Note: To navigate back to this toolkit page, use the link provided in the August 7, 2025 e-mail “ASTC – ACM Advocacy Alert: Tools to Engage Members of Congress During Critical Appropriations Time”
Template Email to Members of Congress
Subject: Visit [Museum] to Learn How Your Support Fuels Learning and Engagement for Your Constituents
Dear [Senator/Representative] [Last Name],
As Congress works to finalize FY26 appropriations, I’m reaching out to urge your continued support for federal investments that fuel the vital work of science centers, children’s museums, and other museums like ours.
Federal funding helps us provide hands-on learning, support teachers, children and caregivers, strengthen our local economy, and make our museum accessible to all families. These investments make a meaningful difference every day in our community.
At [Museum Name], for example, [Insert 1–2 sentences describing how federal funding (e.g., either direct grants from IMLS, NSF, NASA, or other federal agencies, or how broader education funding like 21st CCLC, or federally funded national programs like Museums for All (IMLS), the Museum Assessment Program (IMLS), NISE Network (NSF), and/or Space Grant (NASA) have enabled access to your programs, content for your exhibits and events, or improved your organizational practice) has supported a specific program, exhibit, or community impact].
As you consider final funding decisions, we hope you will:
- Maintain robust funding for key programs, including:
- NSF STEM Education Directorate ($1.172B)
- NASA Office of STEM Engagement ($143M)
- NOAA Office of Education ($35M)
- ED’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers ($1.329B)
- IMLS Office of Museum Services ($55.5M)
- Ensure museums remain eligible for new federal investments in AI education, STEM workforce development, and state-directed education funds.
- Require agencies to fully obligate the funds that Congress appropriates for FY26.
We would love to welcome you to our museum during the August recess to see firsthand how these federal investments are benefiting your constituents—or to connect for a brief follow-up conversation.
Thank you for all you do to support education, innovation, and community development in our district.
Sincerely,
[Your Full Name]
[Your Title]
[Museum Name]
Meeting Talking Points Guide
Use this outline as a starting point to create your meeting script, ensuring you cover the three following categories:
- Share your unique story and impact
- Emphasize our field wide messages
- Articulate our asks during this critical appropriations season, including detailed asks for Members of Congress who are historically supportive of museums and have an opportunity to specifically champion funding for these important programs this year
These talking points can be adapted for use by a senior leader, a board member, or another critical partner or supporter.
- Thank your Representative and Senator for the opportunity to share more. Thank them for rejecting the steepest cuts made to agencies from President Trump’s FY26 proposed budget.
- Share your museum’s mission, vision, key programs, reach, community value, and other unique aspects of your work. Use this opportunity to highlight the museum’s role in the community. If you’ve secured an on-site tour, allow exhibits and programs to illustrate the learning and joy in action.
- Share that your museum is one example of 22,000 institutions across the country shaping American life. Emphasize our industry-wide key messages:
- Science centers, children’s museums, and other science and technology museums support critical learning for people of all ages.
- Museums—including children’s museums, science centers, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, and other STEM-rich local institutions are an essential part of our communities’ education ecosystem. They should be considered with equal weight to schools and school systems as they provide hands-on learning opportunities to people of all ages. Museums centered in communities provide these opportunities both in partnership with public, private and home schools, as well as during out of school time; making them a vital part of countering learning loss.
- 89% of the public say that federal government investment in STEM education is important for future economic prosperity, according to an April 2025 survey by the Association of Science and Technology Centers.
- Museums and science centers use federal funding to build new exhibits, provide afterschool and summer programming, develop STEM curriculum and train PreK-12 teachers, and much more.
- [Share an impact story on how your museum supports critical learning in your community, and how federal investment enables that]
- Museums fuel economic development and strengthen communities, cities, and regions. When organizations compile the list of America’s Best Cities, they place the significant weight on amenities, such as museum density.
- Museums contribute $50 billion to the U.S. economy each year, generate over $12 billion in tax revenue and have been credited in some areas with leading economic rejuvenation.
- If you have the statistics, share the economic impact of your museum
- Museums receive direct funding from a wide range of federal agencies to support communities across the country, including support for rural museums from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, STEM education supported by the Department of Defense, and various funds from the Department of Education, including the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program.
- Museums contribute $50 billion to the U.S. economy each year, generate over $12 billion in tax revenue and have been credited in some areas with leading economic rejuvenation.
- Museums support all people.
- Many museums are either free all the time or offer free or low-cost admission programs such as the Museum for All, which is made possible by the federal funding through the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and administered under a cooperative agreement by the Association of Children’s Museums.
- Given the important role museums play, 96% of Americans want to maintain or increase federal funding for museums, according to an AAM Museums and Public Opinion Survey.
- Deliver key appropriations asks to your elected official. It will be important for all Representatives and Senators, regardless of their investment in or apathy to museums, to hear the undertone of these specific requests.
- Continue funding that has been appropriated on a bipartisan basis to agencies and programs that support museums work…
- If your elected official sits on CJS, highlight the following continued funding:
- NSF’s Directorate for STEM Education at $1,172M
- NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement at $143M
- NOAA’s Office of Education at $35M
- If your elected official sits on Labor-HHS, highlight the following continued funding:
- IMLS’s Office of Museum Services at $55.5M
- ED’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers at $1,329M
- For offices that are supportive of funding for museums, they can specifically help support our funding by working to ensure that that these specific directorates or offices are named and allocated funding within the agency in the appropriations language.
