Corporate Responsibility Initiative
National referendum campaign
Conception, development and support of a volunteer structure
The Responsible Business Initiative was put to the vote on November 29, 2020 and brought with it one of the most intensive and costly voting campaigns. In the last few months before the vote, we were tasked with setting up a structure in which as many volunteers as possible could campaign intensively for the initiative for eight weeks.
The Challenge
The mobilization potential of the Responsible Business Initiative was huge. Partly due to the long pre-campaign, an above-average number of people identified with the initiative and wanted to make a contribution - in the form of volunteer work that went beyond situational assignments. Over 250 people expressed an interest in working for the initiative for at least one week at a time. The idea was born to harness this energy and pool it in one place. The first volunteer hub in Swiss campaign history was born.
Volunteer management: setting up the structures
In September 2020, we recruited 3 campaigners who were responsible for onboarding and supervising the volunteers. Those interested were contacted by telephone and asked about their skills and interests in terms of volunteering. It was important to us that the volunteers were able to carry out longer or regular assignments so that they could also take on more demanding tasks. A dedicated database helped to coordinate the volunteers so that from October 1, the volunteer hub was open 6 days a week - with 15-20 volunteers per day!
The volunteers were deployed according to their wishes and skills, trained by the campaign team and supervised throughout their deployment. A total of 522 volunteer days were completed by 98 volunteers.
The volunteer hub
In order to provide the volunteers with the best possible support and to work efficiently on the projects, it was decided to rent a workspace in Zurich where the volunteers could work together in parallel. It was important to us that the volunteers felt that they were part of the campaign, that they enjoyed their work and that they met like-minded people. This created an inspiring and motivating dynamic - unfortunately, due to the escalation of the COVID pandemic, more and more people had to switch to working from home halfway through the campaign. The campaign team overcame this new challenge with creative ideas and a structured approach. The feedback from the volunteers was also very positive, which motivated and encouraged us all.
The project content
The work with the volunteers ultimately focused on three projects:
We offered Corporate Responsibility Schöggeli to restaurants and cafés throughout German-speaking Switzerland. In the end, over 700,000 Schöggeli were delivered to almost 900 establishments, which handed them out to their customers.
Affiliated stores, online stores and other businesses were encouraged to sign up to the initiative and take a stand by advertising in their own stores or on their online channels.
In the third project, local associations and political organizations were contacted and encouraged to become active in order to mobilize their base in the best possible way.
At the same time, numerous smaller projects were launched and tried out: Comments were written, influencers were contacted and mobilization phone calls were made.
What the client says
"digital/organizing made our volunteer hub a success. In order to take the pressure off the main campaign team, we transferred the development and design of the hub completely to digital/organizing - this allowed us to concentrate on our work and at the same time a structure was built that made it possible to involve even more people in the campaign and bundle their commitment.
The digital/organizing team knew how to recruit the right campaigners for the hub and managed to involve the volunteers in the campaign work in a meaningful way, providing ideas for new projects and implementing them independently. A great collaboration across the board!"
- Oliver Heimgartner, Co-Campaign Manager Corporate Responsibility Initiative
The outcome
Additional presence at over 1700 locations
By meticulously tracking all activities during the project, it was possible to continuously evaluate where the volunteers' efforts were worthwhile and where corrective action should be taken if necessary. In the end, a presence was recorded in over 1700 locations - online and offline.
Unparalleled mobilization from A to Z
We were able to motivate more volunteers for the Responsible Business Initiative than ever before for a cause - a very heterogeneous group that campaigned for the cause in all parts of the country, in cities and in the countryside. We were able to use this mobilization for our project and turn it into a large final mobilization towards the end.
Skillfully deploying volunteers
With the establishment of the hub, the opportunity was created for volunteers who would like to get involved beyond their regular commitment to do so. The number of volunteers deployed was ultimately limited by the capacity of the hub and the support staff - even more volunteers could probably have been deployed. For the campaign, this meant having additional personnel resources of over 1000 full-time equivalents in the decisive final phase: This made projects possible that would otherwise never have been possible on this scale!
In addition
In addition to this project, digital/organizing has supported the corporate responsibility initiative in two other major projects:
Consulting and database solution for the long-term development of hundreds of local committees.
Know-how and technical support in the implementation of the largest postcard campaign in Switzerland with over 750,000 postcards written by volunteers.
