Campaign Plan 06 - Political Organizing & Grassroots
If you have made it this far, you have come a long way towards a complete campaign plan. With your campaign organization, message, and budget developed, you can now move on to political organizing and grassroots operations. Ultimately, the vote comes down to the people, and it is critical to prioritize that through the whole election.
Team-Building
A key part of political organizing is developing and building relationships with like-minded groups and organizations. Write down a list of organizations and civic groups in your area that you can reach out to. Any personal connections you have with these groups are even better. You cannot run a successful grassroots operation without volunteers, so find partnerships and utilize personal connections that will help you fundraise and recruit volunteers as you scale your grassroots operation.
Grassroots Plan
In the grassroots plan, map out the number of doors, phone calls, texts, and other outreach needed for your campaign. From these numbers, calculate the volunteers, volunteer shifts, and events necessary each week and month until election day. Stay accountable to the goals you have set, and keep your data organized in every phase of the campaign.
For example, in a district of 80,000 people and a vote goal of 16,444, you might have a goal of 10,000 doors, 12,000 phones, and 15,000 texts in one round of contact.
Next, divide the contact goals by the months of outreach to find your monthly goals. From these goals, estimate the volunteers and volunteer shifts you will need by taking the average volunteers you expect at each event and the number of contacts each volunteer will reach out to in a shift. Afterward, you should have something like this:
Note: Chart based on 1 round of contacts, 4 months of outreach, and 7 volunteers at each event. A more detailed chart will specify monthly goals, an aim to have multiple rounds of outreach (especially texting), and more outreach close to the election.
As your campaign grows, add additional details into your plan. Be creative with how volunteers can help. For instance, if a volunteer wants to help from home, that person can reach out to their friends and talk to their neighbors over the phone or through social media. Good campaigns respect their volunteers, reward them, and clearly communicate to maximize their impact. Make sure you have plans in place to reward volunteers and show them appreciation.
Grassroots planning should include:
- Command Structure for staff, volunteer leaders, and volunteers
- Goals for every form of outreach
- Roles and functions available for volunteers
- Data flow and collection
- Volunteer Recruitment
- Volunteer Training
- Volunteer Appreciation
- And more
If you would like assistance creating a grassroots plan, contact us about our Grassroots Calculator which can help create daily and monthly goals for volunteers, volunteer shifts, doors, phone calls, and texts.
Have any more questions on setting up your political campaign? If interested in learning more and getting involved by running for office, contact us at:roosevelt.tech
May 30, 2023
Updated June 17, 2023
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