Organize Your Relationships
Join The Democrats On Reach
Program Overview
We’re building an organizing program around a simple principle: that YOU are the best advocate with the people in your life. Join us in having conversations directly with our friends, our families, and sharing key campaign messaging and content within our communities online. That’s how we break through the noise, that’s how we organize, that’s how we win.
In today’s digital age, we are bombarded with messages and news from all directions. Amidst the noise, it’s our personal connections & relationships that truly stand out and make a difference. That’s where you come in.
Organizing is about leveraging our existing relationships – with friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors – to encourage action, whether that’s voting, attending an event, or supporting our campaign. It is founded on the principle that people are more likely to take action if asked by someone – like you – they know and trust, rather than a stranger.
Organizing your relationships is important for many reasons. Here’s a few:
- Trust and Credibility: People are more receptive to messages from individuals they know and trust. Conversations with friends or family members are more likely to be meaningful and impactful.
- Increased Engagement: Personal connections drive higher engagement rates. Individuals are more likely to take action when asked by someone from their own network.
- Strengthening Community Ties: When you organize the people you know, it strengthens connections within communities. It fosters a sense of shared responsibility and collective action.
- Impact Growth: Each individual has a unique network of relationships. By tapping into these networks, we can exponentially increase our reach and impact to support President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Democrats up and down the ballot.
The Reach App
We partnered with Reach – our new phone and desktop app – which is designed to help YOU better organize your relationships. It provides an easy-to-use platform to organize your networks, initiate conversations, and track interactions. With features that help you share key campaign content on social media, check your contact’s registration status, craft personalized messages, set reminders for follow-ups, and much more.
Organizing your relationships is a powerful and essential approach to mobilize support and drive action for 2024 and beyond. By leveraging our personal connections and using technology to our advantage, we can create meaningful change in our communities. Your role as a volunteer is crucial in this effort. Together, we can break through the noise and win in 2024!
Download the Reach app on Android or iPhone.
Join The Reach App
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Join A Training for Relational Organizing
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Account Setup
Once you’ve downloaded Reach using the link above, you can create a new account and/or login if you have an account already by following these steps:
Logging In & Account Setup
- Enter your 10-digit cell phone number. We’ll take care of the spaces, dashes, and parentheses – you just worry about the numbers.
- Receive a one-time authentication code from us via text. Don’t delete it, because you’ll need it for the next screen.
- If you don’t get the text because your phone is too full of cat pictures, you can opt to receive a phone call with the code, instead. (Meryl Streep did the voice-over work!).
- If you have never logged in or made a Reach account, using the phone number you provide: You will be asked for your name, address, and email address. Providing your address to us provides you with the most relevant organizing opportunities. Please use your real full name so everyone can tell who you are and you can get all the credit for your amazing work!
Navigating The Reach App
The resources below will help you navigate the Reach app, allowing you to take action, building community with other volunteers, and much more.
Welcome Home!
When you’ve successfully downloaded Reach using the link provided above, and have successfully created your account, you should see our home screen! The Home Screen is where you can check our Action Feed, review your completed tasks, and check out upcoming Events hosted by your campaign. If you see a big Democrats logo at the top of the screen, you’re in the right place.
Action Feed & Action Cards
When you visit our campaign on Reach, the home screen will provide you with our Action Feed. Our feed is where you’ll be able to view and select “Action Cards.” Action Cards are our way of communicating with you on most relevant & priority organizing actions. Some of our Actions Cards are informational – such as how-to resources like the one you’re reviewing right now! – and some cards are specific tasks.
For further instructions on how to share content action cards, skip to “Share Content” section below.
Example Action Card
You can see details about each Action Card by tapping on the card to view it in full screen. “Task” cards will have a check box on them. After you’ve completed an action for tasks, you can tap the check box to mark the action as completed. Some of our action-related tasks have points assigned to them. When you complete tasks, you can rack up rewards and check out how you stack up against other volunteers in our campaign!
Library
In the Library tab, you will find three subsections: Recent Content, Galleries, and Labels. This allows you to search for content that you want in the easiest way for you!
For further instructions on how to share the content when you click on the card see the “Share Content” section below.
Navigating the Content Library
- New Content - Any new content will show up in this tab with a red dot next to it. Think of this as an “unread” feature like in your email inbox. Any content you haven’t viewed yet, will have this icon attached to it.
- Recent Content - This section shows you all content that was recently added to Reach, regardless of gallery or label. You can click “See All” to see all new content you haven’t viewed yet.
- Galleries - Galleries are organized by specific topics/themes. You can click “See All” to view all content galleries that have been created. If you’re looking for content that is specific to Abortion Rights or Republican Accountability - this is a great place to start!
- Labels - Labels will help you view content that intersects multiple galleries but may be specific to overarching themes like issues or candidates.
- Filter / Search Bar - You can use the Filters on the top to help you narrow your content view to what you are looking for. The search bar will narrow content based on what is included in the gallery or content descriptions.
