Host guide

How to host a Ground Truth phone bank

Thank you for organizing a Ground Truth phone bank with Swing Left! Having empathetic listening conversations over the phone will help scale the program in a big way — together we can rebuild trust with voters and net votes for Democrats.

Getting started

• Use this link to post your event on Mobilize so you can promote your event, track RSVPs, and easily communicate with attendees.

  • When selecting your date and time, think about when it’ll be appropriate to call voters (especially if your target district is in a different time zone!)

  • Consider an event that is at least two hours long, to account for a training and plenty of time to make calls.

  • Create a Zoom link for your event. If no one on your team has a pro Zoom account, ask your Swing Left contact to create a link for you.

• After you post your event,fill out this form to request a phone bank link. You must fill this out at least 10 days before your event to ensure we can complete the request on time.

• Recruit folks to phone bank with you. This recruitment guide can help. Let folks know that it’s OK if they’ve never done something like this before—you'll do a training at the beginning to make sure they have what they need to feel comfortable making calls.

• If possible, attend one of Swing Left’s national phone banks so you can see what the training looks like. You don’t have to stay the full shift, but this is a different style of phone banking, so observing the training could be very helpful. Sign up here.

Preparing to host

• Consider putting a team together! Hosting a phone bank can have a lot of moving parts. Working with a small team makes it easier to split up the tasks and manage the event. For example, you might lead the phone bank training while another member of your team helps folks troubleshoot tech issues in a breakout room.

• Prepare to lead the training at the beginning of your phone bank:

  • Review the training slides to familiarize yourself. You can make a copy to customize the presentation if you want to add details about the district you’re calling, and anything else about your group’s work.

  • Review the phone bank conversation guide. This is what you’ll share with all phone bankers during the shift.

• A few days before your event, Swing Left will email you your Scale to Win phone bank link with additional instructions.

  • You will be responsible for helping load phone numbers, which involves clicking a simple link over and over. You’ll want to make sure you leave time for this process in advance of your phone bank. It’s very simple and can be done while watching TV! This is an easy task to delegate, too - the more people clicking, the faster it goes.

  • Leave time to play around with the link and test your technology. Use the “script preview” feature on Scale to Win to practice.

Leading your event

• Arrive on Zoom early and make sure you’ve got your screen set up with the slides. Open all of the tabs and links you’ll need during the event, including:

  • Your version of the training slides

  • The conversation guide document

  • Your Scale to Win link

• Try to start on time to respect your attendees’ schedule.

• Lead your training. Try to get through the presentation and answer questions at the end. If folks have questions specific to their own unique situation, you can get the majority of attendees ready to phone bank and stay behind with anyone who needs more support. If you have co-hosts, use the breakout rooms feature to put folks who need special tech help into a breakout room for private coaching.

  • Pro tip: Do not try to make calls yourself during your event. As the host, we recommend remaining on the Zoom, available if attendees have questions.

• Don’t skip the debrief! Make sure everyone knows to come back to the Zoom ~10 minutes before the shift ends to trade stories of how things went. If you have another event on the calendar, this is a great time to ask folks to sign up (and bring a friend!).

  • Swing Left wants to hear feebdack from phone bankers too! The slide presentation has a link/QR code to a formal feedback survey; encourage folks to fill that out, if they want to provide more than the standard "thumbs up/thumbs down" Mobilize rating.