FUNBANKING:
Visual Storytelling to Inspire Activism
It's hard to overstate the importance of phonebanking in any type of campaign.
The more volunteers you have on the dialer, the better your chances at success. But recruiting volunteers to phonebank can often be a hard sell. There is always a reason to not volunteer - we're busy, we don't feel informed enough, calling strangers seems scary. But knowing the critical role that phonebanking plays, I try to push through the dread and pick up the phone.
That's where I found myself in the 2020 presidential election: nervously picking up the phone. To my surprise though, not only did I have many great conversations, but I actually had fun doing so. I talked to people from around the country, listening to their personal stories and helping them make plans to get to the polls. It really wasn't so hard, and I felt like I was making a difference!
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I wanted to show as many people as possible how easy and fun phonebanking could be.
And that's how I came up with "Banking on Bernie: Stories from the Dialer". After a phonebank shift, I'd reflect on my experience and the conversations I'd had, then turn those takeaways into visually interesting carousel posts on Instagram. You can click through some of my Banking on Bernie stories below.
Taking Funbanking to Sunrise Movement
Around this time, I was also volunteering on the Graphic Design Core Team for Sunrise Movement. I was thrilled when they wanted to apply the concept to the "Calling for Climate Champions" campaign. I collected stories from other Sunrise members and turned a few into graphics, then trained other volunteer designers to do the same. It was such a fun way to use my design skills to help build campaigns and grow the movement!
