manage or work on an electoral campaign

About the Conversation

If you organize with a base-building organization, then chances are you already know what it’s like to be part of a “political home”—a community space that fosters feelings of belonging and trust among its members. These spaces help people make sense of the world, connect with others who share their values and beliefs, and take collective action towards changing the problems they experience in their communities. 

Across our movement, political homes play a critical role in building long-term power by creating habitual voters and developing long-term leaders. Yet there has been very little research to explore what makes a base-building organization a political home, why they are so important to movement building and how our organizations can embody the practices of a political home. 

Join us as we engage in a Community Conversation with Katrina Gamble—re:power Board member, researcher and political strategist—who will share her research and findings about political homes. Katrina and her team conducted listening sessions with members of community organizations in Louisiana, Wisconsin and California to understand how the concept of political home resonated across geography, organization type and levels of engagement. You can read more about Katrina and her work below.

Closed captioning will be available during this webinar.

About the Speaker

Katrina Gamble
Founder & CEO, Sojourn Strategies | re:power Board Member

Katrina Gamble is founder and CEO of Sojourn Strategies, an all women run social impact consulting firm. She is a researcher and political strategist who brings more than 15 years of experience working at the intersection of social justice policy and elections.  Katrina has deep and extensive relationships with grassroots organizations across the country and has combined that network with her campaign experience to support successful pro-democracy campaigns across the country. Prior to founding Sojourn she served as the Political Director at the Center for Popular Democracy where she created and launched a national Voting Rights & Democracy Program. Before moving into the social advocacy space, Katrina was an Assistant Professor at Brown University where she researched and taught classes on congressional politics, social movements, and race and ethnic politics. She has a PhD and MA from Emory University and BA from Smith College.  

Katrina is from the desert southwest (Arizona) but currently lives in Washington, DC with her wife. When she’s not tending to her garden in DC she enjoys traveling and exploring other cultures; so far she’s visited 44 countries.

About the Webinar

As organizers, we all know that the campaign plan is a critical tool for successful campaigning. What’s not always clear is what the various components are and how to bring them all together into one cohesive plan. re:power’s Nuts & Bolts of Campaign Planning will provide organizers and campaign managers with a basic overview of running an electoral campaign by breaking down the key ingredients of a campaign plan.

This free 90 minute webinar will focus on ensuring that participants understand the essential components of a campaign plan and how to bring all the pieces together. By attending, you will also get a chance to hear more about re:power’s Civic Engagement programs, including Camp re:power where you can deepen your campaigning skills!

If you’re new to campaign planning or if you need a refresher, this is the webinar for you!

Closed captioning will be available during this webinar.

About the Speaker

Diana Flora
CEO of North Arrow Consulting, LLC

As the CEO of North Arrow Consulting, LLC, Diana Flora offers policy and data analysis, research, and strategy consulting for mission-driven organizations and candidates for elected office. Her experience spans 15 years of advising on more than 20 progressive campaigns, from school board to state-wide operations, including managing political operations for Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. Diana is committed to data-driven and field-focused strategies that prioritize compassionate organizing at scale. Her expertise in analytics and field strategy is rooted in the belief that transformative change can only be achieved by centering the needs and experiences of marginalized communities.

Overview

As we head into another high-intensity election year, re:power’s Campaign School for Field Directors is designed to build the capacity of campaigns to run effective field programs. This 4-part training series will focus on ensuring that field directors gain the skills and tools needed to determine field strategy and goals. This includes recruiting, hiring and managing field staff, voter targeting and contact, messaging and persuasion, and utilizing digital tools for organizing.

Who is this course for?

• Directors who can facilitate inclusive, productive and positive work environments
• Folks who have 4+ years of organizing experience
• Experienced managers with strong interpersonal and organizational communication skills
• Leaders with a commitment to racial, gender and economic equity 
• Previous experience working in metrics-driven campaigns for direct voter contact

Ideal applicants come from all walks of life, from seasoned organizers and campaigners looking to sharpen their skills, to beginners who are passionate about organizing and want to start their learning journey. Here are some attributes shared by all our applicants:

Appetite for learning: Whether you have experience in organizing or not, we are interested in organizers and campaign practitioners who are eager to develop their skills further and are committed to learning and growth.

Organizing insight: You don’t need to be a professional politico, but we’re looking for applicants with experience doing organizing work on the ground. That work can be tied to grassroots, electoral, and/or issue organizing. We seek to support organizers who are currently part of a campaign effort or are seeking to build one. 

Dedication to inclusive politics and intersectional solutions: At re:power, we center race, class, gender and sexuality across all our trainings – it’s part of our practice of inclusive politics. We want organizers to be open to new ideas regarding it and to the ideas and contributions from their fellow organizers who will reflect our diverse communities.

Course Expectations

This is an interactive course. We ask participants to write in the chat box, share verbally, and participate in breakout group discussion. We understand that folks have a lot going on though, so if you are not able to participate in a breakout discussion you can let the tech moderator know. We encourage, but do not require, participants to turn on video during breakout discussions.

