The Vital Role of Key Contacts in Building Relationships with Elected Officials and How to Engage in the Coming Months

Posted by Jordan Beyer on June 9, 2025

Building relationships for the future

In a continually evolving public policy environment and as credit unions continue to innovate in how they serve members, Key Contacts serve as the essential connectors between their credit union and elected officials. Key Contacts are both advocates and educators. Their work ensures that legislation is informed by real-world implications and that credit unions and their membership have a voice in the decisions that shape their financial futures.

Who Are Key Contacts?

Key Contacts are credit union professionals and advocates who are tasked with building relationships with the elected officials that represent them or represent communities served by the credit union. They provide essential partnership to the GoWest lobby team in messaging the credit union difference, highlighting the significant value provided to their members, and sharing the impact reflected in the communities in which the credit union operates.

Building Trust and Credibility

Relationships are the foundation of effective advocacy, and trust is essential in these relationships. Key Contacts build this trust by demonstrating reliability, consistency, and a genuine commitment to issues impacting credit unions. By interacting frequently and thoughtfully, they establish themselves as sources of helpful information and as partners in the policymaking process.

In the complex and dynamic public policy environment, elected officials are inundated with information and competing priorities. It is critical to have open and ongoing communication. Additionally, when the legislature changes over, we need to quickly engage with new legislators who are learning their role as a legislator and hearing from hundreds of different associations and industry groups.

Educating Elected Officials

One of the most important roles of Key Contacts is to communicate sometimes complex and technical issues clearly with relatable talking points that meaningfully illustrate the issues to elected officials. Your GoWest team will partner to provide resources to aid these discussions and allow Key Contacts to be empowered in their advocacy. We know Key Contacts often bring a unique perspective from their role at the credit union that can provide specialized examples of how proposed legislation would positively or negatively impact credit unions.

How to Connect with Elected Officials Back in District

You don’t have to start from scratch. Inviting elected officials to your credit union or to community events are great ways to expose them to the credit union’s operations and community engagement. Additionally, many elected officials already attend Chamber of Commerce events, Town Halls, or participate in civic organization’s meetings such as Kiwanis or Lions. By following the newsletter or social media channels for these elected officials, you can stay apprised of the issues they are most concerned with and opportunities to engage with them.

Best Practices for Effective Key Contacts

Preparation is Key

Before engaging with elected officials, Key Contacts must be well-prepared and possess a clear understanding of the issues at hand. Preparation also includes understanding the elected official’s background, priorities, and previous positions on relevant topics. That said, if a key contact doesn’t possess the information to answer a question brought up by an elected official, it is absolutely appropriate to defer to your GoWest lobby team and commit to following up.

Leveraging Storytelling

Facts and figures are important, but stories are what resonate. Key Contacts who can weave compelling, topically relevant stories into their advocacy discussions are often more successful in capturing the attention of policymakers and prompting them to act.

Your GoWest Grassroots and Political team are here to support you as a Key Contact and share best practices.

Posted in Advocacy on the Move.