MyCampaign Training & Reference Guide

This guide outlines the basic functions of the MyCampaign database and serves as an answer guide to questions first time or even experienced VAN users may encounter. For questions or issues that are not addressed in this guide, feel free to contact data@mavotertable.org.

What is MyCampaign?

MyCampaign is a powerful community organizing management tool in VAN, allowing you to keep a database for managing activists. It has the same tools as My Voters including, Quick Look Up, Create a List, and generating Reports. In addition, it has built in tools for managing activists, such as Creating Events, tracking Volunteer Activities, Availability/Scheduling and Setting goals.

Basics

Familiarize yourself with the MyCampaign Tab

When you first log into the VAN, you will most likely be on the My Voters page. To access MyCampaign, simply click on the tan tab to the right of My Voters. You will notice the MyCampaign page looks very similar to My Voters.

Adding people to MyCampaign

Unlike My Voters, MyCampaign allows you to add new people to the database. Whether they are a registered voter in your state or not, you can add anyone that you want to engage for your community organizing campaigns. This may also include volunteers that are unable to vote (non-­citizens), student volunteers that vote in their home state, out-of-state donors and anyone else that you engage.

The first thing you will want to do is search and see if they are in the My Voters database. If they are, you can avoid typing all their info into MyCampaign by simply copying their information over. If they are not in MyVoters, you will need to Add a New Person and fill in their info.

Step 1 - Quick Lookup

Click on “Quick Lookup” in the MyCampaign tab (Top/Middle of the screen)

Type in the name, City or any info you have of the activist you want to add & hit “Search”

Note: The more fields you enter info for the more restrictive the search becomes. It’s a good idea to start out with a broad search and then add additional fields to whittle down the number of results if necessary. For example, you may not need to enter a city if name alone provides just a few results.

Step 3 - Search My Voter File

If you don’t find the person (no data found), click “Search My Voter File”

Step 4 - Copy Person

If the person is located in My Voters, click the circle and hit “copy person”

Note: This is not a "live" connection but a snapshot of that person’s contact details as it is at that moment. From that point on, the records are kept separate from each other so that any changes made in My Voters will not show up in MyCampaign and vice versa.

Step 5 - Add New Person

If a person you want to add is not in My Voters, click “Add new person”

Step 6 - Save/Next

After you have filled in all the available information, click “Save/Next”

Repeat steps 1 through 6 to add all the activists you want included in the MyCampaign database. If you have a large list (100+) that includes full names and addresses, you can email your Data & Targeting Manager an Excel Sheet to be bulk uploaded into the system. Contact data@mavotertable.org to discuss the specific steps.

Volunteer Profiles

After you copy people into MyCampaign, one of the first tasks you will want to do is add to their “volunteer profile.” This will help you know what types of activities different volunteers are willing to do, the best time of day to try and contact them and what days of the week they are available to help.

Step 1 - Quick Lookup

Use the “Quick Lookup” tool to find your volunteer and scroll down to “Volunteer Profile”

Step 2 - Select & Save

Select the person’s preferred activities, availability and click “Save” Now you know when to contact this person and what activities to ask for help with!

Unique features of MyCampaign

You will notice some of the features found in MyCampaign are not available in My Voters. The most common are:

Otherwise, the tabs share many of the same features and you can refer to other VAN training guides for instructions on how to use them. For example, using the Virtual Phone Bank in MyCampaign will be no different than using it in MyVoters.

Events

Create Events to Organize the Actions Volunteers Take

As you start adding users to MyCampaign, there are various tools to help you keep them organized. MyCampaign’s Calendar is easily one of the most powerful tools in VAN. It’s a great way to track your events: local meetings, town halls, phone banks, canvasses, 1-1 meetings and any events that your volunteers or members will attend. These can be member only events or public events that you want to invite prospective members and potential activists to attend.

Follow these easy steps to start creating your events!

Step 1 - Calendar Events

Click on “Calendar Events” (Right hand corner on the screen)

Step 2 - Event Type

Click on the mini calendar with the green plus sign (top right hand corner)

Select the “Event Type” you want to create and click “Continue”

Note: If your organization has never used the Calendar before it will be empty. Please contact your VAN administrator for help on setting up your Calendar.

Step 3 - Add Details

Now you will add the details of your event, starting with event’s name

Note: The “Short Name” is what appears on your calendar when you are viewing the month.

