Volunteer Activities

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Volunteer Activities

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How We Help Get Democrats Elected

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 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.

But 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.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” el_class=”background-gradient” css=”.vc_custom_1600542907745{padding-top: 10px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1601597657474{padding-top: 10px !important;}”]

Take action now!

Whether you have just a few hours or a few dollars, we need you!
Don’t wait on the sidelines – the time is now. We’ll help you every step of the way.

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Phonebanking

Making Phone Calls to Voters

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 ever step of the way. As many of our volunteers have learned, phonebanking isn’t hard – and makes a huge difference.

When phonebanking is live, the correct links can be accessed from each candidate’s page.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”6164″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1568931799072{padding-top: 55px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”2389″ img_size=”medium”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Postcarding

Writing Postcards to Voters

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 and timeline for the drive, and so forth. Then, we deliver a package with specific directions and materials to our volunteer leaders, who coordinate postcarding efforts for their teams.

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![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Check out more of our research around sending postcards to voters:

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SDAN+VPC VR Voting Pipeline Postcard Study

People who received a handwritten postcard along with a pre-filled voter registration form did not vote at higher rates than people who did not receive the postcard.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”6931″ img_size=”medium” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://sisterdistrict.com/research/2018-gotv-postcarding-results/”][vc_column_text]

2018 GOTV Postcarding Results

In both our Pennsylvania and Michigan samples, receiving a handwritten postcard during GOTV did not significantly increase the odds that a person would vote.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”2496″ img_size=”medium” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://sisterdistrict.com/research/voter-registration-postcards-replication/”][vc_column_text]

Voter Registration Postcarding 2: A Replication with VPC + SDAN

The postcard chaser appears to work particularly well among people who had been registered before and just recently moved to their new address (“Movers”).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”6933″ img_size=”medium” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://sisterdistrict.com/research/postcarding-experiment-results/”][vc_column_text]

VPC+SDAN Postcarding Experiment Results

This experiment tested the use of postcards to boost voter registration.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1569259720725{padding-top: 55px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;background-color: #ededed !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

Canvassing

Knocking Doors for Candidates

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![/vc_column_text][vc_btn title=”Learn More about Canvassing” color=”white” align=”center” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sisterdistrict.com%2Fpolitical-canvassing%2F|title:Political%20Canvassing||”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”6749″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1569277381614{padding-top: 55px !important;padding-bottom: 5px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”6796″ img_size=”medium”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

Textbanking

Sending Text Messages to Voters

It’s no surprise that most of us spend a lot of time on our cell phones. That’s why text messaging voters is an increasingly popular way to start conversations, persuade voters, 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.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1569277456732{padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Read stories, tips, tricks, and lessons learned from our volunteers:

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Volunteer Events

Small-dollar fundraisers go a long way!

Our local teams are creative and fun-loving, and throw all kinds of events, from small-dollar fundraisers to big-ticket events. Pizza party fundraiser? Volunteer education night? 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.

If the event is big enough, one of the Sister District co-founders or even your candidate might be able to attend! If you’ve had a great event recently and want to write about it for our blog, please contact your District Captain to get in touch with our communications team.

And since no party is complete without some great outfits, grab a couple Sister District t-shirts to show off your passion for getting Democrats elected to state legislatures![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” css=”.vc_custom_1601597705433{padding-top: 55px !important;padding-bottom: 15px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Other Ways to Volunteer

Data and Research

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 2020 race targeting and vetting, Sister District alumni legislative accomplishments tracking, and other internal projects. If you’d like to get involved, please sign up here!

Civic Engagement with Sister District Action Network

Sister District Action Network (SDAN) is our affiliated 501(c)(4) organization. SDAN also provides non-partisan opportunities to the Sister District community, including:

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