A Political voice for underprivileged and those who can't assert their fundamental rights
Organizing for Action to Effect Changes
Changes can't happen unless a strong campaign that lead to a kind of a revolution happens. A revolution can't happens without a strong coordination of roles and responsibilities related to the campaign. A campaign is only successfully if each functions related to the campaign is performed properly – and if one role is neglected, chances of survival are slim. Therefore, hiring well-skilled and strong campaign actors is the key in the success of actions designed to effect changes. The following functions must be filled up. Depending on the type and size of campaign, in some cases two functions can be filled by one person.
Campaign Actors
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Campaign Managers
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Political Director
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Communications Director
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Finance Director
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Field Director
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Scheduler/Executive Assistant
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Structure of Campaign Roles & Duties
Campaign Planning
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Planning Your Online Campaign
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Essential Tools and Infrastructure: Creating a Basic Online Campaign
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Preparing an Outreach Outreach Strategy
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Social Media
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Online Advertising
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Grassroots and Field Organizing
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Mobilization and GOTV
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Online Fundraising
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Data and Analytics
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Logistics, Budget and Staffing
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Ten Big Trends to Watch in the 2016 Digital Campaign
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A Sample Online Campaign Plan
5 Team Members We Need the Most in Our Campaign (of Evangelization)
One of the most important parts of any campaign organization is the campaign team — those individuals that the candidate relies on to carry the campaign to victory. While all campaigns are different, and thus have different needs when it comes to campaign organization, there are five positions that must be filled on any campaign, no matter how small. Some campaigns may be small enough that one person can serve in two of the positions, but each job must be done and done right. Whether the job is filled by a paid staff member or a volunteer, each of the following job descriptions is integral to the success of your campaign:
1. Campaign Manager
After the candidate, the campaign manager is the most important member of the campaign team. The candidate should never, ever function as the campaign manager, no matter how small the campaign is. The candidate needs to be free to meet the voters and donors and be out on the campaign trail.
The campaign manager is responsible for all aspects of the campaign. The person you choose for this job should have a basic understanding of election strategy, be comfortable delegating, have good organizational skills and be able to work well with the candidate. The campaign manager works in conjunction with the candidate and the entire team to develop the campaign strategy and coordinate all aspects of the organization, from fundraising to paid media to voter contact activities.
2. Volunteer Coordinator
Above all, the person you choose to be the volunteer coordinator must be a people person. Working with volunteers is stressful, and requires diplomacy and patience. The volunteer coordinator is responsible for recruiting, scheduling, and organizing the volunteer team. Because volunteers are not paid and are often unskilled, the coordinator needs to be able to smooth over egos and trouble spots and effectively teach the volunteers new skills. The volunteer coordinator should be comfortable delegating duties to precinct and ward captains, especially in larger election districts.
3. Fundraising Director
The fundraising director is responsible for coordinating all of the fundraising tools at the campaign’s disposal to reach the fundraising goal that the team has set on the timetable on which they have set it. The fundraising director guides the campaign’s major donor and direct mail fundraising programs, and oversees fundraising events. In smaller campaigns that cannot afford an accountant or election lawyer, the fundraising director must have a basic knowledge of campaign finance regulations.
4. Finance Chairman
Though they are often confused, the finance chairman fills an entirely different role than the fundraising director. The finance chairman, along with the finance committee, is responsible for bringing in major donor contributions. Generally, the finance chairman contributes a certain amount to the campaign, and pledges to raise a significant amount from other donors. While the finance chairman may be involved in fundraising planning sessions, he or she does not run the fundraising organization — that job is left to the fundraising director, who takes care of the organization and day-to-day details of the fundraising program.
5. Grassroots Coordinator
The grassroots coordinator oversees all of the grassroots activities of the campaign, including coalitions, get out the vote, absentee voter drives, voter registration efforts, and other grassroots activities. In most larger campaigns, these activities are each assigned a staff member of their own, but in local campaigns it is generally sufficient to have one grassroots coordinator who oversees the whole operation, with volunteers filling in as needed. The grassroots coordinator must have superb organizational skills, be knowledgeable about campaign strategy, and be able to take on a lot of responsibility, especially as election day draws near.