Step 4 - Shifts

Click “Next” to add in the number of “Shifts” you want your event to have

Shifts are a great way to organize different aspects of the event you are creating and helps you know who is going to show up when and what they’re scheduled to do. For example, if you’re hosting a training, you may need volunteers to help you do prep and get set up, that’d be shift one. Shift two is the actual training and where the bulk of your attendees will be scheduled. Shift three could be a clean-up shift where your volunteers help you get everything back in order. Another example where using shifts would be helpful is a day of action event where you may have an AM, Noon, and PM canvass. Instead of creating a separate event for each, you can create one event with three canvass shifts.

Step 5 - Repeat Event

Click “Next” and now you can choose whether or not your event repeat

If you are hosting the same phonebank or canvass every week, it would be time consuming to continually re-create the same event. MyCampaign gives you the option to decide how often you want this event to occur. You also have the option to select “never,” meaning this is a one-time event.

Step 6 - Location

Next up, you can pick a location for your event

This is particularly helpful when you are working with other organizers or covering a large geographical area. You don’t want to accidentally schedule someone for the wrong location!

Step 7 - Roles

Now you want to select the different “Roles” you are scheduling people for. An event, such as a training, might only have an “Attendee” role. However, for other events, you might want to include and select other roles. For example, in a canvass, you would probably choose “Canvassing” and for a phone bank, “Phone Calling.” If the role you need is not currently an option, contact your VAN administrator for help.

Note: You should always plan on having a data volunteer to help you track your event RSVPs!

Click "Finish." Congratulations, you just created an event!

This is what your event will look like after you have added all your information. If you need to, you can come back to this menu to change the details of the event.

Schedule Volunteers for Events

Once you have created some events, you can start to schedule volunteers to attend them. The easiest way to schedule a group of people that have RSVP’d to attend an event is by using the “Quick Mark” function on the Main Page. This tool works similarly as it does in My Voters and can easily look up Volunteers, mark them and also schedule volunteers for single or multiple events. Let’s start with scheduling one event and later in the guide we will review how to schedule volunteers for multiple events.

Step 1 - Quick Mark

Select “Quick Mark” from the Main Menu and click “Schedule for Event”

Step 2 - Check RSVP Status

This menu will allow you to fill in the information for the event you are scheduling a person for, what their RSVP status is and will create a contact history on their record

Step 3 - Finish

After hitting “Finish,” you are ready to start looking up and scheduling volunteers

Simply type in the name of the person you are looking for. Once you find the person, you will notice a checkbox next to their name. Click on it and as soon as you hit “Save/Search” or search for your next person, they will be scheduled for your event. Continue this process until you are done scheduling volunteers.

Note: Volunteers who RSVP “Yes” should be listed as “Scheduled.”

If a volunteer has expressed interest in attending the event but did not give a hard “Yes” select the “Invited” option so you can follow up with them later.

Selecting the appropriate status will help keep you organized and avoid double calling people about the same event. You can follow up with volunteers later when you are doing Confirmation Calls to change their status.

Schedule Volunteers to Attend Multiple Events

Once you have started using the Calendar more and have multiple events that you want to invite volunteers to attend, you can use the “Quick Mark” tool and save yourself time scheduling your most active volunteers to multiple events.

Step 1 - Quick Mark

Select “Quick Mark” and click “Schedule for Event (using Event Scheduler)”

Step 2 - Enter Information

After hitting next, type in the information of the volunteer you want to schedule and click on the calendar icon next to their name. You will be able to select the event and activity type you want to schedule that volunteer for.

This method of scheduling volunteers will allow you to select multiple shifts and/or multiple events your volunteer has agreed to do. Once you are done, go back to your Quick Mark screen to schedule other volunteers.

View & Confirm Volunteers to Attend Events

Watch the video of how to view and confirm volunteers. After you have finished making your turnout calls for your event, it is time to review your list, do confirmation calls and update your list before your event. Click on your event in the calendar by selecting the magnifying glass icon.

Step 1 - View Participants

To see everyone you contacted, select your event and click “View Participants” Now you can view the list of your event volunteers and start your confirmation calls

Step 2 - Update Status

Call through your volunteers and update their status in the dropdown menu to “Confirmed” if they still intend to join, “Declined” if they decide they cannot attend or “Left Message” if you were unable to contact them to leave a reminder. When you are finished, hit “Save/Refresh”

Note: Once your list is updated, you can click “Export to Excel” to create and print a paper sign-in list for the day of your event. This will save you time and allow you to check off attendees instead of having everyone sign in individually. Alternatively, having a computer at your sign in table will allow you to check people immediately and eliminate the need for data entry of a paper sign in sheet!

