Why do a site visit?
Nothing gives investors—including the public-sector investors who are your elected officials—a better picture of your work than seeing it firsthand. One way to give them that picture is to host a site visit for them to meet your borrowers and tour the sites of your projects.
A site visit can take several forms. It can be a brief addition to a ribbon cutting, annual meeting, or other planned event. It can be a half-day tour developed specifically to host legislators. It can be a quick meeting with borrowers and policymakers, or a short briefing about your impact.
Benefits and opportunities that come with hosting a site visit include:
Building relationships with your Members of Congress;
Generating positive publicity for your organization;
Showcasing innovative and unusual projects; and
Getting involved in advocacy at home, without having to travel to Washington, D.C.
With the help of this guide and the Opportunity Finance Network staff, you'll find that hosting your elected officials is simpler than you might have thought and can pay great dividends.
Planning the Site Visit
The best time to host a site visit is during the "home district work periods" when Congress is in recess and legislators are home from Washington, D.C. These periods include the month of August and several holiday periods including Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Presidents' Day. Contact Opportunity Finance Network or see the House of Representatives and Senate homepages for more information on Congressional schedules and recesses.3
If you are able to host a legislator in person, you should expect no more than an hour—and possibly less—of his or her time. If the visit involves legislative staff, you may have half a day to tour various sites financed by your organization and other local CDFIs.
Selecting a Borrower and a Site
You'll want to host the visit with a borrower who underscores the success of your organization. But you'll also want to choose one who will attract the interest of your legislator. So, you should consider in choosing a borrower to showcase:
Your legislators' interest. If he or she has particular priorities that mesh with your activities—for example, minority business lending, childcare, financial services, or a particular town or neighborhood in your service area—you should try to identify a borrower that will highlight your work in that area. Opportunity Finance Network can help research the background and interests of your legislators.
A borrower who can articulate the help you provided, particularly the way your financing and technical assistance was crucial to making the project happen.
An innovative or difficult project, to emphasize that your work is creative and finds ways to take advantage of opportunities to invest in emerging domestic markets.
A location that makes sense. If you have only a short time with the legislator or staff, choose somewhere that's easy for them to get to between other appointments. If there’s time for lunch, consider going to a restaurant you financed.
Other events you may be hosting that dovetail with your site visit.
Planning the Visit
After you've identified the borrower(s) or event, you can begin to plan the visit. Planning for the visit includes "scripting" the day and managing the logistics, inviting legislators and staff, and organizing public relations.
Inviting Legislators
You can get "more bang for your buck" if you invite multiple legislators, including your Congressmen, Senators, and even state and local officials. To invite elected officials:
Fax an invitation to the Scheduler in the Washington, D.C. office and the staff member responsible for CDFI issues, at least a month prior to the date you'd like to host the visit. You can offer some options on dates, but this may be difficult if you're coordinating with other CDFIs or if your borrower has limited availability. You should also send a copy of the invitation to the local office nearest you—you can find information about local offices on the legislator's Web site or in the Opportunity Finance Network’s U.S. Congress Handbook.
Follow up on the invitation a day or two after you've sent it. You should begin by contacting the Washington, D.C. office. That office may refer you to the local office to coordinate details; different legislators organize their offices and scheduling differently. Note that you may need to resend the invitation—this is common.
About a week before the visit, confirm with the specific staffers who have said they'll be joining you. You can do this by e-mail.
Confirm again the day before.
Coordinating the Day
You will want to "script" your site visit and help speakers prepare. This preparation includes:
Plan an agenda. Decide who will speak when. You will want to cover introductions, sharing stories, and framing the "ask," if any.
Assisting the borrower with preparation. You may need to coach your borrower through talking with the legislator. The borrower should be able to articulate why your financing was critical to his or her project, what you provided that another financial institution didn't, the value of your technical assistance, and other relevant information, as well as the end results of the loan or investment.
Build travel time into your schedule if the visit includes multiple sites (no more than three is best). Make sure you've organized travel arrangements, especially if you won't finish at the same place you started.
Make contingency plans in case things are running late or don't go as scheduled.
Press and Public Relations
You may want to invite press participation in your site visit, especially if you are hosting a legislator. It may also be possible to coordinate with the legislator's office and press secretary; he or she may be able to and prefer to handle press relations.
At the very least, make sure you have assigned someone to take pictures for your Web site, newsletters, and annual report.
After the Visit
Whew! Even after all the work preparing for the visit and pulling it off, you're not quite done. There are just a few things to do after the site visit:
Send a thank-you note. The thank you should express your appreciation for the legislator's time, briefly reiterate any action you'd like the legislator to take and why, and offer your organization as a resource for opportunity finance.
Think of the site visit as one step in a long-term relationship. Add the staffers who attended to your mailing list, make sure they receive copies of any press coverage, and invite them to future events.
