From list building to power mapping
There’s a lot of discussion within the donor organizing community of how to bring new people into our fold.
Many of us have been carrying heavy leadership weights for many years and are ready to build a bench. Without much support from the broader movement, how do we get that bench built?
From List Building to Power Mapping: Making Tailored Strategic Asks
Currently, the invitation for someone to join our efforts is often by coming to a fundraising event or meeting. Sample language may look like:
“RSVP and share this upcoming event with 3 of your friends!”
On the surface, this makes sense. We have an upcoming event where we want as many people as possible to attend so that we can raise as many resources as we can for progressive causes we care about.
But unless this person we’re inviting has been specifically tapped to become a co-host of our group - which is a clear role with explicit responsibilities and rewards - oftentimes the most we’ll get back when we hear from them next is, “I’ve been meaning to get to your email! Sorry about that!”
If we’re lucky, they may fulfill our request to RSVP and possibly share it with 1-2 others. But without a clear vision of their role, they won’t be the new members and future leadership we’re hoping for. They’ll just see it as another obligation on their never-ending to-do list that promotes internalized guilt rather than the transformation, impact, and community we find in our donor organizing work.
What if instead of making one-size-fits-all asks, we tailored them to the skills, interests, and relationships that our people have?
3 Steps to Building (More) Political Power From Your Existing Network
Here's how to tap into the not-yet-harnessed power of people you already know. (Spoiler alert: it's good old fashioned organizing.)
If you haven’t yet, start making a list people you know. You can start using this exercise. Over time, you can continue to return to this list with details and updates.
Go through that list of people and think of specific ways they may be called to action. Do they have particular skills or know someone your group may find useful in achieving your goals? You’ll likely be surprised at the possibilities that come up from a quick brainstorm.
Rather than asking them to take action over a text or email that often goes ignored, ask them for a 1:1 conversation where you can invite them to join you. Bring thoughtful questions to learn about what they care about. Make an ask - people love being invited to share their resources and skills! You can find a great primer on 1:1s here.
Example in Action: Donor Organizer Hub
When Donor Organizer Hub launched, I sent a mass email to 100-some friends like a nagging woodpecker, asking for intros to 3 friends who might be interested in becoming a donor organizer.
My friend Silvia was one recipient. Feeling that this was an email blast rather than a personalized call to action, her email was read but not responded to.
Over the next month, I had conversations with various stakeholders that made it clear how little research there currently is on grassroots donor motivations - and how important that research is for us to resource our movements.
And I remembered: Silvia has a background in user research and testing. How wonderful!
In our introductory sync, she gave an overview of research versus testing tradeoffs, and the steps for experiment creation (knowing what questions you want answered, deciding on the type of test from those questions, and from there beginning outreach to potential participants).
Now, she’s our go-to person to craft and launch research (small or big) that can eventually benefit the broader progressive donor ecosystem.