The Campaign Workshop Blog

Annie Duke is a decision-making expert and a former professional poker player. She won her first World Series of Poker, as well as the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, in 2004. In 2010, she went on to win the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Annie Duke founded a nonprofit called How I Decide in 2014 that helps young people develop stronger decision-making skills. Prior to her professional poker playing career, Annie Duke was awarded a National Science Foundation Fellowship and studied cognitive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She recently authored Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions. We talked with Annie Duke about how we make decisions, and how we can make better ones in life and in politics.

With the 2018 election cycle ramping up, it’s never too early to get going on your member communication plan. By amping up your communication, you can harness the power of your membership and get results for the issues you care about. Whether you’re working for a labor union or an advocacy organization, these tips will help make your member communication program count.

Deepak Puri previously worked at Oracle, Netscape and VMware, and is now the co-founder of the San Francisco, non-profit Democracy Labs. By deploying technology and creative innovation, Democracy Labs offers affordable business solutions for progressive groups and candidates across the country. We asked Deepak 7 questions focused on the intersection of campaigning and technology. Read his insights here!

As candidates, by this point you have probably been knocking on doors for weeks and are finally at a place where you are ready to bring in the cavalry, your volunteers! For campaigns, we believe in doors, doors, and more doors.  Those doors translate into more voter contact and more identified targets for GOTV. Hitting doors in the right way is why having a structured and detailed canvass training is vitally important.

Gabriella Mirabelli is the CEO and Co-Owner of Anatomy Media, an Emmy Award winning creative marketing agency, which offers premium creative and research consulting services for world-class television and media brands. Gabriella Mirabelli also hosts the Up Next Podcast, which features new ideas in the media industry with innovative leaders in entertainment and business.

Paul Lage is the President and CEO of Gill Studios, which includes Gill-line: the largest producer of political yard signs, decals, and bumper stickers in the country. We asked Paul for some industry tips to help campaigns navigate the process of designing and printing yard signs and other campaign materials.

I love political and nonpolitical podcasts. But with the constant stream of political discourse that is our lives, it is good to get perspective from politics and listen to the occasional nonpolitical podcast.  When I was in high school I loved the drama of old-school radio. Somewhere there are tapes of an old radio drama I produced back in the day, but today’s podcasts are certainly much nicer than my productions and a great way to learn about a variety of topics. These podcasts are more than just interviews, some have great production values, and some really engage you in the story. 

Top 4 Favorite Twitter Tools 

No matter what day or time, it feels like there are five new digital or twitter tools that are all better, faster, and bigger than the last.

Bernie Horn is the Senior Director for Policy and Communications at the Public Leadership Institute, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that works with a network of 13,000 progressive state and local policymakers on a wide range of economic and social issues. Bernie Horn is the coauthor of Voicing our Values: A Message Guide for Policymakers and Advocates, which describes how progressives can more effectively frame their arguments to persuade audiences. Below, Bernie Horn shares some tips on how to shape your progressive campaign strategy, get people to realize they agree on the issues, and make policy debates more accessible to voters.

When Donald Trump won the election in 2016, a wave of social activism took over the country and has been building ever since. People are taking to the streets and protesting on an almost weekly basis. Many advocacy organizations have benefited from this momentum and gained supporters and donations.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach for an email campaign, but a solid email campaign management strategy can make all the difference for your organization or political campaign. Cultivating a fruitful relationship with your supporters takes time, planning, and strategy. Check out our email campaign management tips below to get the process started!