The Volunteer Ops Workbook
Turn your weekly door number into the shifts, sign-ups and asks it takes to fill them, then recruit, onboard and promote volunteers with a worksheet for every step.
- 27-page PDF
- Instant download
- A worked example on every page
Everything you need to find, organize and keep volunteers.
Volunteers knock the doors, make the calls and staff the events. The more of them you have, the less money you need to raise and the more voters you reach. But volunteers don't just show up. This workbook turns your door goal into the exact number of people you need to ask every week, then shows you how to ask, how to bring them back, and how to move your best people into real roles.
From your door goal to a team that keeps showing up.
Every number in this workbook comes from the one before it. Your weekly door goal becomes shifts. Shifts become sign-ups. Sign-ups become the asks you need to make. Then you recruit from your network and your events, run a first shift that brings people back, move your best volunteers up the ladder, and keep them through Election Day.
A worksheet for every step.
Know how many people to ask.
Volunteers are a numbers game. Every door takes a shift, and every shift takes more sign-ups than you think. Start with your weekly door number and work out the shifts, sign-ups and asks it takes, then plan exactly where every ask comes from.
- Your weekly volunteer math: doors to shifts to sign-ups to asks
- A petition drive planned in three weeks
- A network audit of the people most likely to say yes
- A weekly ask plan split across your network, events and website
Make the ask, and bring them back.
A good ask is specific: a task, a place, a day and a time, and why it matters. You'll write ask cards, keep every volunteer on one master sheet, run a first shift that makes them want a second one, and move your best people up the volunteer ladder.
- Ask cards with the confirm and reminder steps
- A master volunteer sheet and a printable sign-in sheet
- A first-shift checklist that brings people back
- The volunteer ladder, from first shift to precinct leader
Keep them through Election Day.
Recruiting never stops, but keeping people is easier. Volunteers come back when their time was well used and someone thanked them. You'll recognize your volunteers, watch for burnout, put captains in your priority precincts and plan the surge for GOTV.
- A recognition log and a burnout watch
- Precinct captains who own their turf
- A weekly volunteer dashboard
- A GOTV surge plan for the weeks you need everyone
What's included.
Built from the volunteer programs behind local races that filled every shift, with a worked example on every page.
- 27 pages, with a worked example and room for your own numbers on every worksheet
- Your weekly volunteer math: doors to shifts to sign-ups to the asks it takes to get them
- A network audit, a weekly ask plan and ask cards with the confirm and reminder steps
- A printable master volunteer sheet and an event and volunteer sign-in sheet
- The volunteer ladder, precinct captains, a volunteer dashboard and a GOTV surge plan
Built for the people who do the work.
First-time candidates
You need people and you're not sure where they'll come from. Every page shows a filled-in example, from the math to the exact ask.
Volunteer coordinators
The ask cards, master sheet, sign-in sheet and dashboard your volunteer program runs on, all in one place.
Field directors
Turn your weekly door goal into filled shifts, with captains in the precincts that decide the race.
A note from Craig.
Volunteers knock the doors, make the calls and staff the events. The more volunteers you have, the less money you need to raise and the more voters you can reach.
But I've watched too many campaigns hope people would show up. Hope isn't a plan. The campaigns that fill every shift are the ones that know exactly how many people they need to ask every week, and ask them well.
This workbook is the volunteer program I'd hand any candidate: the math, the ask, the first shift that brings people back, and the ladder that turns a one-time helper into a precinct leader.
Start with the number. Every volunteer you recruit after that has a job waiting for them.
The Volunteer Ops Workbook
Get the workbook that turns the people who say yes into the volunteers who run your campaign.
Prefer to be walked through it? The Volunteer Ops course covers every page of this workbook in video lessons, and what you pay for the workbook counts toward the course. Learn about the Volunteer Ops course →