Campaign Greenhouse

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.

Please Take A Quick Survey to Help Me Make The Blog Even Better

I told you I have big plans for the blog and they didn't go away...just got delayed a little bit. Please fill out this survey to help me figure out what you want to see!


Thank you in advance!!!

xoxo,

Nancy

Elevate Training For Candidates With Disabilities!

Good morning! It is highly possible I'm the worst. I had so many good posts planned and then life happened and now it is all backed up. Sincerest apologies to Sarah Blahovec and Neal Carter who sent me these answers over a week ago! More to come!


1) Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

My name is Sarah Blahovec, and I am the Disability Vote Organizer for the National Council on Independent Living, where I work on issues across the civic engagement spectrum for people with disabilities. I've been in this role for nearly three years, and I work on both voting rights and issues around running for office. I have a disability myself, a severe chronic illness, which greatly influenced my career path (I got a degree in International Studies, and after college worked in administrative jobs while building my profile and learning about disability rights). I believe that everybody can find a role in civic engagement and the public sector, and that's not just restricted to being a candidate. There's campaign staff, volunteers, political appointees, government staff, and even jobs like mine, where I work on civic engagement through a nonprofit.

2) What is NCIL?

The National Council on Independent Living is the longest-running cross-disability advocacy organization in the country. It is the membership organization for centers for independent living (CILs) and statewide independent living councils (SILCs). NCIL operates on the philosophy of independent living, which emphasizes that people with disabilities are the best experts on their own needs, and we are deserving of equal opportunity. While NCIL is a membership organization for CILs and SILCs, which are non-residential community resource centers led by the disability community to help people with disabilities remain independent, we also have a committee structure that organizes around a vast number of advocacy priorities, everything from voting rights and civil rights to transportation, housing, diversity, and so much more.

3) Tell us about the Elevate training

The Elevate training is a five-week webinar pilot program geared towards first-time candidates with disabilities, as well as people who want to work with candidates with disabilities or in campaigns as a person with a disability. It is taught from a cross-disability perspective and has five expert political consultants who will talk about how to successfully fundraise, kick off a campaign, craft your message as a candidate, find staff, and talk to voters. While all are welcome, we designed it in a way that understands that our identities don't exist in a vacuum, and that candidates with disabilities who come from other marginalized backgrounds will have different experiences. All of our trainers are people of color, some are women of color, and all are great allies to marginalized candidates. This series was developed with Neal Carter, Principal of Nu View Consulting, as our lead consultant to help design the entire curriculum. Neal is an expert in campaigns and runs the only black-owned, disability owned political consulting firm in existence. He has extensive knowledge both from a campaigns and cross-disability perspective, and his work on this project has been key to its development.

4) Why is it important to have a specific campaign training for people with disabilities?

The barriers that candidates with disabilities experience are twofold: there are both attitudinal and access barriers in the campaign world. These manifest in ways that make it much harder for many candidates with disabilities to run a successful political campaign. They may experience physical barriers to participating in the campaign process, roadblocks from local parties who do not want to provide accommodations, or ableist beliefs from voters and opponents who don't understand that disabled people can be leaders.

5) What different challenges and opportunities might candidates with disabilities face?

I've seen many candidates with disabilities experience challenges from their local party. For instance, many Deaf candidates have not been given an interpreter to participate in a local forum, or forums or other events may be held in inaccessible locations. Some voters may think that a disabled person shouldn't run for office because they have negative beliefs about what a candidate should look like, sound like, or act like. Some candidates may end up being pigeonholed as "the disabled candidate," and their knowledge and expertise on issues outside of disability-specific concerns may not be recognized. That being said, there are many opportunities for candidates with disabilities as well. There are many successful public office holders with disabilities that represent not just the disability community but all of their constituents. They bring unique lived experience and can advocate for both disability-specific and community-wide changes. Many disabled people are primed for leadership because they exist in a society that isn't built for their needs, and so they become resilient, adaptable, and great problem solver. Elevate will help people with disabilities take these characteristics and give them the campaign skills they need to literally elevate their leadership to public office.

6) What is different about this training?

