Anywhere in the country
Bring Democracy Week to your city
San Francisco and Los Angeles are just where we happen to live. There’s nothing about this that’s specific to California, and you don’t need our permission, a budget, or a staff to run one where you are. If you want a Democracy Week in your city, we’ll help you get it going.
A minimum viable Democracy Week
People assume this has to be big to be worth doing. It doesn’t. Here’s the smallest version that still works, and it’s genuinely enough to start.
3
partner organizations
Three groups willing to put their name on it and tell their people about it. They don’t all have to host something. Lending a mailing list and a logo counts.
3
events in the week
Three things on three different days, ideally in three different rooms with three different crowds. A talk, a dinner, and a game night is a perfectly good week.
1
shared marketing push
One calendar, one hashtag, one set of graphics, and every partner pointing their network at all of it rather than just their own piece.
That’s it. Three, three, and one. If you get more, wonderful, but don’t wait for more before you announce. A week with three good events that people actually heard about beats a week with twelve that nobody did.
Think much broader than the usual civic suspects
This is the part most people get wrong, so we’ll be blunt about it: if every partner is a civic or political organization, you’ll gather the people who already show up, and you’ll have a nice week that changes nothing.
The groups worth calling first are often the ones that have nothing to do with politics. They already have the thing that’s hardest to build: people who show up for each other on a regular schedule, and who trust whoever sends the email.
Rotary, Elks, Eagles, Kiwanis, Lions
Sports clubs and rec leagues
Scouts and youth organizations
Churches, synagogues, mosques, temples
Cooking clubs and supper clubs
Chambers of commerce and business groups
Schools, colleges, universities
Music venues, comedy clubs, theaters
Libraries and community centers
Makerspaces and hacker groups
Neighborhood and block associations
Veterans organizations
Unions and professional associations
Breweries, bookstores, coffee shops
Civic and political groups, of course
What to actually ask them for
Most groups say no to “will you help organize Democracy Week” and yes to something specific and small. Lead with one of these:
- Add fifteen minutes to a meeting you’re already having. Their regular Tuesday lunch becomes a Democracy Week event with almost no extra work.
- Send one email to your list. You write it, they send it.
- Lend us the room on a night you’re not using it.
- Put your logo on the calendar page so their members recognize the names and feel invited.
The collective push is the whole trick
Three organizations promoting three separate events reach three audiences. Three organizations promoting one shared week reach all three audiences, three times. That’s the entire reason to do this under one banner instead of just running your own event.
How to start, in order
- Pick your week. Any week. Tying it to something already happening in your city, a tech week, a festival, a civic season, gives you a built-in audience.
- Find two other people. Not two organizations, two humans who will answer your texts. Everything else follows from this.
- Get three partners to say yes. Ask for something small and specific, as above.
- Lock three events on three days. Host one yourself so there’s a spine, and let partners bring the rest.
- Announce before you’re ready. A calendar with three events and a date invites people to add a fourth. A perfect plan announced late does not.
- Push together for two weeks. Partners, influencers, media, all pointing at the one calendar.
- Write down what happened. Who came, what worked, who wants in next time. That’s what makes the second year easy.
Realistically this takes somewhere between six weeks and three months, depending on how ambitious you get. You don’t need funding to start. Most of the early work is emails and coffee.
What we’ll give you
- The playbook: what’s worked in SF and LA, and what hasn’t
- Your city listed on the national calendar and site
- Use of the Democracy Week name and brand assets
- Templates: outreach emails, partner one-pagers, event guidelines, social graphics
- Calls with organizers in other cities, so you’re not figuring it out alone
- Introductions to national organizations who may have chapters near you
What you’ll bring
- A small crew. Three or four committed people is plenty.
- Three local organizations willing to put their name on it
- A rough sense of your local scene, or the willingness to go find out
- Six weeks to three months, depending on ambition
- Positivity, energy, and a cross-partisan approach. A tolerance for things being imperfect the first time around
The one condition
Keep it cross-partisan, and keep events open to everyone. That’s the whole proposition. A Democracy Week that turns out to be one side’s people talking to each other isn’t worth the name, and it would undercut every other city doing this properly.
Partisan organizations are welcome to host, and we’d love them to. We’d rather a Democratic club and a Republican club both run open events in the same week than have neither in the room. The two things we ask of every event are that participation isn’t limited by party or organizational affiliation, and that there’s real time for dialogue where everyone can be heard.
Let’s make civics fun, inclusive, and participatory again
Tell us your city and roughly what you’re thinking. If you’re already set on running one, we’ll add it to the calendar and get out of your way. If you want help, say what kind and we’ll dig in with you.