For campaigns
School board to state house.
You are running a real campaign with a team that mostly has other jobs. Downballot is the infrastructure that assumes exactly that, rather than assuming a paid staff of twelve.
What a campaign actually needs
Less a platform than somewhere to put everything.
Down-ballot campaigns do not fail because they picked the wrong software. They lose track of things, and then the volunteer who knew about them stops answering. That is the problem this solves.
- Everything in one place from day one
- The doorknock list, the fundraising asks, the filing deadlines and the yard-sign spreadsheet stop being four different tools nobody else can find.
- Volunteers who can be added in a minute
- Send an invitation, pick a role, done. When someone stops showing up, remove them once and their access ends everywhere.
- The recurring things that get forgotten
- Weekly canvass prep, the Tuesday call time, the monthly report. Set it once and it keeps appearing after the person who set it up has moved on.
- A record of who you already talked to
- And, more importantly, who asked you not to call again, recorded per channel, permanently, with the date it actually happened.
Where the line is
What Downballot is not.
Worth reading before you apply, so nothing here is a surprise on a call.
- Not compliance software
- There is no FEC or state campaign-finance reporting. Keep whatever you use for filings.
- Not a sending platform
- Engage records who you may contact and why. It does not send email, texts or calls. Keep your sending tool and use this to be sure you should.
- Not a voter file
- Bring your own data. CSV import works today; VAN and VoteBuilder import and export are on the roadmap with no date promised.
- Not a website builder
- No public-facing pages, donation forms or email blasts. This is the internal side of the campaign.
After November
A campaign ends. The work should not vanish with it.
Whatever happens on election night, what you built has value: to the next candidate, to the county party, and to you if you run again. Export is part of the beta commitment, and handing an organization on to a county party is something we are building toward rather than something you should have to do by spreadsheet.
Tell us about your race.
Which office, which jurisdiction, and what you are using now. We review every Monday and reply within a week either way.