Making Every Postcard and Letter Count

Every year, volunteers hand-write, stamp and send hundreds of millions of postcards to voters, investing time and money in the hope of swinging close elections.  Swing Blue Alliance honors and supports this work by doing our best to ensure that each postcard or letter-writing campaign conveys the right message to the right voters at the right time.  With the assistance of the research team, we review available literature and design and implement experiments – hoping to learn something new from every campaign.

What powers every campaign is the group leaders and postcard hosts who purchase postcards at our online store and distribute them to their volunteer networks.  The Swing Blue Alliance postcard team appreciates the opportunity to serve you and your volunteers.  Together, we create the change we want and need to see in our political system. 

How do I know if being a Postcard/Letter Host is right for me?

1. You have a network to reach out to. This may require thinking outside the box. Some organizers have used connections from their babysitting collective, their homeowner’s association, or their Democratic town committee.
2. You are detail oriented, and can keep track of who got what packet and whether they sent the cards at the right time.
3. You enjoy giving people a meaningful opportunity to take action to save our democracy.

What Are the Past Results of Our Postcard Writing Efforts?

Past postcarding campaigns have increased Democratic voter registration in Florida, Georgia, and Pennsylvania; encouraged calls to key Democratic senators to support voting rights legislation; and to elect Democratic candidates.

Check out the data-driven results: Boosting registration and turnout with effective mail campaigns

For full details on past campaigns and to review past campaign data, please request access to our password-protected Research section.

How Do I Get Started?

Prior to placing your first order, you must register as a Swing Blue Alliance organizer.  Registration will give you access to the Swing Blue Alliance eStore and other password protected resources. Once you register, you will begin to receive notifications about new writing campaigns and postcard campaign kickoffs.  After receiving instructions (covering timeline/schedule, messaging, target audience, address labels, printing and shipping costs, and logistics), organizers can place orders on the Swing Blue Alliance password-protected E-Store.

Swing Blue Alliance generally works with the printer Sir Speedy in Framingham MA, located at 375 Worcester Road.  Our contacts there are David and Jackie.  If you order and choose to pick up your order at Sir Speedy in Framingham, please always call them in advance to make sure that your order will be ready when you arrive. TIP:  It’s faster to purchase stamps at your local post office, but be sure to call in advance to ensure that they have enough to fill your order.

Once postcards and/or letter-writing materials have arrived, distribute supplies to your individual volunteers along with instructions. Follow-up reporting and/or post-completion activities are also included to ensure Swing Blue can track effectiveness and use findings to plan future writing campaigns.

Any questions, issues with ordering postcards/letters through the E-Store, etc. can be addressed to host@swingbluealliance.org. Someone will respond within 24 hours.

Please visit the Postcard Hosts channel on the Swing Blue Alliance Slack to see if the answer to your question has already been published, or to receive a faster response to your question.  To apply to join the Slack channel, click here.

When you participate in a postcard- or letter-writing campaign with Swing Blue, you can be confident it meets the following criteria: