How-to Guides
These are short, to-the-point guides that each address one individual aspect of running a political campaign. They are not a classroom curriculum; they’re designed to help candidates and campaign workers answer basic questions when you need an answer quickly. In these how-to guides, you’ll find step-by-step instructions for the practical challenges of running a political campaign.
Jump to a guide
If you know which guide you’re looking for, use this table of contents to jump directly to it. Each guide covers one specific task in a quick, bite-sized format.
Starting Your Political Campaign
- I Might Run for Office Someday: How Do I Prepare?
- Checklist: Before You Run
- Rolodex Your Contacts
- Export Contacts From Your Phone
- Calculate Your Win Number
- Create a Campaign Plan
- Get VAN and Other Resources
- Set Up an ActBlue Account
- Create Your Campaign Documents
- Create a campaign budget and ledger
- Create a campaign logo
- Create your campaign letterhead
- Create call time followup templates
- Create a call script for call time
- Create and autofill thank you letters
- Create resolicitation letters
- Organize Your Campaign Documents and Information
Running Your Political Campaign
- Your Campaign Messaging Document and How to Use It
- How to Fundraise With Call Time
- Donor Research for Your Campaign
- How to Track Your Campaign Fundraising
- Developing a Digital Fundraising Program
- How to File Compliance Reports
- Overview of Campaign Events
- Running a Weekly Team Call
- Working With Communications Vendors
- Working With a Pollster
- Getting Good Photos at Your Campaign Photoshoot
- How to Get Campaign Literature Printed
- How to Design and Print Yard Signs
- I Might Run for Office Someday: How Do I Prepare?
- Checklist: Before You Run
- Rolodex Your Contacts
- Export Contacts From Your Phone
- Calculate Your Win Number
- Create a Campaign Plan
- Campaign Fundraising Roadmap
- Set Up an ActBlue Account
- Create a Campaign Ledger
- How to Fundraise With Call Time
- Overview of Campaign Events
The foundations for a successful political campaign are laid long before the campaign itself begins. If you are considering running for political office at some point, take these steps now to give yourself the best chance when you eventually take the leap.
Make sure your campaign is prepped for success by laying the proper groundwork before you run. You can only launch a political campaign one time, so cover all your bases before you announce that you’re running.
Begin your campaign by systematically reviewing your contacts and preparing to ask for support.
How to export contacts from your iPhone or Android phone to a spreadsheet. You’ll need to do this so you can rolodex for your campaign and get ready to build your budget.
Learn how many votes your campaign needs to win by calculating your win number. This guide shows you three ways to calculate your win number, including an easy method that you can complete in about a minute.
How to put together the basic campaign building blocks that will prepare you to respond to the unpredictable challenges that will face you on the campaign trail.
Learn about the four main kinds of campaign fundraising trendlines. This guide uses data from real, winning campaigns to show you what your monthly fundraising might look like from the beginning of the campaign through election day.
A step-by-step guide to creating a new account with the most popular payment gateway for taking online contributions as a Democratic candidate for public office.
Your campaign ledger is a simple, robust way to manage your campaign’s cashflow. This document is especially useful late in the campaign, but you need to start tracking cashflow in your ledger from the beginning of the campaign to keep it current and accurate. This guide shows you how to create a campaign ledger.
Call time will be the foundation of your fundraising program and therefore the foundation of your campaign. This guide will help candidates make the most of their call time sessions.
How to put together the basic campaign building blocks that will prepare you to respond to the unpredictable challenges that will face you on the campaign trail.
An overview of campaign events and how best to allocate candidate and staff time to events of each kind.
How to put together the basic campaign building blocks that will prepare you to respond to the unpredictable challenges that will face you on the campaign trail.
How to put together the basic campaign building blocks that will prepare you to respond to the unpredictable challenges that will face you on the campaign trail.
How to put together the basic campaign building blocks that will prepare you to respond to the unpredictable challenges that will face you on the campaign trail.
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