Sub Guides

Need to only catch up on one topic? View guides by topic below. Click the box to view the pdf.

Guide 1: The Types of Political Tech

Political tech is a huge industry; taking into account the spending of nonprofits, foundations, cam- paigns, committees, and other interested parties, it’s worth many billions of dollars- even in off-cycle years. It’s important to understand the different types of tech and where they can fit into a campaign.

Guide 2: Data, Tools, and Analytics

To understand campaign tech, it’s critical to understand the vernacular that comes with it. When you are talking to campaign and political tech teams, three terms will be tossed around a lot: tools, analytics and data. This guide will breakdown the difference.

Guide 3: What's Holding The Left Back?

The Left faces certain ingrained challenges around innovation cycles, how we mobilize around tools, how donor money flows throughout the campaign period and a lack of voting overall. Learn more about where we can shore up our chances of winning by preparing for these trends and working to educate others on them as well.

Guide 4: The Critical Nature of (Good) Data

Good data can make or break your race, but it’s often hard enough just to figure out where to GET data, much less know if
it’s GOOD data. This section breaks down how voter data works, who owns it, how to improve it, soft data vs. hard data and the new landscape of data hubs.

Guide 5: Social Media, Web Site and Email—The Free Basics

Every candidate can benefit from a good web site, email tool and social media presence, and here are some best practices in these areas.

Guide 6: Digital Media Basics

Maximizing your Digital Media is the biggest challenge a campaign faces today. Learn about all aspects of how to master dig- ital media, including spend, targeting, ad creative, buying partners and more.

Guide 7: Current Marketplace Dilemmas: What to Ask Consultants and Firms Before Hiring

As a campaign manager, identifying which tools to invest in with your limited budget is an enormous challenge. Learn what to ask vendors and consultants before hiring, and how to prepare before choosing a campaign toolstack.

Guide 8: Light Cybersecurity Guidelines

We could not release a tech framework guide without including some references on how to run the safest campaign you can. This section will arm you with a simple frame of reference and checklist to implement basic cyber vigilance in your organization.

Guide 9: Tech Toolstack Recommendations by Campaign Size

There are over 300 political tech tools out there, and it can be hard to know where to start. This section will break out the tools by category, show you which ones to consider per size of campaign, and give descriptions by tool category so you know the landscape.

Guide 10: Relational Organizing, Texting and Deep Canvassing: Breakout Hits from 2018

2018 showed breakout success with several tactics, including relational organizing, texting and deep canvassing. This section examines the the pros and cons of each tactic.

Guide 11: How To Organize Your Team

There’s a variety of team members that circulate around campaigns, and also a variety of ways they can be organized, depending on the level of campaign you are running. Read the best organization charts for your campaign team broken out by size of campaign.

Guide 12: Candidate Free Resource Guide

Across the wonderful ecosystem of groups on the Left, there’s a myriad of activists standing by to aid you in your campaign work as you go. Here’s a guide to who can aid you with what, so you can offset your costs, join forces and WIN!

Guide 13: Candidate Training Programs Guide

Across the wonderful ecosystem of groups on the Left, there’s a myriad of activists standing by to aid you in your campaign work as you go. Here’s a 2- page summary guide to our Candidate Free Resource Guide.

Want to Send To Your Community?

In addition to the guides we have also prepared some materials to make it easy for you to share!