The Campaign Workshop Blog

How to navigate the minefield of family politics during the holidays 

As folks make the trek back home for the holidays, family politics can create even more conflict. This week we took a different turn; instead of talking about political strategy which is the main focus of this blog, we asked for help on navigating family politics from the professionals. Our final interview is a deep dive into family politics with Edward Honnold; a therapist in D.C. 1. How do I stop myself from having a blow up with my relatives about family politics over the…

Navigating Family politics: How do you talk with your politically divided family? 

Going home for the holidays can be tough especially when you're anticipating the next conversation with Auntie Jean about President Donald Trump. As folks head home for the holidays, we want to make sure you're prepared to sit at the dinner table and navigate family politics with those who don't politically agree with you. We could all use some help here, so don't fret. With the help of Rev. Tim Schenck, we can all improve our family dinner conversation this…

Print Ads for Advocacy Campaigns - Do They Still Work? 

In all likelihood, when you’re hashing through communications tactics available to you for advocacy campaigns, someone will raise the idea of running a print ad (or three). With all of the options out there, it’s important to determine whether print is a smart use of your dollars. While I hesitate to say that print ads are never a useful complement to an overall advocacy program, I would urge careful consideration before deploying one. Here are a few questions you may want to walk through…

Encourage the politicos you know to unplug with the help of these book gift ideas. 

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… to help the politicos in your life step away from their screens after a crazy election cycle! Give me your tired, your email-fatigued, your news-raddled—there’s something for everyone on this list of book gift ideas. Book gift ideas for those who need to unplug. Selections cover Denmark’s approach to making time for cozy togetherness, the ways in which meditation can help keep you grounded, the case for combatting stress…

Campaign unionization is important. Just because you work on a campaign doesn't mean you can't unionize.

Campaign unionization, is it right for your campaign? It seem obvious that Democrats should be supportive of campaign unionization… right? Not necessarily. Democrats have long campaigned on being the party of the working people. For decades, we have proudly led the labor movement by fighting for higher minimum wages, pushing for better labor standards, advocating for unions and fighting against right-to-work laws. The creation of the first…

Your Issue Advocacy Campaign Startup Guide

Issue advocacy campaigns start with the best of intentions. We begin with a coalition who cares about your issue and want to make a real difference. But without a bit of campaign know-how, you will fall off track.  Here are ten common, advocacy campaign mistakes along with tips on how to avoid these errors. 10. Lacking a goal. Make sure you know what your goal is. When you're working with coalitions or…

Advocacy Strategies: Lame Duck Sessions Can Help Achieve Advocacy Goals

After election season is over, it’s easy to just want to pack up and go to the beach and shut off our political brain for a while. But across the country, as well of as well as in Congress, we are about to go into the legislative season and lame duck sessions. Now is the time to be prepared for short-term and long-term legislative and advocacy fights ahead. As we prepare for advocacy campaigns this year and next, here are some suggestions for advocacy strategies for the…

Not matter your age, you can move people to take action through community advocacy. 

Here are some great community advocacy campaigns started by young people: https://www.malala.org/ http://www.outhudson.com/ www.AlexsLemonadeStand.org https://pottest.wordpress.com/about/ As we have seen, both globally and locally, the best advocates for change are people who can tell a…

Just because your political campaign is over, doesn't mean it's the end.

Whether you won or lost your political campaign, the 2018 Election Cycle is over. Like us, you're probably pretty exhausted. These past months you've likely been getting your hands dirty and working tirelessly on your campaign cause, and we want to help you clean up both your literal and figurative mess. Here are our tips on how to end a campaign: 1. Make sure to end on a good note.  Be equally organized about your campaign clean-up as you were with your campaign plan.…

The Importance of Digital Political Ad Transparency. What Digital Ads are My Opponents Running?

Digital political ad transparency has been an elusive thing. In a world of fake news, hacked sites and independent expenditures from groups you have never heard of, actionable information on digital spending is important. For years, you have been able to find out what opponents are spending on television and radio. Now, digital publishers a re starting to focus on  digital ad transparency. They are making it easier to see what folks are doing with…