This training is the first of its kind (that we know of) in addressing the needs of candidates with disabilities. It will not only address the concerns that all candidates have around things like fundraising, messaging, voter contact, and operations, but will be able to talk about the accommodations and adaptations that candidates or campaign staff with disabilities can make to run a campaign successfully as a person with a disability. We can speak to how to canvass and phone bank when you have disabilities that may make walking neighborhoods and talking on phones challenging, how to hire staff and volunteers who can work with your access needs, and much more. This will in fact be a little bit of an experiment: we can anticipate some of the questions that we'll get from different participants, but we're sure that we'll also get some very disability-specific questions that may take more thought or research. I'm prepared to take any questions that we can't confidently answer, find the right person (likely someone with that access need or disability who has run for office before), and find the answer.

7) The next training is coming up. Are there plans for another one soon?

This is a pilot training that had a very specific grant, and so we're going to see how this one goes, but we really would love to keep this going both in an online format and through in-person trainings. For that, we need to raise the money! If this program is a success, we are hoping that it will draw potential donors and investors who see the value in continuing to grow this project.

8) Are there any specific resources for campaign operatives with disabilities?

At NCIL, we have created a guide for access and inclusion geared at political campaigns. "Including People with Disabilities in Your Political Campaign: A Guide for Campaign Staff" is an extensive (and free) document on many aspects of including people with disabilities in a political campaign. It is geared towards those who have little knowledge of the disability community, and discusses things like basic disability etiquette and understanding different disabilities and access needs, making events and information accessible to voters with disabilities, and adapting different campaign tasks and roles to staff and volunteers with disabilities. It is available at www.ncil.org/campaign-guide. We would love to create more resources like this and to expand our work around political campaigns, and are looking for opportunities to do so (which means money to do so, as well).

9) Are there any current candidates or elected officials with disabilities you'd like to highlight?

We keep databases of candidates and elected officials with disabilities, available at www.ncil.org/candidates and www.ncil.org/elected-officials. This is far from an exhaustive list, as it is open source and based on community contributions. There are around 520,000 elected positions throughout the United States, and while it isn't difficult to learn about some Congressional candidates and elected officials (if they openly identify as having a disability), it gets very hard to track all of the candidates and elected officials at the local and state levels. If you know of anybody who should be added to the list, please visit these websites and submit their name, and we'll make sure to add them!

10) What else do you want us to know?

For this program and for all of the work around civic engagement for the disability community to be successful, we really need people to show up and show their support. Whether you're attending Elevate (please do!), voting in an election (including state and local elections), volunteering on a campaign, trying to find paid work in the campaign space, or advocating for changes in your government, or even donating to programs like ours so that we can continue to build these programs, your presence is essential to building a bigger consciousness around the political participation of people with disabilities.


Please check out NCIL and Nu View Consulting!

Organizing Corps 2020!

I had the pleasure of getting to know Jonae when she was the North Carolina Coordinated Director in 2016 and I was managing the LG's race. When I found out she was training the next generation of organizers I was like, "yes please!" Read more to learn about Organizing Corps 2020 and then share with someone who should participate! (**Note, Deadline is April 8th!)

1) Who are you? Tell us a little about yourself and your career trajectory.
My name is Jonae and Im an ORGANIZER! :-). No really, I started my career as an organizer, right out of college, working on the Barack Obama campaign. This single opportunity changed the course of my life and my career. Since then, Ive had the good fortune of working for lots of great candidates and causes. Most recently I transitioned from my. role at the Southern Region Director at the DNC to join the team at Organizing Corps 2020 as Chief Program Officer!

2) What is Organizing Corps 2020?
Organizing Corps 2020 is an initiative that will train the next generation of campaign organizers and create diverse talent pipeline in key battleground states: FL, GA, NC, MI. WI, PA, AZ. We recognize that the only way to take back the White House next year and have lasting impact on communities is to start early training and hiring local talent. This is PAID 8- week program will teach participants campaign organizing skills that will help them get jobs on the presidential campaign.

3) Who is it for?/Who should participate?
The first wave of our program (this summer) is aimed at rising seniors who are graduating in the Spring of 2020. We will have multiple waves of the program for December graduates and career-switchers.

4) How does it differ from other trainings?
We are training the next generation of campaign organizers. There are lots of great training programs that focus on various political skills at all levels. This program focuses specifically on field organizers, people who will be on the front lines of the fight to take back the White House and transform communities across the country

5) Why is this program important?
We started the 2016 general election at a disadvantage- we didn't have the army of trained organizers that we needed until far too late in the cycle. We didn't have the time to provide the necessary training. Like 2016, this primary season will be long. And while we don't know who the Democratic nominee will be; we do know that they will need hundreds of trained field organizers to win. This program will help train and develop those organizers more than a year in advance.

