End-of-Year Reporting Resource Hub: Everything You Need to Show Your Team’s Value

While it’s important to be able to show your board and members everything you’ve done in the last 12 months and tie it to your organization’s overall goals, connecting past success to future plans is crucial for your year-end report — it is budget season, after all.

To get the investment you need for 2025, you need to present all your efforts this year in the best light and have a solid strategy for moving forward. This toolkit will provide you with all the resources you need to create an end-of-year report that highlights your success over the last year, proves your ROI, and helps build a solid strategy for the year ahead.

Table of Contents

• How 3 Successful Small Teams Proved Their ROI 
• Video: 3 Ways Small Teams Can Prove ROI 
• Strategies to Demonstrate Value & Document Wins
• Stakeholder Engagement: How to Measure & Report on Relationships
• Getting Data Right in Your Annual Report
• Go Beyond Justifying Your Existence: 3 Ways to Prove Government Affairs' Value
• Proving Your Value: The Strategies of High-Performing Government Affairs Teams 

How 3 Successful Small Teams Proved Their ROI

If you’re trying to prove the value of your function with a small team and a tight budget, you’re not alone: 40 percent of government affairs professionals work on teams of just 1-3 people, according to a FiscalNote industry report. 

One thing is true regardless of where you’re performing your job. You can’t show tangible results — the only thing that matters in the end — without the right technology. That’s why the following six organizations have leveraged FiscalNote for successes that clearly show their organizations’ value to supporters, members, stakeholders, and customers. Here’s how they did it. 

ROI Strategy 1: Enhance Value for Members and Stakeholders

Challenge: Track vast amounts of legislation, stay on top of any updates, and convey members’ interests to legislators. The National Environmental Health Association (NEHA)’s members rely on the association to keep them informed of what to prepare for, how to reach out to lawmakers, and how to respond to the issues that may be coming down the pike so they’re not caught off guard. 

Strategy: Doug Farquhar, the association’s director of government affairs, tracks legislation on a wide range of issues pertinent to NEHA members, and relies on a daily email from FiscalNote that amalgamates any relevant bills. He can then alert members about legislation that might impact their businesses and provide updates.

Success Story: With the support of FiscalNote, NEHA can prove its value to members by ensuring they are informed, prepared, and equipped to navigate the evolving landscape of environmental health policies and regulations. “But none of this happens unless we have to tool to track it all,” Farquhar adds. “Members are relying on me. They’ve said this service is not a nice-to have or a luxury, it’s essential for them to operate.” 

ROI Strategy 2: Identify New Business Opportunities & Mitigate Risk

Challenge: Build the government affairs function for Somfy in the U.S. and monitor building codes at the state and local levels across all 50 states, which was a manual, time-consuming process with a high risk of missing something important that could be costly for the organization.

Strategy: Frustrated with the lack of automated processes, John Loyer, the head of North American government and public affairs at Somfy, partnered with FiscalNote Professional Services to develop a new product: the Building Codes Dashboard.

Success Story: With the new Building Codes Dashboard, Loyer can now monitor and consolidate the development and adoption of the building codes across key states, quickly drill down into each state or code category for more information, and directly connect to the agenda he’s looking for, enabling him to be more efficient and mitigate risk. Together with FiscalNote’s tailored reports looking at any new or updated legislation and regulation around Somfy’s key issues at the federal, state, and local levels, Loyer has all the intelligence he needs to help Somfy succeed in the U.S. 

ROI Strategy 3: Avoid Legislative & Compliance Risk

Challenge: Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals must stay informed about legislation and regulations that may impact the company’s business operations to avoid the risks that come with missing legislation or being noncompliant with regulations.

Strategy: John Valenti, head of state government affairs and policy at Ipsen, depends on FiscalNote to monitor trends in the pharmaceutical industry across all 50 states and track the progress of legislation.

Success Story: Valenti leverages FiscalNote to take a more proactive approach to state government affairs and power Ipsen’s growth, particularly in the rare disease franchise market in the United States. FiscalNote’s technology and policy experts help Valenti prioritize developments in each state and provide custom reports and bill summaries. He also relies on FiscalNote to report to internal stakeholders and track his interactions with legislators and key stakeholders, showing the value of his work. By combining technology with expert analysis, he can stay ahead of legislative developments and ensure Ipsen remains compliant with regulations. 

Read three more stories

Video: 3 Ways Small Teams Can Prove ROI

If you’re a member of a small advocacy or government affairs team, you understand first-hand the unique obstacles in proving your worth and making a significant impact. Shrinking budgets and increased workloads make it hard to dedicate resources to demonstrating a strong ROI. A divided Congress, the slow legislative process, and concerns about layoffs add another layer of challenges for many teams. 

