Messaging and outreach strategy

We're looking for help honing the marketing message and strategies we're using to try to bring organizations on board with one of our organization's major projects.

This will include:

- figuring out what approach is most likely to be successful

- determining what materials we need to create (or refine) so we can make it as easy as possible for them to say yes

- defining the steps we go through to try to bring on another organization, and

- improving our method for tracking where we are in the development of each of these relationships.

At every election, volunteers around the country help register voters, get out the vote, and work the polls. Their work is essential in increasing participation in our democracy and protecting the freedom to vote.

However, very few people know that there's another step that needs massive public participation: observing the processing and counting of votes. This will be especially crucial in the 2024 elections, as thousands of election workers and officials will be brand new to their jobs due to massive resignations in the face of harrassment and threats following the 2020 election.

The AFTER Project (Act For Trusted Election Results) involves training volunteers to be skilled observers, so they can support election workers while ensuring that election processes are carried out accurately. Specifically, we're working to coordinate with organizations that mobilize workers to register voters and get out the vote, because their volunteers are the best candidates to perform this post-election observation, and their other volunteer duties are complete by the time we need them. We need help with our approach to these potential partner organizations as well as recruiting volunteers not associated with other organizations.

Our online introductory training has already been offered 10+ times, with very little attendance. We've had many conversations with potential partner organizations, who nearly all seem excited about the project but then are lost to follow-up despite diligent attempts on our part to keep the communication going.
We've held two or three training sessions for leaders from these organizations.
We have a Trello board where we track communications with the dozens of potential partner organizations we've identified.
We have a small working group of dedicated volunteers that's been meeting weekly to work on this project for nearly two years. They're prepared to implement a new marketing plan, with guidance from the Executive Director and administrative assistant from the organization's VA.