John --
Hey
there, I am Carrie Anne, Volunteer Engagement Coordinator for Forward
Party. I’ve spent the last 5 years being an activist and volunteering
on campaigns, and I’ve taken what I’ve learned by being a volunteer
and used that to create the best possible experience for Forward
volunteers.
What Went Well
In 2024,
the name of the game was candidate support and volunteer activation!
Forward rose to the occasion and was able to support 19 candidates
across 12 states with text banks. We activated over 50 volunteers to
jump in to our slack and CallHub, and offered 10 text banks for them
to participate in. A total of over 264,000 texts were sent out! 6 of
these text banks supported candidates went on to achieve their goal,
with 5 winning and 1 gaining enough vote totals to keep Forward on the
ballot for another 4 years in their state. We are now designing a
special edition tee shirt for the volunteers who stepped up to the
plate to show our appreciation.
Lessons Learned
We did
show up to the party a bit late, and missed many voters who had
already cast their ballot. We held a volunteer training event, but
some who ended up helping us missed it and thus weren't properly
trained on things like capturing voter responses. We also would have
loved to have been able to support more candidates!
These are our thoughts from 2024, but we
want to hear from you! Please head to this link and fill out your
thoughts on lessons learned, the direction the party should head in,
and projects we should tackle! We will read them all, and we will
highlight our top 10, along with the people who submitted them, in
early January as our New Years Resolutions.
2025 Projects
In 2025
we will get started on all the things earlier. We will offer multiple
volunteer trainings, instead of just one, so that people have a better
chance of attending. We will use social media more to attract new
participants. And we look forward to a streamlined candidate referral
and approval process, so we can help more Forward candidates
win!
Hope this
is what you're looking for. Did you get the spreadsheet I shared? It
had volunteer responses to the merch distribution form. The function
was to collect addresses and sizes, but I put two questions for
feedback and there are a few good quotes you could probably use in
there about why people volunteer with Forward!
For
example, Jeanne Sole in CA, one of our vols who sent over 40k texts
had this to say "I have enjoyed volunteering. Well organized so that I
felt it was a good use of my time. I believe in what we are doing. I
loved learning about these brave people trying to make a difference
instead of just wringing their hands."
If you're still feeling the season of
giving, consider donating to Forward this season!
Happy New Year,
Carrie Anne https://home.forwardparty.com/
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