The ROI of a Lobbyist Registry

Return on Investment – the act of dividing your return (benefit) by the investment (cost). This performance measure can be used to directly advise decision makers on the relative value of investing in a product or service. For most municipalities, any investment must be accompanied by a ROI calculation to determine the return on public dollars spent. This is a common exercise, particularly for municipal leaders tasked with solving known problems, as both the benefit and cost are relatively easy to understand. But what about identifying and understanding these figures for a problem that the municipality has never sought to solve before? Such is the case for a municipal lobbyist registry, a tool gaining interest across the country but still very much in its infancy in terms of adoption. Only a handful of municipalities have taken the leap to bring on a lobbyist registry, and the approaches have differed significantly. While some have opted to work with external vendors or develop in-house solutions at considerable upfront and ongoing costs, others have created low-tech/low-cost systems that require frequent manual intervention from municipal staff. While the jury is indeed still out on the best solution, the outcome of the ROI equation certainly changes depending on which approach a municipality chooses. As such, and with the new fiscal year just weeks away, we thought it was a perfect time for us to share the ROI for our product, Lobby Registry: