A ballot initiative effort allows your organization the rare opportunity to reach out to thousands of volunteers using the tangible task of signature gathering. Petitioning is a volunteer job that people easily understand. This understanding along with the motivation spurred by the urgency of meeting a signature deadline creates a fantastic and unique organizing tool allowing your organization to convert quiet supporters to trained advocates.
Why expend the energy on a volunteer effort when your organization can simply pay for signatures?
A volunteer effort provides excellent messengers: citizens who dedicate their time care deeply about the cause and make great messengers. They take trainings to heart and represent the campaign in a manner that makes good impressions upon the voters they meet on the streets.
A volunteer effort funds itself: the money saved from using volunteers can go towards hiring capable organizers, covering campaign overhead, and running more television ads during the GOTV phase.
A volunteer effort demonstrates support: a base of thousands of volunteers proves to the voters and the media that you have widespread support for your issue. Opponents cannot claim that you have bought the election when citizens took thousands of hours from their personal lives to qualify a measure for the ballot.
A volunteer effort formalizes the campaign structure: the campaign infrastructure is already established as the campaign enters the GOTV phase. The initiative headquarters is running smoothly and the staff is familiar with the individual talents of their volunteers at the onset of the education campaign thereby maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of the volunteer base.
A volunteer effort helps educate voters: the signature campaign allows organizers to recruit and train activists who can then be called upon for volunteer activities during the education phase of a campaign, including letters to the editor, fundraising, literature drops, and phone banking.
A volunteer effort builds a long-lasting network of trained individuals: after the passage of an initiative, the volunteer base can be mobilized for education, legislative, or candidate campaigns. This trained network supplies the people power for grassroots activities including letters to the editors, public testimony, tabling, phone banks, office help, constituent contact with legislators, canvassing, and rallies.
A volunteer effort creates a formidable C4 list: the use of a volunteer list created by a political action committee is not restricted to the usual legal confines that apply to non-profit organizations. This means that the activist base can legally be used to help elect candidates who support your organization’s mission.
Active Roots Consulting would be happy to further explain the benefits of using volunteers for your signature gathering campaign. Please feel free to contact us here or at 206-999-5993.