The most effective way to achieve long-term Democratic change across the nation is to focus on state legislatures. History has shown us that widespread policy changes, such as same-sex marriage or women’s suffrage, start within state legislatures before being mirrored by the federal government.
Sister District and our volunteers focus on flipping state legislatures into Democratic majorities and holding those majorities. It all starts with the states and we need your help!
Already Part of a Group? Become a Sister District Affiliate
Do you already have an organized group of activists that is looking for more action items to support Democratic candidates? You can become a Sister District affiliate!
Please fill out our affiliate interest form for more information.
Essentially, Sister District volunteers act as an extension of a campaign’s field and fundraising operations. That means raising money (mostly in small-dollar donations), and making direct contact with voters through phone calls, knocking on doors, text messages, and writing postcards. Depending on the size of your team, there may also be opportunities in team leadership, event management, email marketing, social media, and other aspects of organizing.
Most importantly, we have fun! Our volunteers build meaningful relationships with each other, and that’s what keeps all of us going even when the news cycle feels exhausting. We channel our passion for democracy into real action and camaraderie.
Glad you asked! You’ll be helping Democrats get elected to state legislatures all across the country. When you sign up for Sister District we connect you with your local team, which is organized and run by volunteers who live in your area. Each team is paired (“sistered”) with 2-3 Democratic candidates in a state that we’re trying to flip, hold, or make inroads because it’s badly gerrymandered. You’ll have opportunities to meet up with them and write postcards to voters, make phone calls to persuade people to vote for your candidates, attend small-dollar fundraisers and other parties, and more!
Making Phone Calls to Voters
Writing Postcards to Voters
Knocking Doors for Candidates
Sending Text Messages to Voters
Small-dollar fundraisers go a long way!
Person-to-person interactions are proven to be the most effective way to increase voter turnout and enthusiasm. Outside of knocking on doors, your phone calls will do the most to ensure the Democrats get back in charge. If you’ve never phonebanked before, don’t worry! We’ll help you every step of the way. As many of our volunteers have learned, phonebanking isn’t hard – and makes a huge difference!
When a phonebanking event is active, the correct links can be accessed from each candidate’s page.
Sending postcards to voters in swing districts has become a popular way to support campaigns from afar. It’s fun, easy, and you can do it right at home.
We work directly with each campaign to develop postcard drives, including a script or talking points, voter addresses, postcard design, goals/timeline, and so forth. Then, we deliver a package with specific directions and materials to our volunteer leaders, who coordinate postcarding efforts for their teams. Next, invite your friends and let the postcard party commence. Who knew civic participation and fighting for progressive change could be so much fun!
Are postcards effective?
We’ve been wondering the same thing! So, we’ve conducted extensive research on postcards, including a randomized control trial to determine if postcards increased voter turnout. The results weren’t conclusive, but one thing is for sure – postcards are a fantastic way to get new volunteers involved while also delivering important information to voters!
This study sought to determine if voter turnout among low-to-mid turnout propensity, high support voters could be improved by sending a GOTV/voter education postcard to voters ahead of each of the 2020 state and presidential primaries in Florida, Georgia, and Minnesota.
This pilot study tested whether sending a handwritten postcard to a voter, to follow up on a successful voter contact made by a campaign earlier that year, could increase voter turnout.
GOTV has arrived! Sister District outlines the 6 things you can do this election season to help get out the vote.
Our top 7 recommendations for staying healthy, sane, and still getting Democrats elected during the coronavirus outbreak.
Sister District teamed up with EMILY’s List for a joint weekend of action! Check out photos of phonebanking, postcarding, canvassing, and textbanking!
We ran a randomized controlled trial to determine: 1) if people who received a handwritten postcard encouraging voter registration, along with an official voter registration form from Voter Participation Center (VPC), in our March and Sept 2018 studies had higher odds of turning out to vote in the November 2018 general election; and 2) if the effect of those postcards differed based on whether or not those targets had returned the registration form sent to them by VPC earlier in the year.
Of all the voter interactions, canvassing (knocking on doors) is the most effective way to identify supporters, persuade those on the fence, and make sure voters get to the polls. Unfortunately, in person canvassing has been largely suspended during the coronavirus pandemic. But the good news is that more people are home, and more people are answering their phones! That makes virtual canvassing (aka “phonebanking”) even more effective!
It’s no surprise that most of us spend a lot of time on our cell phones. That’s why volunteering to text message with voters is an increasingly popular way to start conversations, persuade voters, help create voting plans, and get out the vote. It’s not hard, and you don’t have to use your personal phone – special textbanking platforms help us send and receive hundreds of texts per session. We’ll show you how!
Geoff and Di Show: Two members of the small but mighty Southern Vermont Sister District talking about why they got involved with some innovative fundraising projects.
Canvassing is not always so rewarding. Sometimes, you may knock on three or four doors in a row and get no answer. Each time there’s no answer, you leave a flyer at a house to remind the occupants to vote for your candidate, and you hope they will read it. Then it’s on to the next house, which you reach just as the person you want to talk to is driving away. Maybe she will roll down her car window to ask what you’re doing. You’ll tell her you’re there to ask for her support for your candidate. And maybe she’ll tell you, “No, we don’t vote.” (Even though her name is on your list of registered voters.)
State Elections Matter. It’s times like this when this mantra goes from aspirational to undeniable. Because depending on where you live in the US, the past two weeks have been either a disaster or a victory for women’s health.
Leading up to the 2016 election and in those chaotic months afterward, I honed my skills as a prolific click-tavist. I’m not too humble to admit that I achieved elite-level status.
Sister District’s teams are creative and fun-loving, and throw all kinds of events, from small-dollar fundraisers to big-ticket events. Pizza party fundraiser? Sure! Volunteer education night? Let’s do it! Tabling at the Strolling of the Heifers? (Yeah, it’s a thing!) Whatever your event is, we can help with logistics and fundraising technology like text-to-donate and messaging.
If the event is big enough, one of the Sister District co-founders or even your candidate might be able to attend!
Did your team have a great event recently and want to write about it for our blog? We’d love to hear about it! Tell your Volunteer Leader to get in touch with our communications team.
Although we have a small number of paid staff at Sister District, we couldn’t do our work without a wide variety of highly skilled volunteers who are willing to contribute their time in other ways.
Our volunteer researchers are working on a number of exciting projects, including candidate targeting and vetting, Sister District alumni legislative accomplishments tracking, and other internal projects. If you’d like to get involved, please sign up here!
Sister District Action Network (SDAN) is our affiliated 501(c)(4) organization. SDAN also provides non-partisan opportunities to the Sister District community, including:
Checks can be sent to:
Sister District Project
440 North Barranca Avenue, #8737
Covina, California 91723
