The Campaign Workshop Blog

ActBlue: Increase Your Campaign Fundraising

ActBlue is a nonprofit organization that aims to increase public participation in politics primarily through grassroots campaign fundraising. Their grassroots political fundraising tool allows Democratic and progressive campaigns and organizations to increase their individual donations and build a grassroots-funded movement. This political campaign fundraising tool allows your campaign or organization to do its own interaction and engagement while taking away the stress of fundraising logistics. On…

How Do I Know Which Nonprofit Consultant Is Right for Me? 

Anyone who has worked in the nonprofit industry for long enough will tell you that it is full of quirks and choosing the nonprofit consultant that is right for you is no easy task. Time and time again, we have nonprofit clients come to TCW after hiring the wrong firm. Every nonprofit is different, and you want to make sure you are hiring a consultant that is best suited to deal with your particular set of needs.  Here are some tips for how to hire the right nonprofit consultant for you…

Grassroots Movement During a Pandemic - Build for the Future

We originally wrote this blog post on how to build a grassroots movement in 2016, and it’s amazing how much things have changed in the last four years. For most campaigns in 2016, canvassing was still the go-to way to build your grassroots movement and was a tried and true way of connecting with people. Some smaller campaigns had built their entire programs around a relentless canvass strategy and talking to every voter in their turf. But due to the onset of the global pandemic,…

Legislative Advocacy Kickoff 

For many issues, legislative advocacy is the best and only way to bring about real change. But there’s a lot of different ways to engage in legislative advocacy. There’s the traditional “inside game” where you work to provide resources and information to lawmakers. There’s also the “outside game” where you work with a network of volunteers to provide pressure on legislators from the outside. And…

Measure Your Impact with Direct Mail Testing

Direct mail testing can strengthen your voter contact efforts in the long run by revealing what works and what doesn’t through concrete data. If you want to glean insights from your program, setting up an experiment is worth the time and resources, no matter the size or scope of your campaign. The worst-case scenario from testing is that your results are inconclusive—that’s a pretty great outcome when the alternative to testing is learning nothing at all. So, let’s talk about why you should test,…

Campaign Job Descriptions To Build My Campaign Team.

Once you’ve decided to run for office, one of the first things you’ll have to do is think about campaign structure. Define your campaign roles paid and unpaid and write out campaign job descriptions that will help you build a winning campaign team. A candidate’s campaign staff is incredibly important in making a campaign not only successful but also more manageable and fun for the candidate and everyone else involved. Depending on what office you’re running for and the size of your campaign,…

Membership Surveys: 7 Questions with Pollster Ruth Bernstein 

Ruth Bernstein is president and CEO at EMC Research, a national polling and opinion research firm. Ruth leads polling on a wide variety of political, policy, and marketing projects. She is especially proud of her work helping to elect women and people of color to office and securing voter approval for education, transportation, minimum wage increases, and environmental protection. We asked Ruth 7 questions on membership surveys and how they can benefit your organization. 1. What are…

Campaign Manager: Find the Right Manager for Your Campaign

Hiring the right campaign manager may be the most important choice you make as a candidate. Your campaign manager is the lifeblood of your campaign. He or she doesn’t need to always be out front or be the face of your political campaign, but he or she does need to be prepared to do anything for you to advance your run for office. The first thing to look for when hiring a campaign manager is competence and the second is a personal connection. You really need to ask two questions: “Can I…

Becoming a Political Candidate Is No Small Undertaking

Before any runner steps up to the starting blocks, there are months and months of preparation done to ensure they are ready. The same goes for a political candidate deciding to run for office. Here’s a self-assessment guide that’s a follow up to our e-book Are You Ready to Run for Office? and can help potential first-time candidates make a thoughtful decision. We admire anyone who is willing to…

Political Photography- Eight tips for Winning Campaign Photographs 

Political photography is a critical element for any political, independent expenditure ballot measure or member engagement campaign . A picture is worth a thousand words, especially in the world of political communications, where space is limited, and readers’ attention spans are minimal. This means that the images you choose for your campaign are…

Why do you want to run for office? Do you have a good answer?

A run for office is not easy. Once you’ve decided to run for office you will need to answer the question “why are you running?” For some it is an easy question to answer because you’re running to solve a particular problem and have a passion for the work that needs to be done in a particular office. For others, the answer may be murkier. Knowing the reason(s) behind your run for office and what your goals is once you are elected is critical to being a successful candidate. Having a…

Your Political Direct Mail Can Be Eco-Friendly 

Political direct mail is one of the most effective ways to reach voters, but I’ll be the first to admit: all that paper takes a toll on our environment. At The Campaign Workshop, we’re passionate about protecting our natural world—luckily for us, so are a lot of the printers we work with. I won’t get lost in the weeds here on the eco-friendly certifications print shops are pursuing, but I’ll give you a quick low-down to put your mind at ease. TL;DR: You can run a direct mail program for your…

 * © Photo by Stacy Beck

What Resources and Direct Actions Can You Take for Racial Justice?

This past week we've seen folks across the country come together, demanding criminal justice and police reform. Here at The Campaign Workshop, we stand with those fighting systemic and institutionalized racism in our country. We are taking a critical look at ourselves to change and grow into better advocates for Black lives. There is a lot of work to be done, but police violence against Black communities must end.  We need to elect government officials…

Digital Advocacy Campaign - What Metrics Should I Care About?

Every digital advocacy campaign is different and has unique goals. Therefore, there are a variety of metrics that you should focus on depending on your goals. There is not a one-size-fits-all benchmark or metric to track the success of every digital advocacy campaign. For example, if you are running a donations campaign to raise money for your cause, the metrics you track will be very different from the metrics you would track if you were running an accountability campaign. It’s…

Lincoln Mitchell - How Political & Social Movements in 1978 Transformed San Francisco

Lincoln Mitchell is a political analyst and writer based in New York and San Francisco. In his book, San Francisco Year Zero: Political Upheaval, Punk Rock and a Third Place Baseball Team, Mitchell explores how San Francisco became a city of contradictions as one of the most socially liberal cities with some of the worst income inequality in the United States. As a native of San Francisco, he explores 3 key events from 1978 from a personal and political…