Run For Something’s numbers speak for themselves.

Through 2020, Run For Something has successfully helped elect 508 candidates in 48 states. These winners are 56% women, 56% BIPOC, 21% LGBTQIA+, and all 40 years old or younger representing a historically diverse slate of elected officials.

Using online recruiting tools and strategy, Run For Something grew their pipeline of prospective candidates by nearly 50%, increasing their base from 45,000 people to nearly 67,000 people in 2020. Between the November 2020 election and June 2021, 14,000 more people have already expressed an interest in running for office as Run For Something continues to redefine the digital recruitment landscape.

We recently chatted with our partners at Run For Something including Ross Morales Rocketto, Leslie Hauser and Justen Fox to learn more about their work.

The Challenge

Traditionally, running for office at each level has been a process with high barriers to entry — connections, money, and reputation have been prerequisites and an overall lack of understanding of the process has been pervasive. Historically, the process has excluded major segments of the population and prevented government from reflecting the rich diversity of its constituents.

In response, Run For Something launched in 2017 with an ambitious goal: to target and recruit young people from a broad array of background and experience to run for local office. As more young people become engaged in elections, there is a growing number who are excited to step up to the plate as candidates and advocate for their communities. Run For Something identified an opportunity to enable young people to run for office by providing them with the resources to identify eligible races, kickoff a campaign, and connect them with a growing coalition of up and coming young leaders.

While helping nationally covered/high profile races is an important task, building a pipeline of diverse candidates at more local levels of government serves two purposes- helping those candidates gain experience in politics at the level that suits them and helps local government reflect the constituents it serves. Run For Something is consistently empowering folks to start affecting change in their own communities by running for local offices down the ballot (around 60% of which, according to BallotReady data, go unopposed each year).

“What we often find is that people who are interested in us often think of congress because that’s what they know. There’s an education process for all the other down ballot races and that intro call helps introduce the concept that running for down ballot office is more accessible for most first time candidates.”

In order to accomplish these big goals, Run For Something has taken advantage of a variety of digital organizing and outreach strategies. According to Ross Morales Rocketto, RFS co-founder, this allows them to meet young people where they are — online, through top tier digital technology. This strategy was especially game changing during the 2020 election, when the health risks of the pandemic made in-person, traditional campaign tactics impossible.

The Strategy

From the moment a person expresses an interest in running for office, Run For Something brings them into their candidate pipeline and provides them with numerous tools, resources, and access to their team of experts.

Recruiting Potential Candidates

The first stage includes aggregating positions data and recruiting a wide array of potential candidates. Run For Something wants to reach as many people as possible — “especially young folks, BIPOC leaders, the LGBTQIA+ community, people with disabilities, folks in rural communities, and those with unconventional/nontraditional backgrounds who might make great public servants.''

By just entering their address on Run For Something’s website (runforwhat.net), a person immediately can view all positions they are eligible to run for in the upcoming election cycle as well the corresponding filing requirements and other declared candidates (powered by CivicEngine). This serves as a first step to encourage citizens to run for office, answers the number question: “what can I run for?” and helps to build on people’s understanding of the variety of positions available to them all the way down the ballot.

According to Ross, “People who are interested in us often think of Congress because that’s what they know. There’s an education process for all the other down ballot races… running for down ballot office is more accessible for most first time candidates.” Guided by the principle that change doesn’t just come from the top, Run For Something is building a strong foundation for leaders to create lasting change at a local, grassroots level.

“Before we had the BallotReady information, the number one question we got from people signing up was ‘What do I run for...?’ Now people can come to that call with more information about what they can actually run for.”

Pipeline Candidates

Once an individual has decided they want to run, they sign up and connect with the Run For Something team to enter the candidate pipeline. At this stage, Run For Something sends them a 7-day email series filled with critical training resources to run for office. This includes follow ups with weekly candidate introduction calls, emails with updated candidate information, one-on-one candidate outreach with volunteers, and an Armchair Chat series featuring campaign specialists advising on how to best run a campaign.

Endorsed Candidates

Current pipeline candidates also have the opportunity to apply for an endorsement from Run For Something. Each year the organization selects hundreds of candidates who embody their values and drive (so far, Run For Something has endorsed more than 200 candidates for the 2021 election cycle available here). Endorsed candidates work hands-on with the Regional team to elevate their campaign, and are also paired with Run For Something alumni advisors who provide valuable insights into navigating the election process as well as more technical resources such as a candidate slack, Mobilize volunteer apps, Red2Blue partnership to expand texting capacity, mentor connections, and more.

Alumni Candidates

As Run For Something continues to grow, it is also building a foundation of expert alumni candidates. These include all of their previously endorsed candidates — nearly 1,500 people who’ve run for office and 500 people who’ve won. This growing network builds the foundation for recruiting first time candidates to start and ultimately run a successful campaign.

In 2020, Run For Something further built out their online database of candidate resources all of which are available at Resourcesforcampaigns.com.

If you are interested in learning more about Run For Something, please email hello@runforsomething.net.

To learn more about partnering with CivicEngine by BallotReady, please email partnerships@ballotready.org.