Setting Up Your Team (Responsibilities and Roles) – Help Center

To run a successful OutreachCircle program, it’s important to divvy up responsibilities and define clear roles:

Candidate and/or Campaign Manager:

The candidate/campaign manager can be the biggest asset in growing a friend-to-friend canvassing program.
Identify and contact high value influencers that may know 500-1000+ voters. Think of high value influencers like high value donors; both require care, attention and follow-ups.

Roles of the candidate/campaign manager include:

Identify and recruit existing supporters who are likely to be influential in the community. Send emails and make calls to these influencers, ask them to use OC, and connect them with Deputy/Field Director or Organizers, depending on the level of “touch” needed to handle that specific influencer.
At all public events with supporters (i.e. donor house parties, volunteer work parties, etc.) remind people that your campaign is doing things differently by asking supporters to reach out to their connections. Point out OC volunteers in the room, and ask supporters to set up a time to sit down with them and use OC. This kind of constant reminder and framing from the top of the campaign makes it easier for your team to recruit supporters and hold them accountable.

As with other forms of canvassing such as phone banking or door knocking, someone needs to be in charge of your campaign’s OC friend-to-friend canvassing program.
Depending on the size of your campaign, this role is often filled by the field director or Volunteer Coordinator.
Make sure your OC lead is comfortable with technology
The OC lead will need to work closely with the field and digital (or Comms) departments

Roles of the OC lead include:

Walk high-touch supporters (i.e. Major donors, important elected officials, etc.) through OC in person or on the phone.
Set up data tracking for OC, and assign data import and export responsibilities to staff or volunteers.
Build OC program - including a message calendar and recruitment ramp - which integrates and fits strategic goals of campaign.

Depending on the scale of your campaign, assigning individuals the role of OC organizer can be critical to scaling your efforts.

Roles of organizers/digital canvassing captains include:

Recruit OC supporters via email, text or phone
Run OC Banks or OC sessions at phone banks.
Attend house parties, public campaign events, and work parties with laptops; recruit people to use OC and sign them up on the spot.
Train volunteers to be OC Volunteers - OC Volunteers can help run OC Banks, host OC house parties, and sign their friends and family members up to use OC.

Depending on the donor, their value to your campaign as a potential Super Influencer could be larger than their value as a donor.
Work with your fundraising team to identify campaign donors who are likely to know a lot of voters.
Fold an OutreachCircle ask into the donation ask, and connect them with the OC Lead.

Work with the campaign team to send out blast emails with a link to sign up (see OC Supporter Sign Up on how to create a unique join link) for OC at critical junctures in the campaign.