Recruit Political Volunteers
Volunteers are what make any political campaign possible. If you're trying to win an election or build support for a cause you believe in, you're going to need more people than just yourself. There are many places to find volunteers, and as long as you treat them well they're likely to stick with you and the campaign for a long time.
Contents
Steps
Recruiting from College Campuses
- Contact student groups at your local college. Colleges are the perfect place to recruit volunteers. They have a large population of people who are young, energetic, and generally interested in trying new things.
- Most campuses have student-run organizations that may align with your cause. For examples, they may have campus Republican or Democrat clubs, an environmental organization, or a social justice group.
- Many college students don't work full-time or even part-time, leaving them plenty of time for volunteering for causes they believe in.
- Arrange to give a presentation. Ask the club's officers if you could come in and give a presentation to their members. Let them know what your goals are, and what you're working on right now.
- Student groups often receive funding from the college. Depending on the kind of presentation you're offering you could ask for reimbursement for your travel or for your time. You could also ask if they'd sponsor snacks and refreshments for the event to help draw a crowd.
- Your presentation should address some issues that are important to you, so that the students learn about you and your current campaigns. However, make sure to explicitly include a call for volunteers at the end.
- Get coverage in a student newsletter or paper. Student newspapers are great ways to get the word out to a larger segment of the student body. You can contact the journalism department, or the organization that puts out the newspaper to see how to get included.
- Let the newspaper editor know about your current campaigns and see if they'd like to do an interview or story about your work.
- If you're doing a presentation on campus, ask if the newspaper would like to cover the event.
- It may be possible to buy ad space in the newspaper as well, if you're interested in that.
- Offer internships through the political science department. College students are always looking for internships. Let the faculty in the political science department know that you're seeking motivated college interns to help with your campaign.
- Ask the administration if it's possible for students to do the internships for credit. This can be a huge motivator for students.
- Clearly define what the duties of the internship will be. If the job sounds like an actual learning opportunity, students are more likely to sign on.
- Maximize your persuasiveness. You're likely only going to speak to these students once, so make sure your presentation is very persuasive. Make sure to tell them things that they didn't know, and to present concrete actions that you're going to take to address problems. Let them know exactly how they can help to create this change.
- Give examples that will be meaningful to the students, for example, "Did you know that the governor is planning to raise tuition at state universities like this one?"
- Offer ways they can help, such as, "We need students across the state to sign petitions and call their state congressmen to prevent these tuition hikes."
Recruiting Family and Friends
- Reach out to family and friends. Almost every campaign begins with the support of family and friends. These people already know you and want you to succeed. They're the first people you should reach out to for help when looking for volunteers.
- Be direct when asking for support. Let people know that you understand that they're busy, but would appreciate any kind of help they could offer.
- Organize a party or event for your family and friends to help you. For example, invite everyone over to your new office for a “Headquarters Setup” party. Have meaningful tasks ready for people to do when they arrive, and supply everyone with food, drinks, and gratitude.
- Social media such as Facebook and Twitter are great ways for getting the word out. However, you'll also need to make personal, individual asks. Don't rely on one mass e-mail or status update to do your recruiting for you.
- Give volunteers specific titles and roles. It may sound silly, but having a title can be a great motivator for people. It helps them feel like they're responsible for a specific task or goal. This can be especially helpful in making friends and family feel like they're really volunteering for something, not just helping you out for personal reasons. Some roles could be:
- Volunteer coordinator
- Hospitality coordinator
- Webmaster
- Office manager
- Campaign manager
- Press liaison
- Show appreciation for your volunteers. Let them know you're grateful for all of their hard work and that you couldn't do it without them. Offering a simple "thank you" is great, but if you can do more, you should. Sending appreciative individual emails can be a great way to let someone know you value their work.
- Provide snacks and refreshments for volunteers.
- Learn each person's name and a little bit about them. Treat volunteers as individuals and ask how they're doing.
- Ask your personal contacts to help recruit others. Your political campaign can't run solely on the power of your personal contacts. Ask the people closest to you if they can help bring more people into the campaign. Set a reasonable goal, such as asking if each person can recruit three to five other people.
- Your friends and family may be eager to support you for a while, but can sometimes burn out or need to take time away from the campaign to focus on their own projects. Having a robust network of volunteers means you won't be too dependent on your inner circle.
- When new volunteers sign on, be friendly and let them know you're grateful for their efforts. Get to know them and listen to their suggestions. This will help them feel appreciated so that they'll stick with the campaign.
- Accept help in a variety of forms. The people closest to you may want to help but might not have the time or energy to actually volunteer. Be gracious and accept support in whatever way they offer. Let them know you're grateful for all kind of contributions.
- Some people have plenty of money, but no time. If they want to write you a check, accept it gratefully. If you're low on volunteers, you could use the money to hire stipended staff.
- Even those with little time or money can help in some way. They could bake cookies for you to give out at the office. They could donate goods or services for you to raffle off as a fundraiser. Offer creative ideas of ways people can contribute if they're short on time.
Starting an Organization
- Reach out to recruit “captains.” To build an organization, you'll need more people than just yourself. Successful campaigns often draw support from a broad base of people. Try to diversify who's working on your campaign.
- Diversity can mean people coming from different geographical areas, labor unions, ethnic backgrounds, faith traditions, or age groups.
- Try to find one person from each group or area you're recruiting from and make them that area's captain. They can take on the responsibility of recruiting others from their area and communicating about the campaign to their community.
- Give captains specific goals. Once you have your captains, make a clear list of what you expect from them and how they can contribute to the campaign. Also, listen to their suggestions and concerns. Now that you've started an organization, you need to take others' voices into account in your organizing. Goals can include:
- Recruiting a certain number or volunteers
- Turning out specific communities on election day
- Organizing events or rallies in specific communities
- Polling a community to determine opinions on an issue
- Make the most of social media. Start a page for your organization. Try to build up a presence through a variety of platforms so that you can reach the most people. Post compelling photos and update the accounts so that people have something to follow.
- Some platforms will allow you to advertise in order to reach more people.
- You may want to hire someone or draft a specific volunteer to manage your social media accounts. It can be a large job.
- Establish a headquarters. Having a headquarters gives your organization somewhere for people to meet. Volunteers may not have the space or resources to do organizing work from home. However, if you have a comfortable office with supplies and resources, your volunteers can make use of it for meeting their goals.
- The best offices for political campaigns are on streets with plenty of foot traffic where people can walk in. This gives you a visible presence in the neighborhood and makes the campaign accessible.
- Keep the office clean and well stocked with the supplies your volunteers need. There should be informational pamphlets, paper, computers, stickers or signs, coffee and snacks.
- Host fun events for volunteers. Once you've got an organization started, hold a party or another fun event for volunteers. This is a great way for the different people in your campaign to meet and get to know each other. If the party is fun enough, people are likely to invite their friends, who may become volunteers as well.
- Even if you're operating on a shoestring budget, holding the occasional party should be a budget priority. The money you spend on pizza will come back to you in the form of enthusiastic, dedicated volunteers.
- If you truly have no funding for a party, make it a potluck, or ask a local business sympathetic to your cause if they would sponsor or cater the event.
Tips
- Avoid saying demeaning or insulting things about your political opponents. It can make you seem negative, which may turn off some potential volunteers.
- Keep volunteers busy. If people feel that they always have something to do when they show up, they're more likely to keep coming back. If they don't feel that they're doing meaningful work, they're more likely to drop off.
- Thank your volunteers regularly. Make sure they know how much you appreciate their efforts. You can even award exceptional efforts.
