youth organizations

Bumped - Mike

In the wake of articles discussing the destruction of the Republican brand, it is important to look at our own organizations and chapters as brands.

There are some activists that get very angry any time someone refers to a political party, organization, or candidate as a brand, saying that democracy is not a business and all that jazz. Regardless of that utopian view of the political world, your organization's branding and fundraising is pretty similar to the business world.

As a political advocacy/outreach organization your "product" is the impact you will have in reaching a political outcome. For non-partisan voter registration organizations this is new voters. For partisan youth organizations this is getting young voters out to vote as Democrats, and thereby electing Democrats to office.

When you ask a potential donor to contribute money to your organization, they expect a return on their investment (ROI). While in the business world ROI normally refers to revenue, in the advocacy world it is the impact your organization will have in reaching shared goals (your product). The opportunity cost of a donor's contribution to your organization is a contribution to another organization (In actuality, the opportunity cost is anything that could be purchased by the amount of their donation, but we will assume that they have allocated that amount to political contributions). Your organization needs to have the reputation of being extremely successful in reaching its desired outcomes, or else a donor will look somewhere else.

Your brand, then, is essentially the general perception that is held about your organization. Most importantly, what you stand for and the expectations of your efficacy.

Your brand is also what your organization is associated with in people's minds. Are you seen as energetic, active, and hip? Or are you seen as boring, lackluster, and weak? The conceptions people hold and adjectives they would use to describe your organization are extremely powerful.

Maintaining your organization's brand image is extremely important. Recovering a brand that has a tarnished reputation is much harder than building up a brand from scratch.

Here are some tips for developing and monitoring your brand:

Keep track of what people are saying about you.

This involves media monitoring and listening to your supporters. Check out my post on media monitoring for ideas. Frequently ask your members and supporters what they think about the organization and what they have heard people say about it. Word of mouth is extremely powerful and you don't want to let anything negative slip passed you unanswered.

Decide what you want your brand to be.

When companies start out they spend a lot of time determining what the goals of their brand are. A lot of political organizations don't. Think about what adjectives you would want people to use when describing your organization, and then create a plan that would result in that. It is important that your branding is carried out over all aspects of your organization. If you want people to describe you as energetic and active, you don't want to have a boring website that is rarely updated. Your brand is your message. Don't stray off message.

Do your absolute best.

The best marketing team in the world would have a nearly impossible time making an organization that doesn't do anything look like it is extremely active and effective. That is why you need to do everything you can to make your organization the best it can be. In the world of political activism, where your products are results, hard work and continued effort are the best ways to build your brand.

Traditionally partisan youth political organizations have been based solely on promoting the party and its candidates. Membership has been dominated by hyper-political and super-active aspiring politicians, staffers, activists, and party leaders. With the rise and coming of age of the new Millennial generation, we must branch out and expand membership to those that are not necessarily die-hard party politicos.

First, organizations need to welcome members that are more casual politically than traditional members. I have seen chapters of organizations that are extremely active scare off potential members by not truly accepting those that are not dedicating every waking hour to politics. With the concepts of the Pareto Principle (20% of your members will do 80% of the work) and The Long Tail (the small actions taken by the many less active members will be substantial in aggregate), we have to accept that not every member is going to be super-active and that casual members are valuable.

Second, integrating community service into your organization's activities will expand your appeal. Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais, authors of Millennial Makeover, write "Eighty percent of Millennials have done some sort of community service in high school. Eighty-five percent believe that directly contributing something to the community is an important way to improve it." In an earlier Future Majority post Alice wrote about the Culture of Volunteerism among Millennials.The appeal of community service to young people can draw members into your organization if you integrate community service into your program. Organizations like Democrats Work have been very successful, and Sen. John Edwards used community service with his One Corps program to draw people in. Not only can a community service program help you find new members, but will also associate your organization's brand with giving back to the community and possibly result in earned media.

It is also important to reach out to allied issue organizations. There are a number of strong youth environmental movements that could be partnered with. Net neutrality communities are often overlooked by youth organizers. Standing for issues that are attractive to Millennials and partnering with those issue organizations will serve your organization well in recruiting members and expanding your reach.

What other steps can youth political organizations take to expand their appeal and move beyond pure party politics?