Congressional Management Foundation Inc

Filing Period

Oct 1, 2009 to Sep 30, 2010

Signed

Aug 12, 2011

Return Version

2009v1.7

Gross Receipts

$960,763

Mission

Major Activities

Activity 2

Researching congress' use of technology - cmf continued its ongoing research into congress' use of technology to communicate with constituents and other stakeholders and shared its findings through training and reports. The goal of this work is to improve the dialogue between members of congress and citizens resulting in a richer, more productive public policy debate. Cmf released a report based on research with approximately two dozen house and senate offices entitled "online town hall meetings: exploring democracy in the 21st century". Following its release we conducted three training programs for house and senate offices on effective ways to add the online town hall meetins format to existing in-person and telephone meetings. Also, we continued work developing new communications standards through our communicating with congress project. This included working with the personal, leadership, and institutional offices of the house and senate, along with grassroots practitioners, academics, and interested citizens, to develop standards and an implementation plan for a new model for sending online messages that will promote an easier exchange of views to and from congress. Cmf consolidated its research and education services in this area into the partnership for a more perfect union, whose mission is to further meaningful civic engagement through education, re-establishing trust, and providing innovative yet pragmatic tools to facilitate two-way conversations. In support of this mission, cmf launched a new website to serve as the online destination for citizens, advocacy groups, members of congress and their staff looking for research and best practices on the latest communications technology tools. We also began the process of building support for the partnership and its mission by conducting education and outreach to stakeholders in the communications process. In order to educate citizens on how congress works, we produced a six-part video web series entitled "inside the hill" which featured members of congress and staff explaining firsthand how they use traditional and new social media tools to receive and disseminate policy views.

Activity 3

Congressional website evaluations - for over a decade, cmf has evaluated congressional websites and recommended best practices to help members of congress create and maintain a robust online presence where citizens can access information on legislative proceedings, voting records, and a vast array of constituent services from military academy nominations to help with a federal agency. Cmf assessed 625 congressional, committee, and leadership websites and bestowed platinum, gold, silver, and bronze mouse awards to the offices that best met the criteria established with our academic partners on timeliness, ease of use, accountability, and other factors. A public presentation ceremony, attended by sixteen members of congress and over one hundred congressional staff was held where the winners were announced and a report on our findings was released. One hundred and twenty-one house staffers and forty senate employees participated in the two training programs cmf presented to share lessons they could use to improve their offices' websites. Cmf also produced customized website report cards for sixty congressional offices and met with office staff to explain cmf's research, evaluation methodology, and results.

Filer

EIN

52-1076614