6) What should participants expect?
An amazing summer learning and practicing the skills that you need to become an organizer during the 2020 presidential cycle.

7) How can we apply?
Go to organizingcorps2020.com and apply today! The application deadline is Monday, April 8th.

8) Anything else you want us to know?
For future applicants: this is the absolute best way to spend your summer- hands down. Many of the greatest leaders of our time (*cough* Barack Obama, *cough*) started as organizers! For anyone who know a future applicant: SHARE THIS INFORMATION- the deadline is coming soon on April 8th!

What I've been reading lately

I have some very exciting things planned for myself and this blog coming up but it's leaving me with scant time to write as I would like to. Still there is so much going on in the world that I'd like to discuss with you and share so I've decided to start a weekly roundup of campaign and election-related material that I've found interesting.

Here is round one:

You Don't Have to Like Bernie Sanders to Like Bernie Sanders on Jezebel
This is possibly the most eloquent expression of my feelings on Bernie Sanders' 2020 candidacy and I didn't even write it. For lefty progressive women who are not comfortable with Bernie or those trying to understand us, this is a great read.
Female Donors Gaining Influence as 2020 Kicks Off on OpenSecrets
I wrote and thought a lot about women donors in grad school so I am always interested in following these trends. Where a candidate's money comes from, including gender breakdown of donors, says a lot about them and the trends show that women are leveraging our economic power to our political advantage like never before.
The Electability Trap from WaPo
Enough with this "but other people won't elect a woman" bullshit. It's a trope and a lie that only perpetuates itself.
The Shutdown Made Sara Nelson America's Most Powerful Flight Attendant from the New York Times
Trust me, you're going to love this woman.
Ranch Lady on the Hill and elsewhere
This is the most quintessential Iowa Caucus moment ever to ranch on ranch dressing. The intimate setting. The entitlement. The ranch. If I had to summarize the caucus experience in nutshell, this would be it.
Bernie Sanders Asks Surrogates to Engage Respectfully With Democratic Rivals
It's been really interesting to watch the dialectic in Bernie Sanders 2020 campaign of trying to do better and old habits dying hard.
Dollars on the Margins from New York Times Magazine
To quote straight from the piece "A living wage is an antidepressant. It is a sleep aid. A diet. A stress reliever. It is a contraceptive, preventing teenage pregnancy.It prevents premature death. It shields children from neglect."
Campaign Culture Must Change by Brice Barnes on Medium "Campaigns are the last species of business to adapt to change. It is the ultimate workplace where there are no rules, no boundaries, no employment handbook, and typically no formal Human Resources department. Everything goes and it truly is the survival of the fittest and strongest. As a professional in the land of no rules, especially as a woman, and even more so as a mom, I find myself working within an industry lacking a handbook for people like me." I am feeling this so hard as I think about my next steps in my career path, my desire to be in the same place as my husband and to eventually start a family. Weird how you guys started crying.
Elizabeth Warren is Not Doing Call Time or Fundraisers on CNN and elsewhere
It should be noted that Bernie Sanders had this same policy in 2016. And it makes sense...if you're in a crowded primary and running against special interests. That said, an I cannot stress this enough, Democratic donors large and small know who Sanders and Warren are and where to find them. Candidates: unless you are a national name you still have to do call time. Sorry.

What are you reading? What else should I read? Let me know if you liked this round up and you'd like to see more.



Campaign Love and Mine,

Nancy

Presidential Campaign Resume Banks

Hello Campaignsickles! I miss you and I'm so sorry I haven't been up to blogging lately. Like many of you, I am unemployed post-2018 elections and trying to figure out what comes next. That means that my writing time, and much of my emotional energy, is going into cover letters and networking emails instead of my beloved blog.

In the meantime, I have gotten tons of questions about working on Presidential campaigns, both whether and how to. If you have never done a Presidential primary, I highly recommend it. I hope to write more on that in the near future. For now, here are the Presidential job banks, that I know of. I will update as I learn more. So please if you are involved with a Democratic campaign I haven't listed, send me a note and I'll gladly put it on the list. Happy hunting!

Nancy

Kamala Harris: resumes@kamalaharris.org

Elizabeth Warren

Kirsten Gillbrand

Julian Castro

Cory Booker

Pete Buttigieg

Amy Klobuchar: resume@amyklobuchar.com

Andrew Yang: apply@yang2020.com

Beto O'Rourke

Bernie Sanders

Joe Biden

President Obama Reacts to Excuses Not To Vote

Hits the nail on the head.