Planning Your First Letter-Writing Campaign: A Timeline and Checklist

I talked to an organizer last month who told me her team sent out 5,000 handwritten letters in the final two weeks before an election. They scrambled to recruit volunteers, ran out of supplies halfway through, and had no idea whether their messages actually resonated with voters. “We worked our asses off,” she said, “but I have no idea if it mattered.”

Compare that to another campaign I know that started planning six weeks out. They hit their goal of 3,000 letters with time to spare, kept volunteers engaged throughout, and had data showing their messages moved the needle with low-propensity voters. Same basic tactic, completely different outcomes.

The difference? A solid plan and realistic timeline.

Start with Clear Goals

Before you think about timelines or budgets, you need to know what success looks like. Are you trying to turn out 500 voters in a specific precinct? Recruit 100 supporters to a town hall meeting? Get 200 people to call their city council member?

Research from the Analyst Institute shows that personal contact can boost turnout by 3 to 10 percentage points depending on the quality of the outreach and the target audience. But you need to know your baseline and your target before you can measure that impact.

Write down your specific goal. Not “engage voters” but “increase turnout among 18-35 year olds in District 4 by 5 percentage points” or “generate 150 calls to Senator X’s office about Bill Y.”

Work Backward from Your Deadline

Six weeks is a good baseline for most letter-writing campaigns, though you can compress this if you have experienced volunteers or expand it if you’re starting from scratch. Here’s how to break it down:

Weeks 6-5: Planning and Setup Get your data sorted out. If you’re targeting voters, work with your local party or a progressive data vendor to get quality lists. If you’re doing advocacy, build or acquire your supporter list. This is also when you should draft and test your message. Write three versions and show them to real people in your target audience. The one you think is brilliant often isn’t the one that resonates.

Week 4: Volunteer Recruitment You need more volunteers than you think. A good rule of thumb is that each active volunteer will write 20 to 50 letters over the course of your campaign. Do the math and then recruit 25% more than that to account for drop-off. Tap your existing networks first, but don’t be afraid to do public recruitment through social media, local progressive groups, and community calendars.

Weeks 3-2: Writing Events and Production This is when the actual writing happens. Host 2 to 4 writing events if you can manage it. In-person events build momentum and community, but remote options expand your volunteer pool. Make sure you have enough supplies at each event (cards, stamps, pens that work, address labels if you’re using them).

Week 1: Quality Control and Mailing Review every letter before it goes out. You’re looking for obvious errors, inappropriate messages, or illegible handwriting. Then get everything in the mail at once if possible. Staggered delivery dilutes your impact.

Budget Honestly

A modest campaign targeting 1,000 letters will cost around $800 to $1,200 when you account for postcards or stationery ($0.20 to $0.40 each), stamps ($0.63 each as of 2025), and basic supplies like pens and labels. If you’re buying voter data, add another $100 to $500 depending on your list size and vendor.

You can cut costs by asking volunteers to supply their own stamps or write on donated cards, but in my experience this creates friction that reduces participation. If you want volunteers to show up and stay engaged, make it as easy as possible for them.

Test and Learn

Run a small pilot first. Have 5 to 10 volunteers write 50 letters using your draft script and process. Did the message feel natural to them? Were your instructions clear? Did your data have errors? Fix these issues before you scale up.

After your campaign, track your impact. If you’re doing voter turnout work, check the VAN or your state voter file to see if your targets actually voted. If you’re doing advocacy, monitor whether you hit your call or petition goals. Most campaigns skip this step and learn nothing. Don’t be most campaigns.

Your Campaign Checklist

Here’s what you need before you launch:

• Clear, measurable goal with a specific deadline
• Quality data list with correct addresses
• Tested message that real people in your audience respond to
• Sufficient budget for supplies, postage, and data
• Volunteer recruitment plan and timeline
• Event space(s) or remote coordination tools
• Supplies ordered and ready (cards, stamps, pens, labels)
• Quality control process identified
• Post-campaign evaluation plan

Letter-writing campaigns work because they’re personal, tangible, and harder to ignore than digital outreach. But they only work if you plan them properly. Take the time to set clear goals, build a realistic timeline, and test your approach before you scale up.

What’s worked for you in planning volunteer campaigns? What would you add to this checklist? I’d love to hear from organizers who have run these campaigns and learned hard lessons.