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!
We ran two randomized controlled trials in the Fall of 2018 to determine if receiving a handwritten postcard encouraging the target to vote increased the odds of voters turning out to vote for in the 2018 general election in Pennsylvania and Michigan, and further sought to determine if those odds differed based on the postcard message.
We ran a randomized controlled trial to determine if the receipt of a handwritten postcard a week after the receipt of an official voter registration form increased the odds of people completing & returning the voter registration form, as compared to the odds of return among people who did not receive a postcard.
Sister District Action Network (SDAN) partnered with the Voter Participation Center (VPC) to send handwritten postcards encouraging registration to eligible, unregistered individuals living in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Arizona in March 2018. These postcards were sent in conjunction with VPC’s Voting Age Population Program, which sent official voter registration forms to these same people.
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!
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
