If you text them, they will come: volunteer recruitment, confirmation, and attendance

• Published in: Interest groups & advocacy Vol. 11; no. 3; pp. 399 - 415
• Main Author: Haenschen, Katherine
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Palgrave Macmillan UK 01.09.2022; Palgrave Macmillan
• Subjects: Attendance; Elections; Email; Experiments; Grass roots movement; Interest groups; Original Article; Political Communication; Political organizations; Political Science; Political Science and International Relations; Political Science and International Studies; Public Policy; Recruitment; Social environment; Sociology; Text messaging; Volunteers; Voters; Grassroots organizing; Advocacy organizations; Social desirability; Field experiment; Social norms
• ISSN: 2047-7414; 2047-7422
• DOI: 10.1057/s41309-022-00157-0

Grassroots-oriented political organizations depend on volunteers to engage in voter contact, yet minimal academic research explores how to effectively recruit them to commit to and attend volunteer events. This paper presents the results of two exploratory field experiments conducted with a partner organization that use phone calls and SMS messages to recruit and confirm volunteers. Results show that SMS message recruitment increases the rate at which volunteers sign up and attend relative to an email reminder alone, while also reducing the rate at which individuals fail to follow through. However, calls accompanied by an SMS message are the most effective way to confirm attendance among people who have already signed up for an event. Future empirical work in the arena of volunteer recruitment that fosters a social context is encouraged.