Amazing Opportunity for Organizations Encouraging Youth Civic Involvement

Civic Engagement and Grassroots Pioneer Turns 18, Announces New Contest

FAIRFAX, VA (June 2, 2004) - Capitol Advantage®, the leading provider of online advocacy tools and Congressional publications, is celebrating an anniversary today that many organizations ignore.

"Our business is dedicated to helping people change the world through civic participation", says Bob Hansan, founder and President of Capitol Advantage. "So it's logical that we would celebrate our company's 18th birthday, the age when Americans are first eligible to vote and they become constituents whose opinions matter to elected officials."

As a key part of the celebration, Hansan today announced the Capitol Advantage Youth Involvement Award, wherein the company will provide free use of its Capwiz™ suite of online advocacy and election tools for 18 months to a deserving organization. Hansan invites groups that encourage citizens aged 18-25 to participate in civic activities to apply for the award by June 18 (see details below). Short application "essays" along with links to the applicants' Web sites will be posted on the company's public service civic involvement site, Congress.org, and the public will be invited to vote. The award winner will be announced on July 18, with the winner's service to begin immediately thereafter.

Mr. Hansan started the company in 1986 to provide printed Congressional Directories to help U. S. citizens contact and visit their Members of Congress. The directory was moved online in 1996, and since then much more information and many interactive features have been added to make it easy for Americans to express opinions to their own elected officials and the media. The company supplies these grassroots advocacy services to more than 1200 associations, non-profits, corporations, media and portals, who use the service to inform and engage their members, supporters, employees and Web site visitors in the public policy debate on issues affecting them. During election season, a complete election guide is added to the service, including extensive information about candidates, their positions on the issues as provided by DNet, links to their sites, Meetup sites for each candidate, election dates and polling places, and - most importantly - voter registration.

"Speaking of youth", says Barkley Kern, Chief Executive Officer, "we stay young by doing new things. At Capitol Advantage this has meant working with Meetup.com, ensuring hand-deliveries of printed letters on Capitol Hill despite security restrictions, participating in industry discussions about the direction of political involvement activities in the next 20 years, working with the Congressional Management Foundation to assist congressional offices in effective handling of the growing numbers of constituent communications, and now creating a grant that helps groups foster the next generation of activists."

Recent milestones include reaching more than 18 million messages sent through Capwiz sites in 2003 (there's that magic number again!). This year the 10 million mark was passed in May, showing continued growth in use of Capitol Advantage tools and the Web in general.

Contest Specifics

Award: 18 months of premium Capwiz service, covering the 2004 elections as well as federal, state and local elected officials and media - valued at $25,000.

Eligibility: Nationwide organizations whose mission includes involving citizens ages 18-25 to be involved in civic activities are invited to apply. Organizations endorsing specific election candidates or already using the Capwiz tool are not eligible.

Application: Provide a 250-word (max) essay on the mission and accomplishments of your organization vis-à-vis engagement of young Americans in civic activities, including learning about issues, lobbying, media campaigns, voting, etc. Include the name of the organization, URL, and contact person with their e-mail address and telephone number. Send to: YouthAward18@capitoladvantage.com. Deadline: June 18, 2004.

Use in Publicity: The winner agrees to allow images of their Capwiz site to be used in Capitol Advantage publicity, as well as participating in publicity surrounding the award announcement.

About Capitol Advantage
Capitol Advantage supplies online solutions and publications that enable ordinary citizens to change the world through civic participation. The company was founded in 1986, and is best known for its congressional directories and for the Capwiz Advocacy System, the grassroots and election cornerstone to more than 1200 associations, issue advocacy groups and corporations across the political spectrum. Major news sites use Capwiz as well, connecting millions of citizens to their elected officials and to information about candidates for office in their districts. The Capwiz Media Network™ includes AOL®, MSN®, Yahoo!®, USA Today®, C-SPAN®, NY Times, and more than 100 other media portals. Capitol Advantage tools also facilitate voter registration, and have been used by more than 85,000 citizens to register so far this year. The company provides the Congress.org™ portal as a public service, and is the driving force behind Participate America and National Civic Participation Week. The company is privately held and is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia. Visit http://www.capitoladvantage.com.

For more information, please contact:

Susan Berger
Sr. Director of Marketing
Capitol Advantage, LLC
703-289-4670 x162
susan@capitoladvantage.com