.

Who specifically should you be reaching out to and how often should you be in communication with representative?

As a starting point, we highly recommend you have a look at these recommendations from several people in our network who currently or formerly worked in the offices of members of Congress. In terms of frequency, it is better not to think of this or any legislative engagement as once a year. It is recommended that we all have a year round program. In this, it is a good practice to make contact twice a year. If your relationship really develops, engagement (particularly with aides) might become more frequent. This toolkit provides the contact for schedulers. You can do research on aides, if information is available, so that you can target your outreach to aides with particular policy portfolios (some will have individuals focused on the arts for example).