I have always heard, “We can always get a volunteer to help us do X” in almost every campaign I have been a part of. But as I have learned both in politics and in corporate life, volunteers are notoriously fickle and quality varies wildly.
They want to help, but other things can easily pop-up and distract (e.g. job, wife/husband, children, emergency). IMHO, very few people in the world are capable of giving up their day job (or their relationship) to work a campaign which can end in either victory (reward: good feeling to a job with a governmental wage) or defeat. And while I have been blessed by excellent volunteers in the past, but not all of them could come to the plate today because of their other obligations – which I completely understand.
Incentivizing the Field Director on finding the right kind of volunteer assures you that you have some level of sustainability and stability on your staffing – and can build them up into other roles as the campaign grows.
Third hire: Campaign Manager
You more than likely are saying – “What? Why so late?”
Simple answer – you need money and people before you need middle management. Campaign managers are very important – because they usually compliment your strengths and weaknesses (yes, you do have some skills that are not as good as others). A good campaign manager will know how to manage the growing team and accomplish many of the tasks that need to be addressed.
The CM needs to manage the team – but also need to manage the District. Originally, I did not think that this is one I did not think was a big deal, especially in a Congressional campaign. But as with any hierarchy, my experience has led me to recognize the importance of maintaining a positive relationship with the Beltway. While money does not fall from heaven by “being friends with the District”, positive word-of-mouth is always important. Especially in a city that what you know and who you know is so important. And with donors taking their cues from the friends in “the know”, IMHO it is important.
So, how to incentivize the CM? Now, this can be an interesting one – and one I put together with my candidate. I focused on the cash burn and the cash generation, created these earlier incentivization programs for staffers so as to reduce the cost of staff, and then kept expenditures down while pushing for fundraising drives – both offline and on.
My success: for the first five months of the campaign prior to my arrival, 2.5 staffers cost approximately $13K per month. Two months later, we had grown our campaign staff by six people (not including me) and our cost structure only went up by $2K, but had incentive programs in place that we aligned with our fundraising targets.
Can you do this now?
Absolutely. I did this with companies, consulting arrangements, campaigns and other programs. Instead of paying for someone’s time – we focus on their commitment to the success of the effort and their contribution to the success.
The argument against this is often “But, there is no control by the staffer on the success of the campaign. How could they even agree to an incentive program?” My response is simple: no company, project, campaign or anything that requires people to work together is a guarantee. Enrolling them in the program and showing them respect, responsibility and professionalism is how teams are formed and successes are achieved.
I couldn’t agree more with the concept of incentives. And including all staff in general incentives is a great idea that helps the entire campaign grow as it goes. And in my experience, the Field Director definitely comes before the Campaign Manager, at least chronologically. Great info, thanks.
a good briefing,there is need to improve developing the uncoming managers
I wish that our political campaigns transform into professionalism driven not goons for Hire driven in order to give elections a true meaning of democracy
As do I. Do know that the US is the most professional of them all (compared to the rest of the world).
I’m a first time campaign Manager and I find this information quite useful. Thank you for the information.
Happy to be of help.