The following questions are more than relevant and finding answer to these questions would lead us in digging at the root of the problem we face in the campaign advocacy. They provide opportunities in he course of finding solutions in regard of best practices that would work for our organization. The solutions must take in consideration communications platform that have features that connect advocates with legislators in order the organization reach its policy goals. The solutions must also take in consideration the campaign managing needs that includes membership management, and fundraising management.
1. What communication channels and/or platforms should we be using? Email, social media, phone calls, physical mail or in-person? All are viable options for a campaign and will be used together in our campaign in some manner, it’s about understanding where our advocates are and how they will take action. Read more about leveraging Facebook for advocacy campaigns.
2. What metrics should we be tracking? We should always be tracking as much data as possible and using it to build future campaigns.
3. Is our messaging working to engage members throughout the year? Organizations engage with their advocates on some level all year -this article explores the importance of email engagements to your membership.
4. Where do our mission and business goals align?
5. Do we need to A/B test emails and messaging?
6. What kind of in-person events or groundwork do we need to do? While digital advocacy and leveraging your supporters to take action online are incredibly important in today’s world, your organization can’t forget to engage with them in person and have a solid outreach program. Offering members the opportunity to join membership committees or other volunteer positions is a great way to enhance their in-person engagement.
7. Is the process easy enough for our advocates? What does our “advocacy funnel” look like? Really think about the path your advocates take when coming to an action center or landing page to take action.
8. How should we be educating our advocates on the issues and legislation? Enough can’t be said about having an informed advocacy base. The more they understand the issues the more confident they’ll be when it’s time to take action. Provide our advocates with opportunities to learn more about relevant policy issues by keeping them updated through email newsletters, an organization blog or podcast, or hosting seminars for your members.
9. What story should we be telling? For some answers and even more questions read this article from The Campaign Workshop to see how an advocacy leader answers 6 questions on advocacy storytelling.
10. How can we tap into what motivates our advocates?
11. Who are our best advocates and what engages them?
12. How do we communicate to our advocates if we don’t reach our legislative goals? Sometimes things don’t always work out and it can take years to achieve certain policy goals. It’s always important that you communicate in a way that keeps your advocates energized.
13. Are we communicating the right incentives to make people take action?
14. Are we setting the right objectives for our end goal? Advocacy campaigns are not a sprint, but a marathon (or maybe a relay race?) it’s important to set objectives that create a path to your end goal.
15. In what ways can we grow our network and strengthen our coalition? Watch the first part of this video series we did with Brian Cannon of OneVirginia2021 to see how they approached growing their advocacy network for their campaign against gerrymandering.
16. How flexible is our campaign strategy?
17. What are organizations with similar policy goals doing and what’s our opposition doing? It’s especially important to research organizations with similar advocacy goals as you can possibly create a coalition to strengthen your advocacy efforts.
18. Are we providing our advocates with enough support? Reaching out to an elected official can be intimidating - especially to the uninitiated. Make sure you and/or your team are able to support new advocates through the process with encouraging resources.
19. What are the key roles in our advocacy team and how do they function?
20. Do we have all the necessary tools to ensure success? There’s a plethora of software options, online tools, and extensions for advocacy, email, analytics, and graphic design. Make sure everything is working for you and is bettering your advocacy efforts.
20. Are we speaking to all of our stakeholders and advocates with our messaging?
The above stated questions are relevant to those engaged in the advocacy campaign. The more we ask, the deeper can dig at the root of the problem. These questions require solutions and best practices that will work for our organization. It is our believe that in this digital edge, digital solutions for advocacy campaigns would be the best option. Which digital platform would fit the need of our organization? We believe Muster software would respond to our need as the platform does features that connect advocates with legislators and helping organization reach their policy goals. But the organization also needs other digital platforms to uncover all the campaign management needs.