Thank you to everyone who filled out my survey! One of the things people said they would be interested in is some coaching for small campaigns. Not only is that something I already offer, but I do so with a fabulous organization. Please welcome Sally Boyton-Brown of Campaign Greenhouse to tell you more about what they do.
1) Who are you? Tell us a little about yourself.
I am a social philanthropist who ensures everyone finds support on their path to connect more deeply with our democracy. I have owned a number of small businesses, worked on campaigns at every level of the ballot, and worked with State Parties for most of my political career. In 2016 I ran for DNC Chair and came in 3rd. My intention was to move the conversation to an aspirational vision of our Party and ensure a female voice was present. As CEO of Campaign Greenhouse we have the opportunity to revolutionize how and which candidates receives support to ensure everyone has a pathway to power. I live in Boise, Idaho and have three adult children. My husband and I have two cats and a dog who are spoiled beyond belief. We play ice-hockey together, meditate daily and love going hot springing in the Idaho mountains. My deep, spiritual faith sustains my political work and keeps me going.
2) What is Campaign Greenhouse?
We are a coaching platform that works with local campaigns who typically raise less than $50,000 and don’t have paid staff. We help ensure campaigns are easier and less expensive to run. We provide a supportive, sustainable campaign experience so that the candidates and their teams will stay involved in the political process well after their election day has come and gone.
3) How did the idea for Campaign Greenhouse come about?
Our founder, Kathryn Poindexter, was regularly approached by friends and other people running for down-ballot offices who couldn’t afford to pay her a living wage, really needed her help and she couldn’t afford to spend all of her time volunteering for them. She started Campaign Greenhouse as a way to help candidates run incrementally more effective races with less resources. She also knew that the only way to tear down racist, misogynistic power structures was to support young or female or queer candidates or candidates of color in running against straight, old, white men at every level of the ballot.
4) How has it evolved since its inception?
I'm excited about our 2018 results at the moment - campaigns who worked with us did on average 16 points better than similar 2018 campaigns who didn't, and the candidates were twice as likely to run again. One of our core values is done is better than perfect and we whole-heartedly embrace the fail up, fail fast business model. We iterated many different ways during our exploration phase and even today continue to ask ourselves how we can serve our candidates best. An example of that is, we tried a number of group communication platforms for resource delivery and have settled on a private Facebook group. It is fast, easy and convenient because the majority of people campaigning are already on it and best yet we can offer it for free since it doesn’t cost us anything.
5) What services does Campaign Greenhouse offer and how much does it cost?
Campaign Greenhouse offers a weekly community coaching call with an expert coach who tracks your campaign goals and provides resources to make the items on your to-do list easier, faster and cheaper. As independent consultants, our coaches set their own prices and generally range between $75-$500 a month for the entire campaign team. We also have a free Campaign Community group anyone can join where they can ask questions, post campaign materials and receive feedback from dozens of national experts in every industry.
6) Who is the right client for Campaign Greenhouse?
Someone who is running or working on the campaign for a local office like school board, judge, council or county seats as well as candidates running for higher office in Republican strongholds. Our clients usually are raising less than $50,000 total and often don’t have paid staff or if they do, they are inexperienced. For instance, perhaps a mother with two young children and a disabled husband at home who works two jobs and is upset at a decision the Principal made at her children’s school and has decided to run for school board. She has no experience and very little time and money. We coach her on how to run the most resilient and sustainable campaign with the available time she has. In this instance, our resources will be heavily focused on templates and how to’s for free activities like social media, door knocking and phone calling. We would also likely discuss how best to involve her children so the campaign can be a family activity. Kids can draw the most amazing pictures for campaign memes and make great video surrogates!
7) What is the coaching program?
Campaigns visit our coach gallery to choose the coach who is the best fit for them. The link to Nancy's profile is here. They go through an on-boarding process and are assigned to a weekly call with other campaigns to discuss their goals, challenges and brainstorm solutions to the items on their to-do list which feel the most unfamiliar or are daunting. The campaign world is full of jargon and tasks like compliance, messaging, targeting, and data tracking that most people aren’t familiar with. Our coaches walk folks through the day-to-day ups and downs of their race, using training resources to motivate and inspire good campaign practices.
8) Who can/should take advantage of coaching?
Coaching can obviously help candidates themselves a great deal, especially first-time candidates. When it comes right down to it though, we can help anyone who is working with a campaign more than 10 hours a week with a substantial amount of responsibility. This can include the candidate's spouse or family members, their treasurer, involved folks from their local party committee or club or even inexperienced paid staff.
9) What is one great win you had last cycle?
We had a candidate who was prepared to invest their life-savings into their race and was prepared for a potential divorce because of poor advice they had gotten from others. Our coach was able to help them adjust their expectations, schedule a weekly date night with their spouse, run a race with the money they had fundraised and plan on a multi-cycle strategy to flip their district. They woke up the morning after election having lost with a social media post that said, “Not sleeping in. #stillacandidate #2020” These are the type of wins we focus on! Did people run a more resilient, sustainable race because of our coaching where they did better on the ballot and want to stay involved? If the answer is yes then we have done our job.
10) What is next for Campaign Greenhouse?
At the end of this summer we will be launching our CG Marketplace. The Marketplace is designed to help our coaches connect campaigns with the vendors and services they will need to run their races. We want to ensure they have the best options available to them at the price that makes sense for their budget. We do all the haggling over pricing and packaging and make sure campaigns are clear on where their money is going and how it fits into their overall strategy and budget.
11) What else would you like us to know?
We work in a lot of non-partisan races and ask all of our candidates to sign our justice pledge prior to joining our community; I will stand for justice. I will work to ensure social, environmental, economic, reproductive, and cultural laws that advance individual equality, dignity, and a reasonable standard of living, especially to the most vulnerable and marginalized amongst us. If you feel like this describes you and would like to join our community either as a volunteer expert, campaign or a potential coach please visit our website.