With the right strategies and tactics that empower small and medium-sized organizations, you can multiply the force of your team no matter the size. By turning challenges into opportunities, it’s possible to thrive in your role and quantify your team’s value to your organization.

Watch this short video to learn how to thrive as a small team.

Strategies to Demonstrate Value & Document Wins

As a professional in government affairs, it can be hard to show hard numbers and tangible results. It’s not like you can tie your actions directly to the bottom line.

“It's difficult to put a monetary value on what we do. Just by the nature of it, it's going to be a little squishy. Outcomes are going to be hard to see,” says John Sheff, senior director of global government affairs at Turntide Technologies.

By demonstrating the value of government affairs, both immediate and long-term, you can enhance your professional status and prove your expanding worth within the organization. Here are some practical strategies that can help showcase and elevate your accomplishments.

Transparency Drives

Internal transparency helps prove your value in an organization. The more people within Sheff’s organization know about his work, he says, the easier it is for them to perceive the practical value of government affairs.

To ensure he’s keeping everyone abreast of his efforts, he has lots of casual conversations with the executive team, and he maintains distribution lists that show who’s interested in what issues.

That way, as he is working to shape policy, he knows he’s getting key updates to the right people.

As a government affairs professional, “you need to relay information in a long-enough timeline so that people can make informed business decisions,” Sheff says. “Business leaders appreciate having those eyes and ears on the ground so that nobody is surprised when regulations come down.”

That steady flow of information helps build the business case for the value of government affairs. In times of uncertainty, people on the receiving end of those updates will already know what you have been doing on behalf of the organization.

Documenting the Outcomes

While processes are important, it’s equally vital to document the outputs — the end products of those efforts.

"We have a myriad of state agencies here in Washington, and they're always working on different rule-making projects that impact our members and our operators," says Katie Beeson, government affairs director at the Washington Food Industry Association. As new rules emerge (or die on the vine), she connects the dots for her stakeholders.

"I show that, because we were present and engaged, that piece of legislation wasn't as bad as it could have been. I show how we made it better," she says. "At the end of the day, being able to prove the impact of your engagement is a powerful way to show your value."

Digital tools can help track those engagements and generate data that demonstrates the accomplishments of the government affairs executive. A comprehensive policy monitoring software helps you stay on top of the legislation and regulations that matter most to your organization, track and analyze the monetary value of your actions, and even show the potential costs had you not succeeded. And, with stakeholder management features, you can demonstrate and visualize the value of your relationships.

Stay Ahead of the Curve and Recession-Proof Your Government Affairs Strategy

“Whatever we do, we always need to be able to relate it to the bottom line,” Sheff says. “You always want to be building relationships with your business leaders so you understand how your work impacts theirs.”

While it isn’t always possible to put a precise dollar value on a legislative or regulatory outcome, you can and should be ready to tell a big-picture story about the results you’ve achieved.

“There are always outcomes with a piece of legislation,” Sheff says. Even if a new rule doesn’t directly impact the bottom line, “I can firmly say that without it, our whole industry — including my organization — would have lost a significant amount of money. Business leaders are interested in those kinds of outcomes.”

By highlighting those outcomes in conversation, and backing their claims with data, you can elevate your status within an organization, positioning yourself well in times of uncertainty.

Stakeholder Engagement: How to Measure & Report on Relationships

A strong stakeholder engagement strategy is a must for government relations professionals, but just as important (and more often overlooked) is a method for measuring that engagement and reporting on your progress.

Without a stakeholder engagement plan, it’s nearly impossible to manage the people and data you need to help move your issues forward. But showing the ROI of stakeholder engagement is a challenge because it’s not always tangible, it can take years to develop a profitable relationship, and sometimes a win means avoiding something happening that would negatively impact your organization. 

Measuring Stakeholder Engagement

Engaging with stakeholders effectively is critical for any government relations professional. Not only is it important, but stakeholder engagement can also be challenging and time-consuming. Your organization may have multiple stakeholders with varying needs and interests, adding another challenging layer to effective communication with all of them on the policy issues that matter to your team.

To make your stakeholder engagements meaningful, being able to measure and report on your efforts and successes is critical. The success of a project is often measured, among other things, by how successful engagement is, so having a way to measure stakeholder engagement ensures your efforts are recognized.

Key Performance Indicators for Stakeholder Relationships

Creating key performance indicators (KPIs) for stakeholder engagement is an effective way to measure results over time since the same KPIs can be reported on regularly to see patterns and growth. KPIs should be quantifiable, objective, and leave no room for ambiguity.

