FOIA Gen

Campaigns

In FOIA Gen, choose Campaigns. A campaign sends one of your requests to many agencies, for example every police department in a county. FOIA Gen writes a copy for each agency's own law and rules, you check them and approve once, and the emails go out a few a day. One board shows every agency's answer.

Watch the video

Campaigns3:07 video

Start a campaign

Write the request first with + New request. It can stay a draft, but then leave its own agency out of the campaign (or send the draft first), so that agency doesn't get it twice.
In Campaigns, press New campaign.
Request: choose the request to send to every agency (copies made by a campaign aren't listed), then press Next: choose the agencies.
Agencies: narrow the directory with the filters (place, level of government, type of body, how they take requests) and press Choose on each agency, or Choose every one shown. Choose at least 2. Then press Next.
Pace: give the campaign a name and choose Emails a day, from 1 to 25. They are spread through the day.
Press Create and write the copies. FOIA Gen writes a copy for each agency, one after another; keep the page open. If it stops part-way, press Write the copies to finish.

Each copy is a normal request in Requests, marked Campaign. While a campaign is sending, its email copies waiting to go out are counted under Waiting on agency, not Needs you. Open any copy to read or change it, the same way as any other draft. Leave out drops an agency; its copy is marked Left out, withdrawn and never sent.

Approve and start

Under Approve and start:

If the law in any of the chosen places asks, answer Are these records for commercial use? If you asked for faster processing, tick that your statement of urgency is true.
Tick I approve sending these emails as described above (it shows how many).
Press Start campaign.

One approval covers every email in the campaign. After Start campaign, FOIA Gen sends each email copy at the pace you chose without asking you again, from that copy's own request address. You can pause or cancel at any time.

The board

Open a campaign from the Campaigns list to see its board.

Sent	Copies that have gone to the agency. Each one is now a request of its own, with its deadlines, replies and History.
Waiting to send	Email copies still to go out at the campaign's pace.
You submit	Agencies that take requests only by portal or by post, so FOIA Gen can't send them. They are listed under Submit these yourself: open each one, press Continue the draft, then Review and send to get the portal's fields ready to copy or the letter to print and post.
Need you	Copies where the agency has asked a question or sent a fee estimate.
Couldn't send	Copies that failed, or whose sending couldn't be confirmed. FOIA Gen never sends one again by itself: open it, check, and send it yourself if it didn't go.

The table lists every agency with its status, next deadline and tracking number. Open opens that copy.

Pause stops sending until you press Resume. Whoever resumes a campaign becomes the approver of the copies that are left. Cancel campaign withdraws every copy not yet sent; copies already sent carry on as normal requests.

Who can use it

Owners, admins, publishers and members of the project can make, start, pause and cancel campaigns. Viewers can see every campaign and its board but can't change anything.

What it costs

Writing the copies uses a little AI credit for each agency, shown in your usage under FOIA Gen. Each email copy counts towards your account's 50 FOIA emails a month, with your other requests, follow-ups and appeals. A campaign can go to at most 50 agencies.

If something goes wrong

When a campaign stops, the board says why, and the person who approved it gets an email (or whoever made the campaign, when the approver can no longer send from the project). It follows their Email me setting in the Inbox: right away, in the daily digest, or not at all.

Campaigns aren't switched on yet	Sending requests from FOIA Gen isn't switched on for your workspace. Send the request to each agency with + New request instead.
Stopped: this account has sent its 50 FOIA emails for this month	The campaign stops at the monthly limit and carries on by itself on the 1st of the month (UTC), or press Resume then.
Stopped: the person who approved this campaign can no longer send from this project	Someone who can write requests in the project presses Resume; they become the approver of the copies that are left.
Stopped: Sending from FOIA Gen isn't switched on yet, or Campaigns have been switched off	Nothing more is sent until sending or campaigns are switched back on for your workspace and someone presses Resume.
The campaign skipped this copy	That agency's email address was missing or the copy couldn't be sent by email. The reason is shown on the board; open the copy and send it another way.

Signed in to VeraGen? Press Guide me on any screen for a walkthrough, or ask Odin.