Share Content
A new exciting feature is the ability to share content and assets – like graphics and videos – on your social media platforms directly from the app! This happens natively, meaning the content will show up beautifully and seamlessly as if you drafted the tweet/post yourself. Some Action Cards will have the button labeled as “share” and further instructions on how to share the content when you click on the card.
Sharing Content via Reach
- Tap on the Action Card task with has the button labeled as "Share."
- Copy the suggested post text if you want to use it when you share the content.
- Use the “Select App” button below to select the app where you want to share the content.
- Once you choose your app, paste in the text you copied, personalize it to make it sound like you, and share away!
- (Android Only) Come back to Reach and let us know you shared it.
Search People
The heart of the Reach app is its “Search” screen. It’s what enables you to identify and organize potential supporters anywhere and at any time. It’s why you are here! Please note, we use the publicly available voter file to match your search results against.
You can search by Name or Location. You can use either of these fields if you don’t have much to go on, or combine both of these fields to get a bit more specific. Both fields are very open and flexible. Type as much information as you have. If you only have a first name and a street name, give it a try! If you only have a last name and a zip code, that works too!
Search Screen
- Search: To get started, click on the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of your screen. For your first search attempt, search yourself. Include your full name and address.
- Viewing Search Results: Once you execute your search, you’ll find yourself on the Search Results Page. Here, you’ll see all the results that match your search terms. At the top of the screen, we’ll show you how many results we’ve found.
- Refine Your Results: In some cases, you may find that your results returned many more results than you expected if you only have a name with limited address information. For example, people who share the same name within a given city / state if you don’t have their full address. Use the “Refine” button in the top right to drill down deeper and refine the results of your search.
Your Network
The “My Reach” screen will be a space for you to view your “Network,” “History” and “Voter Registration” interactions. This will be important for tracking your interactions and as you build out your network of contacts and supporters. We highly encourage you to import your contacts in this process to make it easier to identify your people and get a head start in building your network.
Contact Import
- Navigate to the “My Reach” screen by clicking the icon at the bottom of your screen.
- Head to the “Network” tab to begin the process for importing your contacts.
- If your Network screen is empty, you can select “Import from your Contacts” to get started! If you already have some people in your Network, you’ll see an Import button in the lower right corner.
- If you are using the Reach native app on your phone, you can import contacts from your phone’s contact list. You’ll see a pop up asking you to give Reach permission to access your contacts – be sure to click “allow”. We take your privacy very seriously. You have complete control over what you upload and all of your data is encrypted. Reach & The Democrats will never share your data with any third parties.
- From the import screen, you can select which contacts you want to import into your Network. You’ll see a list of every contact in your phone address book if you’re on the mobile app. All of your contacts will be pre-selected for you.
- When you’ve got the selection just right, tap “Search for Matching Voters in Reach”.
Your contacts have not yet been added to Reach at this stage. Keep going! They are only added to Reach once you select “Add to My Network” after searching for your contact and adding their information.
Match Your Contacts
- Next, we’ll run all of the contacts you selected through a speedy Reach search to show you which ones may match people within the voter file.
- You’ll see each contact listed starting with the ones whose name AND phone number match our database who will have the label “Great Matches”.
- Next, tap one of your contacts in this list to view the possible matches for your contact. You’ll see the contact information from your phone followed by the possible matches for you to select from, always starting with the Great Match if there is one. You can scroll through all of the results to select the right match for your contact in the voter file. For security purposes you will only see a partial address (Street Name, City, State, and Zip Code).
- If you can’t find your contact in Reach, you can always try another search with a new name and/or location! If you have a contact in your phone as “Mom”, we won’t be able to find them, so you can edit your search to enter in your contact’s full name.
- If you still can’t find a match, but you think your contact would be useful to your organization, you can select the option to add your contact as a new person in Reach.
Confirm Contact Details
Reach allows you to contact your network directly from the app, around various objectives such as encouraging them to register to vote, volunteer, and more. To be able to do so, you’ll need to confirm their contact details after completing the match / add process.
- Select the phone number and email address you’d like to add for your contact. Cell phones are preferable so you are able to text them from the app!
- Next, select what Relationship you have with this contact. All of the Relationship types you can pick from have been created for you.
- Once you’ve confirmed the contact details are correct, tap “Add to My Network” and move on to add your next contact!
Chat Channels
An exciting feature is the ability to chat and collaborate with other supporters and volunteers within our “Chat” screen. When you join our campaign for the first time, you’ll be added to our “Team Chat” which includes our organizers and all other volunteers who are in the campaign with you. This is a space to share ideas, collaborate with others, and ask questions.
Chat Communication
Depending on the program you were trained through, you’ll also have additional “chat rooms” available within the chat screen, to have more action-specific discussions with volunteers who are organizing around the same goals as you. Additionally, you have the ability to DM other users or even create DM threads. When you join the campaign for the first time, drop into the “Team Chat” and introduce yourself!