Grassroots to Lawncare: Building a Successful Campaign Part Two

In Part One, I introduced the requirements for building a grassroots campaign and how it’s similar to growing a lawn. The following post is a continuation of that, getting from simple grass seeds to fine hairs of grass growing all over the place, and how that relates to an election.

We last ended on the subject of volunteer recruitment and its importance to the campaign. These volunteers will be instrumental. They will also be the first signs of your success not unlike the first hairs of grass that sprout. For those unfamiliar with seeding a lawn, if all your seed hasn’t been washed away, the first grass that grows will be sparse hairs of individual blades. These can be compared to your volunteers: the first sign your campaign has life will be the ability to recruit and maintain volunteers.  With tasks like making phone calls and door-knocking to placing yard signs, the first few “hairs” of your campaign growth will begin to sprout.

There are three key positions that should be filled by competent, capable people as soon as you can find them. Not only will they be very useful in getting things done, you will have more time to focus on other things because of the inherent nature of delegation. All three of these positions can be maintained by either a paid staffer or by volunteers. Take note: all three of these positions can be quite time consuming (even up to full-time jobs in some campaigns), so make sure that a volunteer understands this and knows the commitments her or she is getting into.

Volunteer Coordinator: This person should, preferably, be someone you know well. They should also have had some kind of organizing experience in the past and be very detail oriented.

Events Chair: This person should be someone who has had experience organizing large and small events. They should be someone who knows venues, contacts, and organizations that might be helpful for organizing events. Make sure they also understand all the legal and logistical requirements for event hosting.

Treasurer: This person should know how to use a budget and how to raise funds. This person should also be able to learn and apply all the various election laws that apply to your campaign.

American Majority President Matt Robbins gives a full presentation on this topic which can be found here.