Doesn't it seem like every year one or two of your key Capitol Hill contacts move on? Even if you can get in front of new staff to build rapport, the 18-month average tenure and changes in the administration, siphoning off even more veteran staffers, makes it tough to keep up even for well-connected lobbyists.

What is an association to do if you are short on time or staff and still need to educate Congress about your issues? Outsource your lobbying? Heresy! So how about outsourcing your effort? With a little legwork and some creative thinking, you can find a group on Capitol Hill that can do most of the work it takes to organize a congressional briefing for you.

The solution to your problem might be a caucus, otherwise known as a congressional member organization (CMO)—a group of congressional members and their staff, in the House or Senate, working together on common legislative objectives.

Identifying the caucus that your policy goal aligns with will lead you to a ready-made group of congressional members and staff who likely will be receptive to your message and outreach.

Caucuses are formed for a multitude of reasons, from promoting an industry, geographic region, or way of life, to raising awareness on an issue or a problem. Some are well known because of their focus and activity, while others are more obscure, but each has a reason for existence. Your job is to find a way to match their goals with yours. Most important, identifying the caucus that your policy goal aligns with will lead you to a ready-made group of congressional members and staff who likely will be receptive to your message and outreach.

How to Get Started

First, download the 115th Congress CMO List [PDF] from the House Administration Committee's website (look under the "Committees" tab on the House website) and peruse the 73 pages of caucuses. Then identify those that match up with your organization's policy goals and start thinking about how your issues might fit into their missions. While caucuses keep their own membership lists, the Member of Congress leading the group and key staff are listed underneath each CMO. The list even has telephone numbers to make it easy for you to reach out to the staff.

After you identify the caucus you'd like to work with, the next step is to contact the staff and see if there is an opportunity to attend an upcoming meeting where you could brief the attendees on your issue. Some caucuses meet frequently and are highly organized, while others meet less frequently. You need to convince them that you will provide value to their next meeting so that they either add you to their agenda or work with you to set up a stand-alone briefing.

While presenting at a regularly scheduled meeting is easiest, a stand-alone briefing for staff means the focus will be entirely on your issue. Staff will be able to reserve a room in one of the House or Senate buildings and notify the rest of their caucus members and staff that your organization is going to brief them. Lunch-and-learn formats are popular (hint: staff love free meals), but a mid-morning or afternoon briefing with refreshments and snacks works too. And while some briefings focus on meeting with staff, there is no reason you can't ask to brief members as well.

While there are a few restrictions on caucus communications, if you provide the staffer you're working with an overview of your briefing that will entice busy staff to attend, trust that he or she will know how to best use their resources and channels to inform their colleagues of the meeting.

There will certainly be staff who show up for the food, and others who were simply directed to attend, but some will show up because they are interested in what you have to say. Those people are the ones who ask follow-up questions and will possibly become your next go-to staffer.

Working with caucuses can be an easy way to get your message out to a broader audience and efficiently reach lawmakers and their staff, but the hardest part is left to you—finding time in your schedule to do it.