You've decided you want to run for office. Now what? How do you start raising funds? Do you need an office? How do you set one up? How do you find a campaign manager? What's C&E reporting?
Running for office can bring forth a lot of questions that you don't know how to answer. We can help.
With more than six decades of experience working on and running campaigns, we have the answers to those questions.
Office Operations
Setting up office space is an important part of running for office. Even if you're running for a local office like school board or city council, having a dedicated space for your campaign is important. Depending on your campaign, that space may be the den in your home, a small storefront, or a large building or office. Finding the location that meets your budget, campaign needs and an owner or realtor who will rent to a political campaign can be difficult, but we can help.
We can help locate your space, set up telephone and internet service, and more. Through our technology service we can even lease the computers and equipment needed for your office, all of which comes set up and ready to go.
We also offer training and assistance on establishing daily and weekly "good" office practices and routines.
Campaign Management
Besides setting up a campaign "office," there is a lot to be done to ensure your campaign runs smoothly and that the candidate is not spending his or her time on insignificant campaign managing as opposed to being out speaking with voters and winning community support.
We can help with services such as calendaring, policy research, candidate imaging and restoration - something that can be started well before the actual campaigning begins, message formation, earned media, and more. We can also assist in locating and training your campaign manager.
Our staff can set up the software and technology needed to assist your campaign manager in running the campaign, including purchase of the voter file, shared calendar system, internal collaboration system for sharing ideas and files, and more.
Compliance
One of the biggest nightmares for a candidate is to gain front page press for failing to comply with state, local or federal campaign regulations. We have decades of experience in handling the reporting of contributions and expenditures. We have years of experience using ORESTAR and strong familiarity with state reporting requirements. We have more than three decades' experience in Oregon's C&E reporting for campaigns, political parties, and other organizations. Our staff can put together best practices for your campaign for handling and recording contributions and expenditures and can handle all of the reporting of the items to the state in a timely manner.
We can also help you track other legal requirements such as labor laws, payroll deductions, fundraising restrictions and sign placement.
Voter File
One thing a campaign can't live without is the voter file. If you've never worked with the voter file before, there's a lot to know about how to best utilize it for your campaign.
We can help your campaign with training, mentoring, assistance, consulting or full voter file data management. We can do list preparation, data entry, turf cutting (creating a list of voters in a targetted geographical area to be canvassed door-to-door), data analysis, and more.
We can also train your staff in all aspects of how to use the voter file, from looking up voters, to pulling and cutting lists, to inputting the data collected through canvassing and phonebanking.
Field Operations
Without field operations, it's very difficult to win a contested election. But with our help, we can help you campaign devise and enact a plan to contact the voters in your area and build name recognition and support.
Between the members of our staff, we have thousands of hours in field work, support, and leadership. We've planned and run hundreds of canvasses and phone banks. And we've contacted an untold number of voters. In 2006 alone we were in charge of volunteers who made hundreds of thousands of voter contacts in support of the governor, legislative candidates, and local candidates. Our staff has worked to plan, enact, and oversee field operations in campaigns ranging from local, to legislative, to state-wide, to federal campaigns.
We can help plan and run phone banks and canvasses, including the preparation, kick-off, check in, and follow up. We can also train your staff and volunteers in field work best practices.
Event support and fundraising
A key part of any campaign is fundraising. Without it, you can't buy voter lists, print materials, purchase space in the voter guide, or offer snacks and water to volunteers who are helping on your campaign.
Our staff can offer support in best practices for fundraising, including building your list, contacting friends and family, dialing for dollars, writing effective fundraising letters, and more.
We can also assist in planning and executing events for raising funds for your campaign. Our staff have planned and set up numerous successful events, including spaghetti feeds and formal dinners. We can assist with all aspects of the event - finding the location, setting the theme, creating materials and printing - including invitations, tickets, programs, menu creation, and more. We can also handle renting and set up of equipment such as tables and chairs, sound system, and stages from small events to elaborate stage gigging.
We can set up your online fundraising ability, allowing your supporters to easily donate to your campaign, including ongoing monthly donations.
For more information
For more information, please contact us or use our online pricing form to get a quote.