Data Entry After the Event

Not only is the calendar useful for tracking your events and which volunteers RSVP’d, you also have the ability to update volunteer participation after the event has concluded. Do not skip the all-important step of going back and updating who attended, no-showed or has new or updated contact info. This will be extremely important as you plan future actions and target which volunteers are the most likely to attend, no-show or never respond to left messages.

Step 1 - View Volunteers

After the event, using your Excel generated sign-in sheet, go back to “View Volunteers” and mark who was a “Complete” or “No Show” or who you “Left Message” or “Invited” but were not able to speak directly with, then hit “Save/Next”

Step 2 - Update Contact Information

Click on the volunteer if you need to update any new contact information you might have from the event, including phone numbers, emails and best time of day to call

Note: Keeping good track of your event volunteers will also help you easily report whether or not you reached your goals. Good data hygiene will help with future actions.

Analyzing your Event Data with Event Participant Summary

After you start to use the Calendar regularly, you can use the “Event Participant Summary” tool on the Main Menu to analyze your data and quickly see how many people you are regularly turning out for various events.

Step 1 - Event Participant Summary

Click on “Event Participant Summary” to input the fields you want to review in the Counts/Crosstabs

Step 2 - Hit Refresh

Hit refresh for a breakdown of how your volunteers RSVP’d. This will show the various statuses a volunteer can have for a specific event. The most commonly used event statuses are:

This will help you determine what types of events people are most likely to turn out for. Future capacity building will become much easier if you know that 10% of your volunteers regularly “No Show” for a particular event or if some events have a 100% “Completed” rate. This will also help you target the types of volunteers you are reaching out to for given events. Understanding where your base of support is and what they are interested in doing for you will save you time as an organizer. After you analyze your data, start keeping track of people's’ “Volunteer Profiles” so you know which events you should invite them to and which you should not.

Organizations

Add Organizations & track Volunteers’ Relationships to them

The “Organizations” tool will allow you to keep track of important organizations that are sympathetic to your cause(s), as well as help you keep track of volunteers that have connections to those organizations. Whether it is a local union, church, non-profit or small business, you can track the establishments that people have connections to and that will be helpful in your organizing efforts.

Note: Before you can start tracking volunteers’ relationships to organizations, you need to first add the organizations

Step 1 - Organizations

Click “Organizations” on the Main Menu and select “Add new Organization”

Step 2 - Add Information

Type in the Organization name, contact information and hit “Save” Repeat steps 1 & 2 to continue adding as many organizations as you wish to track, next we will review how to link volunteers’ to the organizations you add.

Step 3 - Add New Person

After you add an organization and you go into the organization’s profile page, you can link volunteers by clicking on “Add New Person”

Step 4 - Add Person to Organization

Type in the name of the volunteer you wish to add, click the circle next to their name and select “Add Person to Organization”

Step 5 - Save

Type in any contact information you want to add for the volunteer and hit “Save”

Repeat Steps 3‐5 to continue adding people to the organization Now, when you click on the “Organizations” tool on the Main Menu and select an organization, you can see all your volunteers that are associated with that group.

FAQ

What should I use MyCampaign for?

Different campaigns and organizations use MyCampaign for different purposes. It's most commonly used for volunteer management. Campaigns will also use it to keep track of other key people, such as: donors, community leaders and any other organizational stakeholders. Most organizations should feel free to use MyCampaign for all of the above and more.

What should I not use MyCampaign for?

MyCampaign is intended for keeping track of people who play an important role in your campaign. Some of those people will not be in My Voters because they are not registered to vote in Massachusetts. It should NOT be used for voter identification and GOTV programs.

Who can see the data in MyCampaign?

Each MyCampaign database is exclusive to the users of your individual committee. You share this database with the other users from your organization, but not with users from other Voter Table organizations. Information entered in MyCampaign is typically not automatically transferrable to other tabs within VAN unless it is specifically set up to do so.

How often should I update the data in MyCampaign?

The information in MyCampaign is only as “fresh” as what you add to it. If someone’s email, phone number, mailing address or other information has changed, it is in your organization’s best interest to make sure you practice good “data hygiene” in MyCampaign by updating it. If a volunteer is no longer interested in or able to do canvassing, you should mark that in their volunteer profile and save time asking people to do activities they cannot participate in. Emailing or texting people at the wrong address is time you can never get back and shifts that will not be filled. Establishing organizational wide hygiene practices will keep your database healthy and lively when you need it most.

Where can I get additional training or help with questions?

For basic questions you can refer to the “Help Wiki” found in the upper right hand corner of every screen. If that does not answer your question, contact the Voter Table for assistance.