The Campaign Workshop Blog

Political Direct Mail Cost: How Do I Know I'm Getting a Good Deal?

How much does political direct mail cost? How can I do it for less? This is a question that is often asked but the answer is not always as clear as it should be. To answer the question, think about cost drivers: printing, mailing and postage costs are the major driving factors when it comes to campaign mail costs. But there is more: the cost of creative, strategy and design can impact the cost per piece of your political mail.  Political direct mail costs vary anywhere from a…

Why and How to Make a Campaign Manager Contract

Whether you are a candidate who decided to run for office and you quickly found out that you couldn’t do it alone or you are a campaign staffer hired to work on a campaign and you want to make sure you know your compensation, having a campaign manager contract or other agreements is critical. As the days get longer and the campaign picks up, it’s easy to forget to formalize the campaign manager and campaign staff roles. Make sure you have a campaign manager contract or campaign staff letter of…

A Campaign Manager Is Worth Every Penny

Running for political office is a daunting task that can be exceedingly taxing without a campaign manager at the helm to help run the show. For first-time candidates in particular, getting a viable campaign off the ground is more than a full-time job. Fundraising call time alone is all-consuming, taking up to three to six hours per day of your time five days a week. With so many moving parts to a campaign, there’s no harm (but rather, lots of value) in investing in a campaign manager. A full-time manager…

Is Your Campaign Team Dysfunctional?

The dynamics within a campaign team can be really stressful, but they don’t have to be. Taking a hard look at your organization and addressing potential dysfunctions is a foundational activity for building a strong, cohesive team. One of our favorite business books is Five Dysfunctions of a Team. It’s an easy book to read, and although it’s a business book, the concepts are incredibly relevant for nonprofits and…

7 Questions with Kelley Dietrich on Campaign Trainings

Kelly Dietrich is the founder and CEO of the National Democratic Training Committee, the largest organization in the country singularly focused on providing free campaign training for Democratic candidates, staff, and local leaders. He’s spent more than twenty years in Democratic politics working campaigns all across the country at every level of government. His specialty is new campaign creation,…

Campaign Management Should Be a Two-Way Street 

Good campaign management means everyone wins. When I first started to work in politics and was running campaigns, I learned how important managing up was.  As a canvasser, the shift goals I was given were not always achievable. Even so, I wouldn’t always let the folks above me know or push back. As a canvasser, I should have felt empowered myself to manage up. The managers and field directors should have set a tone that would allow canvassers to speak up as well. If your canvassers can’t reach…

Developing Eye-Catching Digital Creative for Your Political Campaign That Engages Your Audience

When was the last time you saw something particularly eye-catching in a political campaign ad online? We spend so much of our time online these days – for work and for play – and digital ads are everywhere we look, so it’s easy for your political campaign’s creative to get lost in the shuffle. Think about how you spend your time online and what digital ads you might notice. You go to look at shoes for your child, but you don’t complete the purchase.…

Claire Stein-Ross: Strengthening Operations for Political Campaigns and Organizations

Claire Stein-Ross is the principal of CSR Operations, a consulting firm that helps organizations and political campaigns run more efficiently. During the 2018 election cycle, Claire served as the Operations Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s independent expenditure program. Her background includes five years of experience in Senator Martin Heinrich’s office, serving as…

Core Values to Drive Success

In 2013, I visited the headquarters of Zappos and learned about the impact of core values on company culture. None of the firms I had worked at previously had written core values. When I read their core values after my first visit, I was so impressed I brought my whole team at the time back to Las Vegas (see the photo of us above). Over the years we have developed a list of The Campaign Workshop’s core values that align both with the company culture we want to foster and the staff members we want to attract. When we…

What Should You Know Before Jumpstarting a Political Campaign

At The Campaign Workshop, we will often get calls from folks who are thinking about starting up a political campaign for the first time but don’t know where to begin. To get a sense of where they’re at in the process and learn more about their race, I usually ask the same four questions and then try to give them some suggestions and tips. But too often,…