These KPIs should be specific to your organization. Think about communication within your organization and relationships with stakeholders for your project, then mold the KPIs around that unique information. Communication is likely to be your main data point for KPI measurement, including avenues and frequency of communication, as well as the feedback received. KPIs can also be based on communication goals, day-to-day operations, stakeholder sentiment, and individual project goals.

Rather than lumping all your stakeholders together when you report on KPIs, consider breaking them out by type of stakeholder (managers, investors, sponsors, policymakers, and committees, for example). This will allow you to analyze the results more easily and find areas where you can make improvements.

Classifying Levels of Engagement

It’s important to create levels of engagement that are specific to your organization so there is no ambiguity when measuring progress with stakeholders. Define boundaries between these levels so you can measure movement between them, allowing you to measure and report on success.

“People participate on different levels,” explains Erich Schuttauf, executive director of the American Association for Nude Recreation. “It’s helpful, in a corporate or association setting, to understand that [participation varies] based on their age or stage of life, or what time they have available.”

Tracking Change: Stakeholder Reporting Tools

One way to track changes between levels of engagement over time is by using a stakeholder engagement assessment matrix, a practical tool for measurement. This diagram should be updated over the course of a project to include relevant stakeholders and can be used alongside KPIs as an additional measure of success.

Having a stakeholder reporting tool can make it easier to target, engage, and report on activity with stakeholder networks. Stakeholder reports can include biographies, sponsored bills, roles and organizations, committees, staffer and contact information, actions taken by team members, social media activity, and relevant issues. This allows you to have a comprehensive, but visual and skimmable, view of stakeholders and to keep everyone in your organization up-to-date.

It’s important to be adaptable and allow your reporting to evolve over time as your strategy does. Managing multiple stakeholders means a lot of variables are always at play. Unexpected issues often arise and even the best-laid plans can change.

“Focusing on outcomes rather than deliverables can create space for exploring multiple alternatives,” says Stephen Townsend, graduate teaching associate at Columbia University. “This can lead to finding solutions more strongly aligned with outcomes.”

Getting Data Right in Your Annual Report

One of the most visible ways to prove your value internally and externally is by building the most impactful annual advocacy report possible for your organization. The following best practices can help guide your work as you draw connections between the tactics, strategies, and results over the past year.

Align Your Metrics

Incorporating data into your organization’s annual advocacy report starts well before you write word one of the report itself. It begins with establishing alignment around which metrics matter between stakeholders within the organization, and board members or other key external stakeholders. There has never been more data available at the click of a mouse … but which data will best illustrate the value of what you’re doing?

With a common understanding of the key metrics for your organization, it’s simpler to move forward with creating a framework that can be easily communicated as part of your annual report.

Show Your Work

High-level metrics are important to illustrate the broad impact of your work. The next layer is just as important, as it illustrates the efforts that support your results. These more detailed metrics are powerful additions to your annual advocacy report, but they can also be valuable throughout the year, as they allow your team to “show their work” by detailing the many individual actions that together add up to results.

Illustrate Your Impact

Even the most powerful data proof points can get lost if the report itself isn’t clearly written and creatively designed. Leverage this template for your annual advocacy report, which can serve as the blueprint you need to succinctly communicate and present your advocacy year in review to internal and external stakeholders — from layout and graphic ideas to icons you can use to build an elegant and effective report

Go Beyond Justifying Your Existence: 3 Ways to Prove Government Affairs' Value

To demonstrate value, government affairs teams must leverage technology to provide hard metrics in professional and visually appealing reports that resonate with decision-makers. They can showcase their impact on organizational goals, align their campaigns with company objectives, and measure the material effects of their tasks, even if not directly tied to revenue.

Here are three ways government affairs teams can use data and technology (including the best legislative tracking software) to move beyond justifying their existence and demonstrate they not only deserve a seat at the decision-making table but also should be positioned near or at the top of it.

Measure Economic Impact

Government affairs professionals have to pay close attention to the potential economic impacts of pending legislation and regulation on their organizations. Whether the potential consequences would lead to increased costs or to new growth opportunities, that insight should drive the vision, alignment, and execution of the government affairs team.

Quantifying this impact for the C-suite, executive director, or board of directors should be a priority for modern government affairs departments. To do this, government affairs professionals have to be able to link the actions of the department to legislative or regulatory outcomes.

So much work goes into bill tracking, lobbying, meetings, research, and networking — but it’s hard to prove the direct results and relationship between those actions and their impact.

