The historic preservation movement in the United States is built on the efforts of dedicated advocates to protect and preserve cultural heritage. From public awareness campaigns to community engagement and coalition building, preservationists educate the public about the value of historic sites and the importance of preservation.

This advocacy also extends to advancing legislation and policy with elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels. Advocates work with lawmakers to create or support legislation that protects historic sites. This includes advocating for new pro-preservation laws, encouraging funding for preservation projects, or supporting policies that encourage adaptive reuse of historic buildings through tax credits. It’s also important for advocates to weigh in on potentially harmful policies or funding cuts to preservation. Sharing the community benefits of preservation is just as important as communicating the risk of the loss of historic resources.

Advocates can advance historic preservation policy priorities in a variety of ways, but central to these efforts is decisionmaker education.

These 10 tips will help guide your advocacy efforts with elected officials to ensure that valuable cultural and historic assets are recognized, protected, and maintained for future generations.

1. Identify the goal and do your research.

Before you begin contacting every elected official in your state encouraging them to support historic preservation efforts broadly, identify exactly what you would like to accomplish. For example, if you want to see the historic tax credit protected and enhanced, identify legislators near you that serve on a tax writing committee.

Are you trying to secure government funding to support a specific historic site? Determine the official who represents that exact location. If you are simply trying to build a relationship with your own elected officials, find out what historic resources are in their districts, what interests they have, what committees they serve on, and where they stand on preservation-related legislation.

Also, before you start your outreach, figure out the advocacy priorities of your state and national preservation organizations. The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Action Center, for example, lists several ways you can take action and provides helpful updates on key advocacy priorities.

2. Make a specific request.

Any contact with decisionmakers should include a clear statement of the action you would like them to take. These asks can include introducing pro-preservation legislation, becoming a cosponsor of an existing bill, visiting a historic site in their district or town, or speaking at an event in support of historic preservation. Advocates should make a direct, concise request each time they interact with an elected official. Consistency is key!

3. Have accurate information on hand.

Meeting with an elected official to advocate for preservation can be intimidating, but preparing yourself with up-to-date information and data will strengthen your case. Establishing yourself or your organization as a reliable source for accurate information about things like job creation, tourism dollars, historical significance, and more, will set you apart as the go-to authority for preservation-related issues for their office. The National Trust, state and tribal historic preservation officers (SHPOs and THPOs), and statewide or local organizations have useful data and case studies that you can cite in your advocacy efforts.

4. Don’t make anything up.

Even if you have done your research, there may still be questions from elected officials and their staff that you do not know the answer to. The best thing to do here is simply to say, “That’s a great question. I don’t have the answer right now, but I will be sure to get you that information when I follow up after this meeting.” You should never embellish, exaggerate, or make up information if you do not know. This also opens the door for a continuing conversation when you follow-up with them.

5. Be respectful and likeable.

It is crucial to your advocacy efforts that decisionmakers and their staff want to partner with you. Our advocacy requires working at all levels of government and across party lines. Establishing yourself as a respectful and likable advocate for historic preservation with elected officials will make it easier to secure a meeting or set up a site visit. Without a personable approach, offices will be less interested in working with you even if your data, research, and ask, are sound.

6. Use real-life, local examples.

Your advocacy efforts will be stronger if you connect the policy issue with examples of how it will benefit historic resources in your community. For example, name the historic districts and types of buildings that stand to benefit from an enhanced historic tax credit. Mention specific projects that were funded using Historic Preservation Fund competitive grants. Explain how cuts in funding would delay preservation projects, endanger historic resources, or even endanger jobs. Constituents are the most effective advocates in this sense because they can speak effectively about the communities that are served by the elected official.

7. Establish an ongoing relationship.

The most successful advocates are the ones that have a well-established relationship with offices. Check in on a regular basis to keep them informed of local preservation issues. Invite them to local events and notify them of good things happening locally, like preservation awards, new historic tax credit projects, or recent grants. Take care to build that relationship and, ideally, the offices will start to proactively reach out to you for advice and information on preservation issues.

8. Try to end the meeting with a “yes.”

Despite all your best efforts to be likable, respectful, and well-prepared, your advocacy meeting with a decisionmaker may take a disappointing turn. If you make your ask and the answer is “no,” don’t end the conversation there. Make a follow-up ask that may make it a bit easier for them to say “yes.”

For instance, if you initially ask them to join as a cosponsor of pending legislation and they say they are not interested, ask if they would consider visiting a historic site in your district with you or your preservation organization. If they say their schedule is too busy or give another non-committal response, ask if it would be okay if you follow up with them from time to time to keep them informed about preservation-related issues in your community. Chances are, they will finally give you the “yes” you’re looking for, and you’ll have ended the meeting on a positive note instead of a sour one.

9. Diversify your contacts.

Advocacy is a multi-level, multi-contact endeavor. At the local level, build relationships with your mayor, city counselors, and small business commissioners. At the state level, engage with your state senators, state representatives, governor, and their associated staff. At the federal level, remember that U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives have offices in Washington, D.C., and back home in the state.

Connect with staff in Washington, D.C., through events like Preservation Advocacy Week, but keep the momentum going with state or district staff who you could engage with on a more frequent basis right in your community. While staff members who work in the district office are often not directly involved in the legislative process, they are more readily accessible and familiar with local issues.

10. Use the calendar to your advantage.

Be aware of the normal schedule of work for your decisionmakers. Focus any program or site-specific funding advocacy ahead of the annual budget and appropriations schedule. For state legislatures and the U.S. Congress, this is in the late winter or early spring. If your organization is interested in inviting an elected official to make a site visit or attend an event, put the ask into their office at least six weeks in advance and aim for recess periods which include most state and federal holidays. Making timely and considerate scheduling requests will demonstrate that you are paying attention to their often-challenging time constraints.

Lauren Cohen is an associate director in the Government Relations department at the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She has worked in nonprofit government relations and on Capitol Hill. She earned her Master's degree in Public History from James Madison University and her Bachelor's degree in History from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Jackson Bunis is the associate manager of Policy Communications in the Government Relations department for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He previously worked in Media Relations for the National Trust, and he received his Bachelor’s degree of Political Science from the University of Michigan.

An earlier version of this story was published on February 19, 2013. The tips were adapted from A Blueprint for Lobbying which was written by Mona B. Ferrugia and first published in 1984 by Preservation Action. In 2002, the book it was expanded and updated by Susan West Montgomery for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.