The Campaign Workshop Blog

If you’re running political ads for your independent expenditure campaign, you already have to make extra sure that everything you’re doing and saying is legal. All of your content will likely need to be reviewed by lawyers, especially if it could be controversial. But one area that’s relatively new to this kind of review is making sure your digital ad accounts and/or pages have been verified to run political ads in the US.

Just like all campaigns, a good ballot measure campaign will include a strong digital presence on both organic and paid media. One big differentiator for ballot measure campaigns is that you’ll likely need to focus on persuasion more heavily than with other campaigns.

We’ve discussed in past blogs that a large part of executing a #winning political campaign is doing your background research, and ballot measure polling is the best way to find out if you can win and how you can win.

So you’ve decided you’re running for office. What are your first steps? Maybe calling friends and family to let them know the news? Starting to ask for donations for your campaign? Hiring a campaign manager? It’s possible you haven’t yet thought about some key digital items that will make your big announcement a big success.

Eight years ago, we started The Campaign Workshop blog to share our knowledge with an online community of advocates, nonprofits, labor unions, staffers, campaign operatives, political candidates, and progressive groups and organizations. Today, we have over 1,000 blog subscribers and 20,000 monthly unique page views to our website, which has far exceeded our expectations.

When should I start building my coalition? In short, yesterday. but to find your way coalition mapping will help.

There are so many different types of ads that it can feel overwhelming to choose which ones to use for your digital advocacy campaign. You can certainly use all of them, but there are some that are likely better suited to your campaign than others, depending on your goals.

It’s been 2 turbulent years since the Trump administration took office and people continue to voice their frustration by carrying protest signs at marches. Grassroots movements are popping up everywhere. Individuals influencing action is what will move our nation forward. Even a scrawled cardboard sign can make an impact.

Launching a community advocacy campaign can seem intimidating – where would you begin? There are countless campaign tools available to you, but they don’t mean anything if you don’t know what to do with them.

How do you leverage grassroots advocacy? Start with a cup of coffee.

Advocacy mail does not always get the credit it deserves. Part I of this post takes you through the basics of putting together a letter package for your advocacy mail campaign. Part II walks you through making the most of a letter package that includes a reply device (buckle up!).