Contact your Federal and State Representatives and Senators.

• Find your legislators
• Find your legislator contact information

LETTER WRITING SUGGESTIONS:

• Keep your letter to one page.
• Get your organization’s board chairperson to sign the letter.
• Thank officials for this year’s CCI appropriation and for your grant.
• Use specific information to describe your project and how it affects the community.
• Describe whom the program/project will serve, emphasize its public benefits (e.g., promoting education, access for underserved communities, economic impact).
• List private dollars your organization has raised to match the state grant and describe how the state grant helps leverage these dollars.

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Sample letter to a Legislator
Governor/Senator/Representative
Colorado State Capital
State Senate/House of Representatives
Denver, CO 80202

Dear Governor/Senator/Representative______________:
We are pleased to report that we have received a grant of $ ___ from the Colorado Creative Industries. Thank you for your continued support of the agency and this year's appropriation.
Your support will allow us to [Describe your grant project – Who will it serve? What are the benefits to your community?].

The CCI grant has helped us leverage $ ___ from (List the foundations, corporations, local businesses, private individuals, et. al., who have additionally supported your project.).

We invite you to attend a (performance/exhibit/opening/class, etc.) so you can see firsthand what we do and how state support helps make it happen. (I will contact you within the next few weeks to schedule a time/Invitations will be sent to your office/We hope that you might give some opening remarks, etc.). In the meantime, we will send you our newsletter and press releases regularly to keep you apprised of events we are promoting in the community.

Thank you, again.
Sincerely,

Executive Director/Member of the Board

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Suggestions To Get Legislators Involved:

• Meet with your legislators in the district to talk to them personally about the importance of funding cultural activities.
• Give your legislators posters from your organization or arrange to set up revolving exhibits in their offices.
• Invite legislators to performances, openings, classes and publicly recognize them at the events, giving them an opportunity to speak.
• Add legislators to your mailing lists for events, media announcements and newsletters.
• Follow-up with any offers you make to meet, send invitations, provide further information, etc. Legislators should be treated like corporate supporters.
• For more information on meeting with elected officials to advocate for increased cultural funding, visit the Arts for Colorado website at: www.artsforcolorado.org/tips