Invite Congress to Visit Your Museum

About Invite Congress

Invite Congress to Visit Your Museum in August 2026.

Members of Congress are in their home districts the entire month of August, visiting local businesses and meeting constituents. Make sure museums are on their August agenda.

Inviting your elected officials and their staff members in to your museum is a powerful way to show them the unique work museums do – from world-class exhibitions to working with local students and community members on critical life skills. Elected officials are eager to connect with the constituents and communities they represent.

Why Officially Sign Up? By signing up as a participating museum, you will have access to:

Detailed Invite Congress How-To Guide
Exclusive tips and guidance for Invite Congress participants
Special virtual office hours with AAM’s advocacy staff to ask any questions
A special Invite Congress webinar
A dedicated community in Museum Junction

Note: Museums and companies who sign up are responsible for writing and submitting the invites to their members of Congress. AAM is helping to provide the how-to materials, contact information, guidance, and community to those who sign up to participate.

Invite your members of Congress to visit your museum! You can invite them to:

Tour your museum or a specific exhibit
Observe one of your programs in action
Meet with you, your staff, and trustees

Sign up is free but please only sign up if your museum is intending to invite or has already extended an invite to one or more of your members of Congress to visit your museum as part of Invite Congress or during another time in 2026.

Guide for Inviting Your Members of Congress to Visit Your Museum

For a more detailed How-To Guide, sign up for Invite Congress 2026.

Step 1

Find out who represents you in Congress and your state legislature. Check their websites, recent news and events, bios, press releases, and social media feeds to get a sense of how the office is currently operating, what kinds of events they have been holding and participating in, and to identify current priorities. This might give you an indication of what type of program or exhibit might be most impactful to show them.

Step 2

Submitting the Invite. Every office is different and their preferences for receiving invitations is different. This is your initial outreach to the office to start the conversation and scheduling process.
- Option 1 – You can use the office’s scheduling request form on their website and many offices now prefer this option. You can find your member’s website at house.gov and senate.gov. Once on the individual member of Congress’ main webpage, you can normally locate the scheduling webforms under tabs labeled as contact, meet or services and the specific form will usually be labeled as scheduling request or appearance request or request a meeting.
- Option 2 – Use your own letter or invitation to send directly to a scheduler via email.
- Option 3 – Do both option 1 and 2.

Tip: Want to help your museum participate, but you’re not the Director?
A formal invitation to Congress or your legislators shouldn’t come from you, but instead from the Director. This is a great opportunity to talk with your museum’s Director about why you think advocacy is important, and why you think participation in this field-wide effort will help your museum build important relationships and demonstrate to Congress the essential work of museums. Think of it as an exercise in “making the case”— and about how you can convey in a persuasive way why your museum shouldn’t miss this opportunity.

Step 3

Follow up with the office after sending your initial invitation. Be patient, be kind, be flexible. In your outreach, ask the staff how they are doing and show appreciation for their time and on-going work.

Step 4

Consider the message you want to convey and programs you want to emphasize during the visit.

Step 5

Who can and will participate? Invite board members and trustees, museum staff, volunteers, and visitors who have been inspired by your museum to participate, if feasible and appropriate.

Step 6

Share news about your scheduled meetings. Tell us how your outreach and plans are going; when your virtual, in-person meeting, phone call or event will take place; and contact us with any questions you have. Depending on congressional developments, the Alliance may have critical messages for you to relay to your legislators.

Step 7

Make your case. Gather and prepare to share the information you indicated you would be covering in your invitation and communications with the office. You can also complete an Economic Impact Statement and Educational Impact Statement so you can share them before, during, or after the meeting. You can also share the powerful information from AAM’s key research reports, Museums as Economic Engines and Museums & Public Opinion and download your state’s economic impact infographic to share with legislators and staff.

Step 8

Confirm details with the legislator’s office and any participating colleagues. Make sure your participants and materials are ready. If you are hosting a virtual event, have contingency plans in place in case internet or other technical difficulties occur.

Step 9

Have a plan to take photos or capture images (such as screenshots) during the event. Get permission to take and share photos and images or to capture video of the visit or tour. Assign someone to take notes during the meeting or visit to ensure proper follow up. Share images and video online and in your museum’s next newsletter.

Step 10

Do your research. Use our Getting to Know Your Legislators page to learn more about your elected officials and members of Congress (their interests, committees, and current priorities) through their official websites (www.house.gov or www.senate.gov), their social media, and online news coverage.

Key tips and advice for your meetings or visits!

Here are a few pieces of advice about working with members of Congress or other elected officials:

Be flexible, succinct, organized, and patient.
Be Respectful. You want the lawmaker to have a positive experience from their visit at your museum and come away from the visit with a positive impression of you, your museum, and the museum field.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions or take notes during the meeting or visit, and be a good listener, too!
It’s okay not to know the answer to a specific question. Find out the answer and then follow up with the office. Don’t guess or make up information on the spot.
Make no assumptions about legislators’ or staff’s knowledge of museums or the federal grant-making agencies. (Start with the basics, for example, that the museum is a 501(c)(3) organization with education as its primary public service mission.)
Do let legislators make their key points and ask their questions. Don’t be shy to make your case about the essential role of museums and express the critical needs of museums in this current environment.
Get more tips on how to run an effective meeting with members of Congress, getting to know your legislators, communicating with legislators, and rules for engagement.

Here are some recommended follow-up actions:

Thank your members of Congress or other elected officials for attending, and their staff that also participated and helped schedule the event (email). Be sure to reiterate any asks and key data points made during the meeting in your follow up note.
Send any materials promised during the visit.
Report back to AAM on how the meeting went with our Online Meeting Report.
Post photos and positive comments from the event on social media.
Be sure to tag your legislators accurately and use #InviteCongress on social media!
Stay in touch – share updates with those who participated in the meeting or visit.
Follow your legislators on social media if you don’t already.
Share any photos or images from the meeting or visit with the participating legislator’s office and with AAM.
Prepare an update on the meeting or visit to share with your colleagues, members, board members, and followers on your museum’s blog, website, social media, and newsletter.

Looking for additional information about museums’ and nonprofits’ ability to engage in advocacy and lobbying? Check out our updated Nonprofit Voter Resources page.