Traditionally, the impact of that was difficult to show, when the focus was often on relationship building, spreadsheets, and email management. The good news is technology platforms such as FiscalNote make it much easier to show return on investment for government affairs departments.

For example, technology that allows teams to log actions and relate them directly to bills, regulations, legislators, and committees can enable professionals to keep track of what’s been done and what the specific outcomes are. 

Expand & Visualize Stakeholder Networks

Government affairs professionals rely on their ability to build a network of stakeholders they can influence — to persuade to sponsor, support, or kill specific legislation or regulations, or to build a coalition. Stakeholder management is a labor-intensive activity, requiring sustained effort, with limitations in terms of time and scope.

Data and analytics offer government affairs teams the opportunity to scale their work, exponentially expand their networks, and visually report all that work and effort for their organization's leadership to see. 

Analytics about legislators, for example, can give government affairs professionals insight into everything from issue-specific voting records, to more subtle ideological preferences. Straightforward “data collection” leaves time to focus on building a more powerful campaign strategy with the right legislators.

Grow the Bottom Line

Business development is not generally perceived to be a key activity for government affairs departments, but with the right technology and analytics, they have the opportunity to play a bigger role in the entire organization. Keeping track of appropriations bills at federal, state, and international levels that are likely to have an impact on the bottom line is the first step.

With cutting-edge search capabilities and automation tools, a government affairs department can identify potential growth opportunities by watching trends where legislation is moving, thereby transforming itself into an effective business development operation.

Proving Your Value: The Strategies of High-Performing Government Affairs Teams

As we face an increasingly uncertain and tumultuous world, proving the value and importance of your government affairs function has become a year-round priority. The key lies in understanding the factors that drive your organization’s success and effectively aligning your goals and attributing your progress and accomplishments to them, supported by concrete metrics. 

Whether it’s tying your work back to profit or costs avoided due to favorable legislation or regulation outcomes, or showing how your contributions have boosted membership growth or engagement, one thing remains true: you can’t demonstrate tangible results without the right tools. High-performing teams leverage government relations software to prove their value across their organization. Here are six ways software can help. 

1: Streamlined Reporting: Save Time and Enhance Communication

Efficiently showcase your work by implementing streamlined reporting processes. By leveraging reporting tools, you can save valuable time and resources so you can focus on strategy and impactful actions. With FiscalNote you can easily create compelling and visual reports highlighting key legislation influenced, actions taken, stakeholder interactions, and the resulting impact on your organization’s goals and objectives. Gain an “at-a-glance” perspective of the actions you and your team have taken over a specific period of time and easily download graphics to incorporate into your reports. 

2: Measure Success: Key Metrics and Performance Indicators

Demonstrating the impact of your team’s work is only possible if you’re tracking the right metrics and performance indicators. By establishing clear goals and measurable outcomes, you can provide tangible evidence to prove your value. FiscalNote allows you to automatically track metrics such as legislative wins, policy changes, cost savings, stakeholder engagement, and public support so you can accurately quantify the value delivered by your team.

3: Optimized Workflows: Collaboration and Coordination 

Optimizing workflows and enhancing collaboration among team members is essential for maximizing the force of your team. Find a tool with seamless communication, task management, and project tracking, ensuring efforts are coordinated, redundant work is eliminated, and everyone remains aligned with strategic objectives.

4: Strategic Prioritization: Identify Opportunities and Mitigate Risks

By keeping your finger on the pulse of the world’s leading industries, you can be ready to act on new opportunities that arise from any global, state, federal, or local policy that could impact your business. 

This proactive approach allows your team to identify opportunities for proactive engagement and risk mitigation that align with your organization’s priorities, focusing on high-impact issues and leveraging their expertise for maximum influence.

5: Stakeholder Engagement: Cultivate Strong Relationships

Successful government affairs teams recognize the significance of building and nurturing strategic relationships with key stakeholders. FiscalNote’s intuitive stakeholder management solutions make it easy to target, engage, and report on activity with your most important stakeholders, from policymakers to committees to organizational contacts. Build a network of relationships that can open the right doors on critical issues by gaining access to the largest set of people data available on the market, with information on more than 200,000 elected officials and executives at the local, state, federal, and global levels. 

6: Advocacy and Mobilization: Amplify Your Impact and Influence

Government affairs professionals can amplify their impact by mobilizing support and showing strength in numbers in front of policymakers. FiscalNote’s flagship advocacy solution, VoterVoice, leverages AI and data science to help you build the most effective grassroots campaigns, target your outreach, build strategic alliances, and easily report on your success with best-in-class reports.