Reach the right elected officials with the geo-gating feature in the Contact Your Lawmakers ActionButton. Learn how to ensure only constituents can contact their representatives.
Ensure your messages reach the right lawmakers
Advocacy organizations face a common challenge: how do you make sure messages only reach the elected officials who represent your supporters? When someone from Texas contacts a legislator in Connecticut, it doesn’t just waste effort—it can undermine your campaign’s credibility and effectiveness, making future advocacy harder.
The power of NationBuilder and ActionButton together is understanding your supporters, mobilizing them to action, and learning more about your people and what works.
Introducing geo-gating for Contact Your Lawmakers
Our new geo-gating feature within the Contact Your Lawmakers ActionButton ensures messages go only to the right lawmakers by filtering participants based on geography. Integrated seamlessly with your NationBuilder database, geo-gating Contact Your Lawmakers allows you to:
- Identify constituents using your existing NationBuilder supporter data
- Establish and record constituent-lawmaker relationships when someone interacts with your ActionButton
- Sync action-taker data automatically back to your database
- Create automated follow-ups for completed actions
- Track engagement across both platforms with unified tagging and reporting
How geo-gating works
Setting up geo-gating is easy within the Contact Your Lawmakers flow.
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Create a Contact Your Lawmakers action and choose your target geography. You may limit participation by state/province/territory, district, or municipality.
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A supporter is first geo-located by IP address, then their home address is verified before they take action. Only constituents within the eligible area can proceed to message their officials.
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Supporters outside the area see a customized message explaining why they can’t participate.
- All data is synced automatically to your NationBuilder database. A tag unique to the action is automatically applied, and you may add any number of additional tags. You may also choose to start them on an existing email series, assign a point person, and more.
Why you need it
If you’re already using NationBuilder and ActionButton, geo-gating unlocks powerful benefits:
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Smarter data: Each action enriches supporter profiles with verified geographic, engagement, and constituent-lawmaker relationship data
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Better targeting: Segment future campaigns more precisely by location
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Stronger results: Lawmakers are much more likely to respond to messages from their constituents
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Credibility boost: Show lawmakers and supporters that you run strategic, well-targeted campaigns
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Simplified workflow: Eliminate the need for manual filtering or managing separate regional lists
- Regulatory support: Stay compliant with lobbying disclosure rules in many jurisdictions
Try geo-gating for yourself
Below is a live example button, geo-gated to only federal U.S. senators and representatives in California. If you'd like to see what each flow would look like to your supporters, try inputting the following addresses:
- 750 W 7th St Suite 201, Los Angeles, CA 90017, USA (within the selected area)
- Bennelong Point, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia (outside the selected area)
Keep your advocacy focused—and effective
With geo-gating, you can run high-impact campaigns that speak directly to the right lawmakers. It’s a smarter, more strategic way to mobilize supporters and strengthen your relationship with elected officials—without adding complexity to your workflow. Give geo-gating a try to make your next Contact Your Lawmakers campaign the most effective one yet.
