letter writing tool explanation

How to Take Action!  

The ACLU website gives you an interactive relationship with Washington and your state capital. In addition to providing background information on legislation, our website offers the ability to send a FREE fax or email to your elected officials.  

To send a letter, follow these steps:

1). Every action alert contains a zip-code box in the upper right and lower left of the page. Enter your five digit zip-code in the box and press "return" or click on the "Go!" icon.

2). If you live in a split district (meaning that more than one Representatives is assigned to your zip code), you can enter your nine digit zip code on the lower left of the page. If you do not know your full zip code and live in a split district, simply enter the first five digits in either box and you will be taken to a page that will use your full address to assign the proper Representative. If you do not live in a split district, you do not need to know your nine digit zip code. Enter your five digit zip code in either box and will be taken to the letter-writing page automatically.

3). On the top of the letter-writing page are your elected officials. At this point, you can select the recipient and the method in which your letter is transmitted.

4). Next you'll see a "subject line" and "required message." These cannot be changed and will be the subject line of your email (if you send an email) and the first paragraph of your letter.  

5). In the middle of the page is the letter itself. You can edit the content of the main body in any way that you wish and we strongly urge you to personalize this section of your letter. Members of Congress respond most to personal stories and details.

6). At the bottom of the letter-writing page is the address section. Your zip-code is filled in automatically from the action alert, but you will need to enter your full address at this point. A full address is required because elected officials need to know that they are truly receiving a letter from their constituents. When entering your address, you will also have two options:

A). Have your information remembered in future visits.
By clicking the box next to "Remember Me," a cookie will be placed on your computer that will store your address for future use. When you return to the ACLU website to send additional letters, the cookie will be used by the fax/email utility to recall your address so that you need not enter it again. The cookie will only be used for this purpose (read our privacy policy). If you wish to remove the cookie, delete it through your browser's preferences/options. Un-checking the box does not delete the cookie.   

 

B). Have your information uploaded to our action list.
By clicking the box next to "Sign me up for the Action E-List," you can learn of future actions that you may take in the defense of civil liberties. Your contact information will be written to our mailing list manager for future communication. We will only contact you by email, and your information will be kept private (read our privacy policy).

7). After entering your address, you have the option of having a copy of your message sent to you via email. To improve the effectiveness of our activism efforts, at times a copy of your message will be sent to the ACLU. None of the information in your letter will be used without your explicit, upfront permission. You also have the option of sending an email to your friends about the action that you took in defense of civil liberties. Help us better protect our rights in Congress by sending emails to your friends and urging them to come to the ACLU website to take action. To spread the word, click the "Tell A Friend" link.  

8). That's all there is to sending a letter! We hope that you will find our action utility to be an easy way to communicate with your elected officials and that you will return to ACLU.org often to take action. We truly believe that our action, our voices, can make the difference!  

PS -- We will use your mail address to send you electronic updates when your officials have a key vote on legislation that concerns civil liberties. The most recent mail address that you provide when sending a letter will be used to assign your email address to a particular district. If you would like to change your email address, reply to an old email that you received from the ACLU with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject of an email, and simply enter your new email address when sending another fax/email.  

You may cancel your subscription at any time by sending a message to <aclu_members@mailmanager.net> with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.  

If you have any questions about the ACLU's letter writing tools, please send us an email at <action@dcaclu.org>.