Starting a Campaign on the Best Path
Whether it’s an electoral campaign for public office, an issue campaign being tackled by one organization, or a project being driven by a new coalition, starting a campaign can be really tricky…and overwhelming. But, getting off to a great start is the most effective and efficient thing you can do to get the ball rolling in the right direction. Follow these 3 Things to help get started on the best path:
1. What’s your “raison d’etre?” In other words: What are you doing here? Why are you running this campaign? What problem are you going to solve? This may seem like a no-brainer, but all too often we see candidates, organizations and coalitions who don’t take the time on the front end to get on the same page and really answer this question.
And your answer should be as specific as possible, so you can better do all that comes next. You can’t solve World Peace, but your campaign efforts might be convince President Obama’s State Department to put money for universal education in their budget request.
Just like when defining your goals, defining your campaign’s reason for being should be clear, focused and specific. And all of the major players need to be in agreement on the front end to avoid bickering and disagreement later on.
2. Who are the major players? In an electoral campaign, this would be your candidate, leadership staff, core “kitchen-cabinet” advisers, and a few major donors/raisers. In an issue campaign it’s most likely going to be organizational staff (who’s in charge of this specific campaign), board members, top external advocates, elected officials supporting your issue, partnering organizations, and key donors.
Identifying who needs to be brought into the fold early on will help you accomplish goals later, and again, help diffuse any potential conflicts before they begin.
3. What is your true capacity? The answer to this question will dictate the rest of your campaign planning. Building a beautiful plan that requires 37 staff members and $27 million dollars to execute won’t do you any good if you’ve got a budget of $27 and a staff of 1. Take a hard look at each of your major player’s capacities and abilities and then design your initial campaign plan around those elements. Part of the plan should most likely include using your current capacity build and expand that capacity by bringing in new money to hire new staff to manage new volunteers, but off the bat you really need to be honest with your expectations and abilities so you don’t set the whole campaign up to fail before it even has a chance to succeed.
There are many, many, many other factors to consider when beginning a campaign, but without these first 3, it will be nearly impossible to go wrong on the rest.
Tell us what we missed: drop us a line here. Or, be in touch if we can be helpful getting you started with your new campaign!