Here are five steps to planning a successful relational organizing event using Impactive:
1. Plan Your Event Agenda and Action
Use the template event agenda and checklists below to come up with your run of show, and figure out roles for volunteers and staff, logistics, and materials. For your event action, have at least one primary relational organizing ask for your volunteers to do on Impactive, with secondary asks available if they complete the primary ask during the shift.
2. Recruit
Remember that typically only 30-50% of people who RSVP for a volunteer event attend. So plan to invite a 2x-3x more people than you actually need, and make sure to follow up to confirm their participation ahead of the event. Additionally, remind RSVPs to bring their phones, and if possible download the Impactive app and join your campaign beforehand.
3. Prepare Impactive
Make sure to prepare Impactive well ahead of time, including remembering to:
Draft content for Impactive including text and any photos or media for the action
Get proper internal review including legal review if needed
Make sure any necessary tags are created in Impactive to track report backs
If applicable, ensure your VAN/Salsa/PDI data sync is working (work with your local data manager if needed)
4. Test the action
Additionally, a few days before the event, set up Impactive and test it by remembering to:
Set up the action as a private action first (by not setting a publish date) and sharing it with the list of team members you want to test it
Test it out with your team to work out any technical issues. If you’re going to be using the web app make sure the action works well on both phone and web
Have a plan for sending the action to attendees at the event—either through an uploaded user list at the event or sending it individually if it is a smaller group. You can also publish the action to be public for everyone if you want to give all of your supporters on Impactive the ability to take the action.
5. Follow Up & Report Back
Lastly, make sure to follow up one-on-one with each of your volunteers after the event to make sure they’ve followed up with their contacts and recorded their responses in Impactive. You can do this by contacting people through Impactive, a phone call, or a text message.
Sample Relational House Party Agenda
Time: 60-120 minutes
Agenda:
Welcome and Introductions
House party host shares their personal story
(Optional) Impactive walk-through by host or campaign staffer, where attendees sync their contacts
Ideally by this point everyone will have downloaded Impactive. If not, walkthrough the process of downloading and signing up.
Pitch the importance of reaching out to x number of personal contacts
Together, everyone participates in relational outreach recruiting
Provide instructions on follow-up responses
Host adds a hard ask by asking everyone to sign up for a future training session or relational 1:1
Celebration of outreach completed!
Recommended Roles:
If possible, try to have a group of at least 3-5 volunteers to plan your event. It will help make the event go much more smoothly for you and everyone involved. Some of the roles you can
recruit are:
Event Lead: Ensures that the event is successful, acts as your primary point of contact, and supports other team members as needed.
Facilitator: Responsible for preparing the agenda, presenting the necessary information, and making sure the event runs well.
Recruitment & Registration Coordinator: Getting (and tracking) supporters and attendees to come to the event. This includes doing outreach ahead of the event and coordinating with the event planning team to reach out to their networks. Also responsible for sending reminders and directions. During the day of they are responsible for checking in volunteers.
Logistics Coordinator: In charge of space, food, and materials.
This includes:
Scheduling the meeting and being point of contact for questions on the day of the event
Ensure all materials for the event are ready (slides, potential prizes, etc.)
Impactive Coordinator: This can be the same as the registration coordinator but they should have administrator access to Impactive and be ready to share your actions on Impactive with all the attendees at the event after people have joined
Materials Checklist
The Logistics Coordinator makes sure the materials are prepared ahead of time.
Materials you may need for your relational organizing event include:
❏ Relational Organizing contact brainstorm list
❏ Swag or prizes to give out to the person who makes the most contacts (optional)
❏ Digital or paper thermometer to track overall contact goal number and progress (optional)