The themes of the three days are: Activating Your Members/Supporters, Reaching New Audiences, and Stretching Your Online Budget:
Wednesday we will focus on the most fundamental online organizing skill of all: writing clear, compelling email outreaches that motivate members to take action. We'll spend about half the day sharpening our outreach writing skills and half the day focusing on the action itself (the "ask"). Full-group presentations will be followed by small group workshops where participants can hone in on a selected subtopic, like fundraising or advocacy or field organizing or member communications.
Thursday there will be a wide variety of "breakout" sessions to choose from, as well as a couple of featured speakers/panels, that look at how to reach new audiences. Participants will be able to s
elect the sessions that are most pertinent to their organization and role there. Thursday sessions will address leveraging social networks, engaging the netroots, generating earned media, and when to spend on paid advertising. Breakout sessions will delve into topics like building community for action, distributed events and fundraising, and engaging super-volunteers. Hands-on sessions will offer lessons like creating an effective blog, video and vlogging, and managing data integ»ration.
Friday the plan is to kick-off with an overview of technology that's available for advocacy campaigns at different price levels, then break out into small groups based on budget/needs to discuss these options more in-depth. Participants might choose: online campaign tools for a small budget, out-of-the-box CRM and CMS options, building from scratch: project management and developer selection, or tech resources for 501(c)(3) organizations. On Friday, we'll also address testing and benchmarks.
In late February, participants will have a chance to choose a "homework" assignment that matches their goals for the training. Participants will get personal feedback from guest trainers and a chance to workshop their assignment in a small group.
