How to Run for Office: Managing Your Volunteers

Invest in the people who are invested in you.

We’re fond of saying a you cannot win a campaign alone. You need help and volunteers are what turn your campaign plans into reality. A campaign without volunteers is like a sandwich without bread — you can make it work, but there’s nothing there to hold it all together.

Throughout our trainings, we stress that campaigns are about relationships. You need people invested in you in order to win an election; the only way to get that investment is by showing investment in those people, too. Keep your volunteers engaged in your campaign and show your appreciation for their time and effort and they will keep coming back.

Today, we’ll be focusing on how to manage volunteers; (FYI: for ideas on how to recruit volunteers, you can check out our blog on Finding Volunteers.)

Teamwork makes the dream work, right? Photo Credit

There are some things to keep in mind when you’re first starting to form your volunteer force:

• Build sustainable volunteer teams: a team isn’t going to work well if personalities are clashing. Be aware of who gets along with each other and what groups work best together. If you or your volunteer manager sense discontent, make a change and move forward.
• Empower and train leaders: some of your volunteers might make good team leaders with just a bit of training. If you take the time to train those leaders and give them the authority you feel they deserve, they can improve the productivity of your volunteer force.
• Delegate tasks: as much as we wish this were different, you can’t have control over everything! Find the people you trust enough to delegate tasks to. This is where a volunteer manager comes in very handy.
• Establish a culture: fostering a sense of community with your volunteers helps them feel like they belong to a group. A lot of volunteers start to feel like a family, especially once the campaign trail starts to become intense as Election Day approaches.

I believe that there’s usually a place for everyone in your campaign — the keyword here being ‘usually.’ Some volunteers are better suited for certain tasks than others, and it’s just a matter of reassigning them to those tasks.

However, there will be the occasional volunteer who is just causing a problem for everybody. Maybe this person is acting inappropriately with others in the campaign office or is improperly interacting with voters while canvassing. If this is the case, you can explore other options to see if there is work that person can do from home or in a different environment that requires less personal interaction for that volunteer.

If their behavior is just too extreme, ask them to leave. If it gets really bad, you might want to consider consulting an attorney in case you or the volunteer decides to take legal action, but that’s rarely ever a reality. Whatever you decide to do, do NOT ignore the problem!

A problem rarely ever resolves itself on the campaign trail: if you don’t do anything about it, it could potentially lead to legal action against you, bad media coverage, and generally overall harm your campaign.

On the less extreme side, you should be aware of which volunteers you decide to share sensitive information. Understandably so, not all volunteers can be trusted with voter files that contain information like home addresses, birthdates, and potentially even social security numbers. Just be aware of whom you decide to share this information with so that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

With the heavy stuff out of the way, let’s talk about why volunteers are so awesome — and why you need to tell them that they’re awesome.

Show your appreciation. Photo credit

Volunteers are doing you a favor and should never be taken for granted. They’re in your campaign office spending their Saturday mornings, Tuesday nights, and what little freetime they have to help you get elected — and they’re not even getting paid! So always, always, always say thank you!

Showing your appreciation to them through a simple acknowledgement of their efforts goes a long way. Here are just a couple of ideas on how to keep your volunteers engaged:

• No one leaves the office without being thanked in person by the candidate or staff (and asked if they would like to come volunteer again!) No exceptions.
• Personal, handwritten notes expressing your gratitude for their devotion to the campaign. It may seem insignificant to you, but a note like that can go a long way.
• Invite volunteers to events they might not be able to go to on their own; conferences, dinners, or cocktail parties that are being hosted by organizations you’re part of or elected officials who have endorsed you are a great way to bond with your volunteers outside of the campaign office.
• Get to know them. This is the most simple way to make a volunteer feel invested in your campaign. Ask about their families, what they do for a living, what their hobbies are (outside of volunteering for you, of course), and why they’ve chosen to help you into office.
• Make it social. Volunteers likely have other politically engaged friends who might come with them next time. Ask your volunteers if they have any they’d like to bring.

Having a personal stake in your volunteers’ lives contributes to a positive work environment for them and a productive volunteer force for you. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.

This blog is just a starting point for managing volunteers. If you want more advice on recruitment, management, and encouragement, you can check out our online course on volunteers.

A campaign’s most valuable (and limited) resources are time, money, and people. Volunteers are one of the most precious resources to your election — treat them as such.

Tomorrow, Urban vs. Suburban Districts.