What’s one thing you can never have enough of as a political organization? Ok, financial resources, yes—but the answer we’re looking for in this email is volunteers.
Volunteers are the lifeblood of your organization. As you continue to grow your organization and prepare for November, we’re here to share what we’ve found to work when recruiting volunteers:
- Digital Ads: Emotionally persuasive digital ads targeting center-right individuals don’t always have to have the call-to-action of donating—you can run the same types of ads with a call for people to volunteer. These are often even more effective because not everyone can give money, but many will be willing to pledge to take a yard sign, walk in a parade, attend an event, or join a volunteer crew. Use compelling messages and images that elicit emotion, then make it easy for them to sign up to take action.
- Telecom: You should be communicating directly with center-right voters in your region regularly over telecom. This used to mean robocalls, which still work in some cases, but now it’s mostly driven by texting. This low-cost outreach can inform these voters of things you need them to be aware of, invite them to attend events, and encourage them to volunteer in some capacity.
- Email: While those on your email list are likely already part of your volunteers, their friends and family may not be. Prepare an emotionally compelling email with a strong call-to-action, send it to your list, and encourage them to forward the email to their contacts. This friend-to-friend outreach will give you access to a whole new batch of potential volunteers.
- Local High Schools and Colleges: Many high schools and local colleges have political clubs or offer credits for volunteering, and while young people on average lean further left, that doesn’t mean every single one of them favors Democrats. Make internship and volunteer opportunities available to these students and bring a new level of excitement and energy into your organization.
- Senior Centers: The Republican Party has done a poor job of reaching seniors lately. We need to do better, especially because many seniors have time available to volunteer. While they may have some restrictions on the activities they can physically participate in, there is plenty they can do, including running check in at events, contacting voters over the phone, organizing data, staffing campaign headquarters, or even sending text messages.
It’s important you create an environment and culture that makes volunteers want to come back. Make sure your volunteers feel like a valued part of the team. Praise your volunteers on social media, at events, or in emails. Showing people that being a volunteer is fun and rewarding.
These efforts work! We’ve run dozens of successful recruitment campaigns for grassroots organizations. See 2 recent case studies from efforts we supported with the St. Clair County Republicans and DuPage County Republicans.
