Non-profits and political campaigns are in midst of a historic shift from a world of expert-driven, direct mail oriented organization sto nimble, data-driven, learning organizations that place relationship building and mobilization of supporters at the heart of their work.
So what does that mean for government?
Matt Price and Jon Stahl wrote an interesting paper called Engagement Organizing – The Culture and Technology of Building Power that has some key tips for government agencies
1) Focus on 3 phased approach
-Recruitment – build the biggest funnel of folks interested in you
-Mobilizing
-Distributed Organizing
2) Integrate the phone – We want to get to the necessary face-to-face interactions with supporters, but getting there from a purely online relationship isn’t easy. Using the phone within a week of recruitment is a relatively inexpensive and effective bridge to get there, and valuable activating people at key moments.
3) Your database is everything – Recruitment isn’t recruitment until a supporter’s name and contact information is safely stored in your database.
5) Be Epic
It’s a great read and lots of it is relevant for government agencies as well