In case you missed our panel at Netroots 2025 with José Nuñez, we talked about how in a world where traditional outreach methods are losing their effectiveness, political campaigns and advocacy groups must find new ways to connect with voters. The solution is relational organizing, an approach that leverages a campaign’s most valuable asset: its supporters and their personal networks.
Here is the deck that was shared during our presentation with some exciting findings from the DNC’s use of Relational Organizing with Reach during the 2024 cycle:
Relational organizing is about volunteers and organizers engaging their friends, family, and colleagues to mobilize support for a campaign. With record distrust in mainstream media and a rise in voter skepticism, a trusted messenger is often the only way to break through the noise. During our panel, José shared how this approach increases voter turnout and has more impact than many traditional voter mobilization tactics
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Harris/Walz campaign embraced this strategy by partnering with Reach to power their relational organizing efforts. Their approach centered on a hybrid model that combined user-generated and shared content, targeted messaging, and relational workflows to create a campaign that was both personal and scalable.
Building a Successful Relational Program
The DNC’s relational work was built on a replicable foundation of best practices
1. Create a Ladder of Engagement Start with low-bar, fun engagement events to introduce the concept of relational organizing, such as happy hours or bingo. From there, you can move volunteers up the ladder, from filling out a worksheet to downloading the app and beginning outreach.
2. Train Your Volunteers Provide a regular training schedule to keep momentum going. Go step-by-step, walking volunteers through every stage, from downloading the app to contacting their network. You should also provide engagement tips and scripts, applying principles of “Deep Canvassing” by focusing on issues people care about before talking about candidates or voting.
3. Recognize Success Regularly recognize your top volunteers. Use the Reach chat to send out regular updates and keep everyone informed. Shout out your leaderboard to keep volunteers engaged and coming back to the app.
4. Broaden Your Circles Always be recruiting relational volunteers, focusing on identifying geographies where you might be lacking volunteers. Remember that the best recruiters often come from the community itself. You can also integrate relational asks into other organizing activities, such as having phone bankers spend an hour “Friendbanking” or integrating Friendbanks into house parties and meet and greets.
By embracing these strategies and using the right tools, you can build a powerful relational program that meets voters where they are.
Schedule a live demo to learn more about Reach and how it might empower the work of your organization!
