Editing Building Relationships (section)

== The Pyramid of Engagement: Recruiting organizers ==
[[File:Pyramid.png|thumb]]
The path from interested supporter to organizer does not happen overnight. Rather, it involves a supporter being recruited and moved into roles that require progressively more commitment and skills. In order to grow and take on more leadership, our people must demonstrate that they have the ability to perform the roles of each position.

As an organizer, it’s your job to identify and develop leadership in others. We call this process – whereby individuals take on more and more leadership – the pyramid of engagement. Here’s an example of an organizing pyramid of engagement (note that your pyramid might look different depending on your campaign).

# '''Supporter''': Individual supports campaign (e.g. signs a petition) but does not express interest in ‘getting involved.’ They may get email updates about your campaign but limited other communication.
# '''Volunteer Prospect''': Supporter signs up on a website or says yes to an organizer’s hard ask to volunteer. Organizer invites them to come out to a volunteer event, and, ideally, this invitation happens within 48 hours because prospects are more likely to say yes (and show up) with a quicker follow up timeframe.
# '''Volunteer''': Volunteer prospect comes out to a team event (e.g. a meeting or a canvassing event), and is now a volunteer with the team. Organizer schedules them to come to another event or schedules a recruitment 1:1 meeting. They will continue to get campaign emails, but may also receive emails specific to the team they are part of.
# '''Committed Volunteer''': Volunteer has been coming out regularly to team events and is a committed part of the team.
# '''Leadership Prospect''': Committed volunteer begins taking on leadership and succeeds at one or more leadership tryouts. Organizer then schedules a leadership 1:1 meeting to ask team member to take on a leadership role.
# '''Leader''': Leadership prospect is able to organize. They have passed tests so organizer asks them to be a leader. They may begin sending out communications to other team members about the local campaign.

Note: Steps 5 and 6 can be repeated over and over to move the organizer into new roles as they take on more responsibility and become more committed.

One thing to notice about the pyramid of engagement is that it is '''wider at its base''' than at the top - while our role as organizers is to move people up the pyramid, not everyone will be interested in being a leader, and our campaigns won’t necessarily function if everyone is a leader and we don’t have a broad supporter base.