2011 Spring Semester - Getting a Campaign Off the Ground

This semester of Night School will tackle the question of ‘Getting a Campaign Off the Ground’. Every Wednesday this month we’ll provide an interactive online training for grassroots progressives that will help us identify and prepare the best progressive candidates for the 2012 elections.

June 1st - Ready, Set, Run! - Launching Your Campaign

know you want to run. But do you know where to begin? The first steps of beginning a campaign can be daunting but DFA is here is put you on the right track. Join Helen Strain from Planned Parenthood to learn how to get on the ballot, ways to build your base early and pitfalls to avoid.

May 25th - Building a Progressive Majority - Candidate Recruitment

Where is the next Paul Wellstone or Nancy Pelosi? The truth is that progressive leaders are developed not born. It's up to you and DFA members across the country to discover the progressive leaders of tomorrow and give them the tools and support to run for office. Join Dave Woodward from Progressive Majority for a training on targeting races, recruiting candidates and equipping them with the power to win.

June 8th - Start Up Fundraising & Budgeting

Running a successful campaign begins with good planning. Writing an accurate budget and a realistic finance plan are key to running a professional campaign. Setting goals and benchmarks and tracking your progress throughout a campaign are important aspects of successful fundraising. How do you write a budget? How do you plan your fundraising strategy? Join our night school call to find out, with guest trainer Selene Hofer-Shall, managing partner of Theseus Advisors, LLC.

March 2 - From Cairo to Madison: Unleashing the Power of the Rally

We'll start by focusing on rallies. We'll cover when it's appropriate to organize a rally and when it's not as well as how to make sure you've got all the logistics covered and can hit your turnout goals. We'll have special guest trainers from Common Cause and will be using the recent rally outside the Koch Brothers annual meeting in Los Angeles as a case study.

March 16 - Digital Empowerment: Winning with Petitions

Our third online training in March will cover Petition Drives. We'll go into how to plan and execute a petition drive that enagages and empowers people and sends a clear message to your elected officials. We'll be featuring guest trainers from www.dreamactivist.org and will use the Dream Act as a case study.

March 9 - Pressing for Reform: Earning Media for Your Issue Campaign

Our second Night School training will focus on Press Conferences. We'll go into how to get the media's attention and set up a professional and effective press conference that will get positive coverage for your issue. We'll be featuring guest trainers from Health Care for America Now (HCAN) and using the 2009 health care debate as a case study.

March 23 - Citizen Advocacy and Your Elected Official

Our final Night School session in March will focus on Constituency Meetings. We'll cover how to set up a meeting with an elected official or their staff, how to prepare for the meeting as well as go through a sample agenda of how to run an effective constituent meeting. We'll be using Hydrolick Frackturing as the case study.

Summer/Fall Semester 2010

Aug. 18th, 2010 - Messaging for Progressives

Sept. 1st, 2010 - Creating a Positive Campaign Culture

Sept. 15th, 2010 - Mobilizing Progressives with Google

Aug. 25th, 2010 - Mobilizing Key Constituencies: Labor, Women, and Veterans

Sept. 8th, 2010 - Relational Organizing 101: 1-1s, House Parties and Emergency Meetings

Sept. 22nd, 2010 - GOTV: Getting Out the Progressive Vote

 

Fall 2009

Wednesday September 23th - 8:30pm Eastern

 

Spring/Summer Semester 2009 (click to view videos)

Our 2009 Spring and Summer Night School sessions focus on remaining engaged during the off years of election cycles and show you how to build your local party, recruit better candidates and effectively lobby your elected officials to enact progressive legislation.  Our Twitter: Hype vs. Reality training took place live at Netroots Nation 2009 in Pittsburgh.

Building a Better County Party

Citizen Lobbying

Candidate Recruitment

Twitter: Hype vs. Reality

 

Fall Semester 2008   (click to view videos)

This semesters training goes into details of how to run a succesful campaign.  From recruiting volunteers to implementing succesful strategies to reach out to constituents, this semesters training covers it all.  We even included how to wind down a campaign succesfully so that you or a succesor can pick up where you left off for the next election.

Shutting Down a Campaign

Canvassing & Phonebanking

Recruiting Volunteers

How to Increase Voter Turn Out

 

Summer Semester 2008 (click to view videos)

This semesters training starts out on how to get a job on a campaign with Amy Prichard the Democratic GAIN President.  We then move on to discuss Professor George Lakoff's new book on progressive politics.  The semester closes with a talk from Zack Exley of the New Organizing Institute on how the internet is changing the way we organize in America.

Online Organizing

The Political Mind w/ George Lakoff (live from Netroots Nation!)

Getting a Campaign Job

 

 

Spring Semester 2008   (click to view videos)

This semesters training sessions  focus on writing your campaign's blueprint for success: Your Field Plan.  We discuss where and when to deploy the limited volunteer and financial resources so that they have the greatest impact.  This training also focuses on the most effective tactics you can employ to get your message out to the voters, setting benchmarks for success and laying your plan out on a realistic timeline.

Writing a Field Plan: Part 2

Writing a Field Plan: Part 1

 

Fall Semester 2007 (click to view videos)

This semester we're dedicating five sessions completely to the topic of organizing your local precinct. It doesn't matter if you live in Boston or West Texas, this is something that anyone, anywhere can do. In short the more precincts we get organized, the more we'll win in November.

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• August 2nd: Building an Open Progressive Community

September 11th: Precinct Organizing: Getting Started

September 18th: Precinct Organizing: Recruiting Your Precinct Team

1. September 25th: Precinct Organizing: Making an Impact

October 2nd: Precinct Organizing: Building Networks Across Precincts

 

Summer Semester 2007

The Summer 2007 semester was all about fundraising. We have some excellent guests including former state party chairs, congressional finance directors and staff from ActBlue.

June 12th: Developing a Finance Plan

June 19th: Fundraising: Events and Call Time

June 26th: Fundraising: Online and Email

 

Spring Semester 2007

Fresh off our tremendous victories in 2006, DFA Night School turned its focus on sustaining and building on our successes.

March 6th: Holding Elected Leaders Accountable

March 13th: Building Progressive Coalitions

March 20th: Anyone Can Run

 

Fall Semester 2006

September 19: Framing the Election with George Lakoff

September 26: Winning with Social Networks

October 3: Voting Early, Voting Easily, Voting Safely

October 10: Getting Out The Vote

 

July 25: Mainstream Media: Breaking In

August 1: Leveraging Blogs and Online Media

August 8: Sustaining your Media Presence

 

Spring Semester 2006

April 11: Moving our Message

April 18: Building a Grassroots Army: Volunteer Recruitment

April 25: Rules of the Road: Canvassing

May 2: How to Make Phoning Fun