Start Here Now

Gather Information and Gain Support

• Review any past voter education or get-out-the-vote (GOTV) projects for lessons learned.
• Get support for the campaign from the congregation’s minister and social justice leaders. Discuss project goals, potential community partners, activities, and volunteers.

Create a Democracy Team

• Look for the needed energy, skills, and commitment.to work with other members and staff in guiding the project.

Democracy Team’s First Steps

At your first meeting spend some time getting better acquainted. Agree on the goals for the project, and assign roles such as team leader(s), writing meeting notes, communications, event planning, partner coordination (recommend one person per partner). Decide the name of your team, how often you will meet, what tools you will use to communicate.

Identify community partners already working on democracy and mobilizing voters. This can get your group off to a quick start. It can also help identify initial activities based on your group’s interests and capabilities and the community partner’s work.

Gauge congregational interests and capabilities that best align with the potential partnership opportunities. Provide the congregation with information about community partners and the voter mobilization work they are doing.

Determine the congregation’s focus.

• Look for opportunities to assist communities with historically low voter participation.
• Consider relevant state ballot initiatives the congregation could work on.
• Decide whether to work locally and/or assist in key states.
• Prioritize the list of possible activities considering impact on the project goals, amount of effort, desired timing.

Launching Your Campaign

• Hold a kick-off event. Consider showing a video. Invite local leaders and partners to speak. Present your plans.
• Recruit volunteers – Consider using Signup Genius, Google Drive and Google Groups or other tools to help manage the process.
• Hold regular meetings with the core team and key volunteers to evaluate progress and create plans for each event, listing tasks and responsibilities.
• Provide training as needed.
• Communicate regularly to the congregation about training times, planned events, additional opportunities, and successes.
• Meet regularly with partners to stay on the same page and resolve any differences that may arise.
• Keep a log of issues that arise and suggested improvements as you go along.