- If your elected official sits on CJS, highlight the following continued funding:
- Ensure that museums continue to benefit from federal funding that enables hands-on learning, STEM workforce development, and economic development.
Note: This request is an acknowledgment that the current funding environment is challenging. While the field must continue to ask to support agencies that fund museums at the highest levels, this second request positions the industry to withstand changes that will almost inevitably come. Museums and other non-profit informal learning organizations are already doing critical work in key areas of interest for Congress and the Administration, so this ask helps highlight that work, and enable more creative thinking together with officials.
- The Administration and bipartisan leaders in Congress have put a significant focus on the need for high-quality Artificial Intelligence (AI) Education, which science centers and children’s museums are already highlighting in their exhibits and programs, in their efforts to train and equip classroom teachers, and in partnerships with industry. As Congress considers appropriations that support new or expanded AI literacy and proficiency, museums should be eligible entities to receive these funds because of the leadership roles they increasingly play in their community’s educational ecosystem related to AI, computer science, and technology.
- The Administration has also explored the idea of increasing the Department of Labor’s role in supporting STEM education and if Congress plans to appropriate funding to DOL for STEM workforce development, they should ensure that children’s museums, science centers, and other informal STEM learning organizations are eligible for the resulting funding opportunities.
- Similarly, if Congress choses to shift a larger percentage of Department of Education funding away from competitive grants to formulaic block-grants directly to states, Congress should ensure that states must make portions of that funding available for museums and other informal learning organizations that support the overall educational ecosystem, including home-school and private school students, in local communities.
- Make it clear in legislation that federal agencies must expend the funds Congress appropriates for FY26.
- FY26 appropriations bills should use the word “shall” when directing agency funds in order to clarify Congressional intent that the money you appropriate must be spent by the Administration in the ways that you intend it to be spent.
- For otherwise supportive offices, it is important to emphasize their responsibility to ensuring that the Administration cannot illegally impound funds that Congress has intended to be spent in their states and districts. These Member of Congress need to know that their constituents expect them to exercise their Constitutional duty to hold the agency leadership accountable for abiding by the appropriations legislation that Congress enacts.
- Invite discussion and questions on the above, and invite opportunities to continue to build a relationship with the office. Provide opportunities for next steps (offer to host another event, meet with congressional staff to expand on any areas of interest, offer to provide any desired or additional information, etc).
Congressional Event Outline for Museums Hosting Elected Officials
This outline can be used as an internal guide for your staff on the meeting’s proceedings, and can also be provided to offices who typically require key pieces of information answered ahead of a visit.
Event Overview
- Date & Time:
- Location: Provide the museum’s name, address, and any key exhibits or programs the elected official will interact with
- Host: Museum name and logo
- Museum Primary Point of Contact: Name, title, contact information
Purpose & Objectives
- Highlight the museum’s role in and value to the community and share stories that illustrate the impact of federal funding investments
- Build or strengthen relationships with your elected official, further positioning your museum as a resource for constituents
- Articulate field wide key messages
- Deliver timely appropriations requests
Pre-Event Logistics
- Coordinate with congressional staff on date, security, access
- Prepare a customized briefing packet:
- Museum mission + stats
- ACM/ASTC provided leave behind
- Personal stories from staff, board members, and docents/volunteers
- Develop talking points for staff and docents
- Confirm photography/media policy with congressional office
Post-Event Follow-Up
- Send thank-you email with photos and quotes
- Tag office on social media (if appropriate)
- Debrief with your internal team for lessons learned
- Consider setting up follow-up meetings to discuss policy impact
Press Pitch Pointers
Earned media is an important tool in your advocacy toolkit: it is a way to broadly share your value and impact, position your institution through clear storytelling, and garner attention from elected officials at key moments to spur action. During this critical appropriations period, earned media provides an opportunity to share how federal investments support and propel institutions. We ask that you consider press outreach as a part of your appropriations campaign strategy, pitching stories to strategic reporters who can help illustrate the impacts of federal funding—or lack thereof.
We know that you regularly engage press to promote your museum’s activities, so here are a few key reminders on how to best position your pitch and your institution for a pitch about the importance of federal support.
- Keep a concise and compelling subject line that gets to the “why” of your pitch
- Tailor your pitch: address the journalist by name and reference their past work.
- Reminder: Cultural reporters are great, but the story of museums are at the intersection of education, economics, and policy.
- Don’t bury the lead. Start with the most newsworthy details and focus on the relevance of the ask. Answer questions like:
- What has federal funding meant to your organization (outcomes, reach, impact)? How can that be extrapolated to the broader community or region?
- What affects will occur without federal funding (canceled grant, future funding opportunities stripped)?
- Make sure there’s a clear call to action: suggest an interview and/or tour, offer exclusive information.
- Make it easy for the journalist to follow up—be sure to provide a primary point of contact. If they don’t follow up, you should!
- Include a link to a press release, media kit, images, or website—but don’t overload.