How to Find Campaign Volunteers and Earn their Support

Volunteers are the lifeblood of political campaigns. Cash-strapped campaigns are always in need of extra man power and motivated, properly trained volunteers can be worth their weight in gold. Here’s how you can find, manage, and retain volunteers for your campaign.

Finding Volunteers

Step one is pretty obvious; before you can manage or retain volunteers, you’ve got to recruit them. I use the word recruit intentionally because most ot the time, you won’t just stumble into somebody looking to work hard and give up their time. Sure, those kinds of saints walk the earth, but your campaign won’t go far if you’re just hoping to find those diamonds in the rough.

Instead, you will need a proactive plan to find and recruit volunteers. Your plan should start with the Ask. Most of us don’t like to be blunt with people. We beat around the bush and don’t get to the point when we’re trying to get something from somebody. If you want your campaign to be successful, get over that impulse now. You need to learn how to ask people for their contributions, their vote, and their time volunteering.

Rather than passively saying “we could really use some help around here”, directly ask potential volunteers something like “Will you help me go door to door talking to voters this Saturday?” State your requests in the form of a question, not just a vague suggestion. Once you make the ask, be silent and wait for them to respond to your question. But of course, who do you ask to volunteer?

First, talk to your friends and family. The people that know you best and that you spend the most time with should be willing to help your campaign. If they won’t, perhaps you should rethink if your candidacy is the best decision. Once you’ve recruited this level of acquaintance, reach out to the next level; ask members of your church, people you work with, fellow alumni from college and high school for their help. Then reach out to neighbors, civic groups (local party/tea party/rotary/etc), and past campaign volunteers. Finally, consider recruiting at local events, like fairs, political conferences, and community events.

Lean on the personal relationships you have already formed to not only get volunteers but to make connections to potential volunteers. Ask your network of friends and family to recommend people to contact.

Keep track of who you have talked to and what they have committed to do, whether it’s to introduce you to someone else, or to come in and spend time volunteering. Once you’ve started to find people ready to volunteer, it’s time to activate them as soon as possible and manage their efforts.

Managing Your Volunteer Talent

Have you ever worked for a boss that didn’t manage his or her employees well? Bad management can stifle creativity, drive talented people away, and waste opportunities. You can recruit the best volunteers anyone has ever seen, but if you can’t manage them properly, you might as well be doing the work yourself.

First and foremost, be responsive and communicate clearly to your volunteers. Follow up to their emails and calls as quickly as possible. Don’t leave them hanging, because they probably have better things to do with their time than give you their free labor. Once someone agrees to volunteer, be ready with an activity! If you ask somebody for help, then don’t have anything for them to do for days or even weeks, you’re likely going to lose them, wasting all the time you spent recruiting.

There’s always things that need to be done, so be ready with a response. Keep a running list of tasks that your team has access to so that everyone on the campaign has a resource to reference if a volunteer asks to work. The more directly and quickly an employee can be given a task, the better for everyone.

Most volunteers aren’t ready to hit the ground running. Everybody needs a little training to better understand the campaign processes, the issues at stake in the election, and what they’re likely to engage with while volunteering. Make sure they know how to be approachable, have a professional appearance, and are ready to address common talking points. They don’t need to be thoroughly vetted and trained like a professional spokesperson, but recognize that they will represent your campaign in the field, and you can prepare them.

Keep Volunteers Coming Back

Congratulations, you’ve found a good group of volunteers! Now how do you keep them from quitting? I’ve seen it firsthand: campaigns take advantage of the good will of volunteers, expecting them to act like paid employees, running them into the ground, and burning them out before the election even gets close. By treating your volunteers well, engaging with them personally, and recognizing and rewarding their hard work, you can make you campaign a labor of love, rather than a burden.

I’ll say it one more time; don’t waste your volunteers’ efforts. Start events on time, avoid delays whenever possible, and respect the fact that they are giving freely of their time. Be grateful and manage their time like the valuable resource that it is.

Volunteers’ time is like receiving money from a campaign donor. Volunteers are giving you time that could be spent making money, spending time with family, or a million other activities and they’re choosing to give it to the campaign, basically as a donation.

When appropriate, explain the big picture to your volunteers. You don’t need to let them in on confidential campaign strategies, but explain why their work is important to the bigger picture of your effort. What’s the point of knocking on doors in this neighborhood and contacting these voters? Why are we stuffing endless envelopes? Letting people know how their work fits into the strategy of the campaign reveals the value of their actions, encouraging volunteers and showing them how important they are to the campaign.

Next, make sure to get feedback from your volunteers. You don’t need group therapy sessions, but check in and see what they think. Many volunteers have worked on other campaigns and might have insights that could help your efforts. They might hear something while going door-to-door that could bring up an issue you hadn’t considered. You don’t need to be volunteer directed, but make sure they know their input is valued.

Finally, reward your volunteers for their hard work. That’s not to say pay your volunteers, but rather recognize their exceptional contributions to the campaign. That can be as simple as buying pizza after a long afternoon of knocking doors or making phone calls. Just the act of thanking someone and sharing a meal can communicate what they mean to your election efforts.

One campaign I worked on rewarded the volunteers with the most calls with a BBQ with the candidate’s family. This didn’t cost the campaign much, but it was hugely motivating for volunteers and very rewarding to those we recognized. The office had a big chart, displaying their names for all to see. I can’t tell you how many people made calls just to see their name move up the leaderboard.

At their core, many people just want to be recognized and thanked for their contributions. You’ll be surprised how far you can get just by being thankful and highlighting the contributions of volunteers.

Want more?

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