Securing an Earmark: What Appeals to Lawmakers

Charities are increasingly asking members of Congress to earmark federal money for their organizations in spending legislation,

but many groups fail to grasp the finer points of lobbying or the types of projects that lawmakers find attractive, lobbyists and experienced fund raisers say.

Among the key elements that tend to make an earmark more appealing, according to people who have succeeded in winning one:

Avoiding comparisons to other groups. Robbie Callaway, senior vice president for government relations who seeks earmarks on behalf of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, says that charities should find out which organizations have previously received earmarks, or line-item appropriations, from lawmakers who control how taxpayer dollars are spent. But, he says, many groups make a big lobbying faux pas on Capitol Hill: They point to specific earmarks a senator or representative has supported that are similar to their own requests and argue that their cause is just as — or more — deserving.

“You shouldn’t go up there demanding the money and saying, ‘So-and-so got it, why can’t I?’” says Mr. Callaway. “People say this all the time, and I just walk out shaking my head.” If a group has a lawmaker’s support, he adds, “you do not want to go up there and criticize them.”

Pledging matching funds. “Virtually all earmarks require matching money,” says Douglas Abel, associate vice president for government affairs at the Texas Medical Center, in Houston. The medical center received a $750,000 line item this year to help pay for equipment that will better control traffic and ambulance dispatches; the equipment is part of a project to improve the flow of traffic on the medical center campus, home to 43 nonprofit facilities that raised $4.6-million to build a road and supplement the federal money. “You have to show the ability to put funds into these projects,” Mr. Abel says. “It’s not free money.”

Garnering grass-roots support. When they visit Capitol Hill, many charity officials bring local supporters whose words carry weight with a particular lawmaker. And earmark requests are usually accompanied by letters from such individuals, urging the lawmaker to support a line-item appropriation. In addition, some charities, such as Boys & Girls Clubs, arrange special events and invite key members of Congress or staff members to attend. Others take advantage of Congressional recesses to invite senators and representatives to see what the charities do in the lawmakers’ hometowns and to meet those who benefit from or support the organization.

“This can be hard work, but it’s the labor-intensive, Civics 101 rule of meeting your member back in the district,” says Gordon MacDougall, a Washington lobbyist who helps charities pursue earmarks and other federal funds.

Offering proof of effectiveness. Research or other data proving that a charitable program reduces social ills or saves something that Congress cares about, such as an endangered national resource, can help an organization win an earmark, experts say — as long as the project is a good fit with spending priorities identified by Congress and the federal agencies that would distribute the money.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America got a $7-million earmark this year to expand its efforts to pair young people with adult mentors. Judy Vredenburgh, the charity’s president, says she used research to make her organization’s case for the money.

Conducted by Public/Private Ventures, an organization that works to improve policies and programs affecting youths, the research examined drug and alcohol use, grade-point average, days of school missed, and family and peer relationships among 959 youngsters, age 10 to 16. The children were divided into two groups — those with a Big Brother Big Sister adult mentor and those without — and were assessed at the start of the study and 18 months later. The children with mentors were 46 percent less likely to start using drugs over the study period, 27 percent less likely to start drinking alcohol, and half as likely to skip school as their counterparts without mentors. Children with a Big Brother or Big Sister also showed more improvement in their grades and parental relationships.

Demonstrating cost savings. The Family Violence Prevention Fund, in San Francisco, received an earmark worth nearly $1.5-million this year to expand its efforts to prevent domestic violence. Esta Soler, the charity’s president, says she told legislators that efforts to prevent violence save the government money in law enforcement, incarceration, and other costs related to family violence. “A million and a half is not much money when you think about the cost of violence to the community,” she says. “This is an expensive problem.”

Highlighting potential for economic development. Many lawmakers are interested in improving economic conditions, particularly in their home regions. The Seattle Art Museum has received five earmarks totaling $3.4-million for an $85-million project to revitalize a downtown waterfront area with an outdoor sculpture garden that will open next year. The project has been supported by Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Chris Rogers, the museum’s director of capital projects and government affairs, says that, to Ms. Murray, the earmarks are “capital grants that are generating jobs and improving downtown.”