Set up a Relational Organizing campaign

Want your volunteers reaching out to people who already know and trust them, instead of a shared list of strangers? A Relational Organizing campaign turns each volunteer's own contacts, friends, family, neighbors, into an outreach channel. This article walks you through creating one; it's for campaign managers and organizers at nonprofits, advocacy groups, and political campaigns.

Before you start

• You need campaign manager access to create a campaign in CallHub.
• Create your contact list and any tags you want to use before you start. The campaign details step asks you to select from lists and tags that already exist in your account.
• Volunteers and agents need the CallHub Mobile App installed to make calls or send texts for a Relational Organizing campaign.
• Setup has three short sections: campaign details, scripts and surveys, and agents and schedule. Expect it to take about as long as setting up any other CallHub campaign.

Why use Relational Organizing

A request from a friend lands differently than one from a stranger. Relational organizing works because it relies on the trust, shared values, and sense of community that already exist between a volunteer and their personal contacts, rather than routing everyone through a shared organizational contact list. A text from a friend encouraging someone to vote is more persuasive than a call from a campaign staffer; a personal ask from someone a donor already knows and trusts gets more donations than a cold appeal.

What you can expect to achieve:

• Wider reach. Every volunteer's personal network becomes an outreach channel, extending you well past your organization's own contact list.
• Stronger engagement. Conversations grounded in an existing relationship get answered and acted on more often than outreach from someone unfamiliar.
• Progress on your actual goal. Nonprofits use this approach to grow donations, advocacy groups use it to build a network of activists, and political campaigns use it to turn out votes, all by leaning on relationships that already exist instead of building trust from zero.

Step 1: Add your campaign details

1. Enter a name for your campaign.
2. Select the Contact List you want volunteers to draw their outreach from.
3. Add any Tags you use to organize your campaigns.
4. (Optional) Under Campaign Banner, click Upload Image to add a banner. It appears on the campaign card, which helps your agents tell campaigns apart at a glance. 

Step 2: Set up scripts and surveys

1. Turn on the toggle for each outreach medium you want to offer: Message Script, Call Script, or a script for another medium.

2. Write the script text for each medium you enable. Volunteers use this as their starting point, and can personalize it before sending since they're reaching their own contacts. 

   

3. Check the Default outreach medium section. CallHub automatically sets the first script you enabled 

   

4. Click + Add Question to add each survey question.
5. If you add more than one survey, turn on the toggle to mark at least one of them as required. 
6. Click Next to continue.

✓ Your first enabled script becomes the default outreach medium automatically. If you want a specific medium to lead, set that one up first, or double check the Default outreach medium section before moving on.

Step 3: Assign agents and set the schedule

1. Choose who works the campaign: Assign All Agents, select specific agents, or select specific teams. 

   

2. Set the campaign's Start and End dates.
3. Choose the campaign's timezone. It defaults to your account's timezone; pick another from the dropdown if you want the campaign to run on a different schedule.
4. Click Finish to complete the campaign setup.

ⓘ Volunteers and agents can only make calls and send texts for a Relational Organizing campaign through the CallHub Mobile App. Confirm your team has it installed before the campaign starts, or they won't be able to work it.

Notes & limits

ⓘ Volunteers can switch between any medium you enabled, not just the default one, so they can use whichever feels most comfortable for their personal contacts.

✓ Since volunteers personalize the script before sending it to their own contacts, write it as a starting point rather than a rigid message, something they'd feel natural editing before it goes to a friend or family member.

FAQs

Which outreach mediums can volunteers use? 
Message Script, Call Script, or a script for another medium, whichever you enable in Step 2. Volunteers default to whichever one you set as the Default outreach medium, but they can switch to any medium you've enabled.

What happens if I set up more than one survey? 
You need to mark at least one of them as required using the toggle. Volunteers still see and can answer every survey you added.

Do agents need any special software to work this campaign? 
Yes. Volunteers and agents make calls and send texts for a Relational Organizing campaign through the CallHub Mobile App, not the browser dialer used in other campaign types.

Do I need to create my contact list and tags first? 
Yes. The campaign details step asks you to choose from a contact list and tags that already exist in your account, so create them before you start.