Lesson Plan

Overview a Field Plan and DVC Basics

Why do you need a field plan and field team to be successful? This course will be an overview of what consists of a field plan, how to create your “North Star” i.e. your campaign Win Number, and will discuss the basics of direct voter contact. 

Targeting Voters & VAN

During this course, we will break down how you target who are the best voters to talk to, as well as how to use the Voter Activation Network (VAN) and navigating it’s limitations. 

Base Building and Digital Tools

Up to this point, we will have identified how to determine your win number,  what should be in a field plan, the basics of direct voter contact, and how to target voters. This course will explore how you build an inclusive base of support and how to craft what you say to your base once you have identified them. 

Developing Your Team

This last course will take everything we’ve covered from previous courses and walk you through best practices on how to build and manage a team you will need to execute your field plan.

Overview

Campaign Management Bootcamp is an accelerated version of re:power academy’s signature program the Advanced Campaign Management School (ACMS). The Bootcamp will be an intensive 4 week, 8 course, virtual training curated to teach experienced leaders the fundamentals of how to manage a progressive state or national-level electoral race. 

Participants will learn from campaigners and operatives the skills necessary to hit the ground running as a campaign manager. Modules will focus on field operations, fundraising and budgeting, digital and comms, data and targeting, and leadership. The training will be grounded in a framework of inclusive politics. For us, that means we’ll apply a lens of race, class, and gender to all aspects of campaign management and strategy, and we will ask that you do as well, because it’s a part of how we can run and win grassroots campaigns and build political power for our communities.

Who is this course for?

The Campaign Management Bootcamp is geared toward training experienced mid and senior level career organizers. There are a few other key attributes we look for in our applicants and those include:

• Folks who have played key staff roles on political campaigns and are looking to hone their skills and move into a managerial position
• Folks who have managed at least one campaign and are looking to improve upon those skills
• Folks who are making transition from managing issue organizing campaigns to working for a candidate.
• Folks who are proud and comfortable to center race, gender, class, and sexual orientation and identity during all of our training. Our trainees will be managing campaigns for candidates by building a coalition of the willing and we want them to be open to discussion from folks of different backgrounds, experiences, geographies and organizing philosophies

Ideal applicants come from all walks of life, from seasoned organizers and campaigners looking to sharpen their skills, to beginners who are passionate about organizing and want to start their learning journey. Here are some attributes shared by all our applicants:

Appetite for learning: Whether you have experience in organizing or not, we are interested in organizers and campaign practitioners who are eager to develop their skills further and are committed to learning and growth.

Organizing insight: You don’t need to be a professional politico, but we’re looking for applicants with experience doing organizing work on the ground. That work can be tied to grassroots, electoral, and/or issue organizing. We seek to support organizers who are currently part of a campaign effort or are seeking to build one. 

Dedication to inclusive politics and intersectional solutions: At re:power, we center race, class, gender and sexuality across all our trainings – it’s part of our practice of inclusive politics. We want organizers to be open to new ideas regarding it and to the ideas and contributions from their fellow organizers who will reflect our diverse communities.

Course Expectations

This is an interactive course. We ask participants to write in the chat box, share verbally, and participate in breakout group discussion. We understand that folks have a lot going on though, so if you are not able to participate in a breakout discussion you can let the tech moderator know. We encourage, but do not require, participants to turn on video during breakout discussions.

Lesson Plan

Campaign Planning and Strategy 

• Understand all components that make up a successful campaign plan
• Create an integrated campaign timeline
• Articulate the roles and importance of the core components of a campaign, as well as the cross collaboration opportunities: field, communications and digital, fundraising, and team management
• The practice of applying a lens of inclusive politics to this level of work

Leadership and Management

• Understand leadership and communication styles through a race, gender and class lens
• Effectively and creatively hire and manage campaign staff
• Identify, support, and champion the strengths on your team, as well as the diversity 
• Delegate, structure, and engage your team

Base-Building and Communications/ Digital

• Understand that engaging authentically with your base/community is essential to building power and winning campaigns
• Develop and communicate a consistent, authentic message through every component of your campaign
• Create a message box and a larger communications strategy
• Learn how to integrate your digital strategy with field and communications to wield online organizing for the benefit of your campaign 

Direct Voter Contact and Targeting

• Learn to create a realistic and effective organizing plan for your campaign
• Write effective scripts for direct voter contact
• Understand how to effectively target your audiences

Paid and Earned Media

• Articulate the options and viability of various kinds of paid and earned media for your campaign
• Articulate components of effective mail pieces
• Create plans to work effectively with the press/media

Budget and Fundraising

• Develop a realistic campaign budget
• Set fundraising goals that are realistic and ambitious for your organization or campaign
• Learn how to create an integrated fundraising plan

Questions? Please contact us at civicengagement@repower.org