Programs, Packets, and List Segmentation

What are Programs in RunningMate?

Our 'Programs' feature is here to help Owners, Admins, and Data Managers manage and group outreach activities by type (e.g. persuasion, turnout, voter registration, etc).

Users can set up a Phone Banking and Canvassing efforts within the same program. They can start with a Canvassing effort and then add a Phone Banking effort later on (or vice versa), or enable both at the start of the program.

Users do not need to use the same list when setting up their canvassing and phone banking campaigns. Once a program is set up, users can enable/disable Canvassing or Phone Banking in the Overview > Outreach Methods section of the program, which can be done at any point during the program. 

Lite Plan User Restriction

Lite users will not be able to canvass or phone bank as they are unable to see personally identifiable information. 

Programs Tab in RunningMate

Navigate to the Menu on the left, click on 'Outreach' then 'Programs'. Users will be presented with the list of all Programs created. In the Program List View users are able to: 

    • Create a New Program
    • See all of the Programs created for their district
    • Search by Program name 
      • Update Program Status
      • Edit Program 

What are the steps to create a Canvassing or Phone Banking Program?


Step 1:  Create a Target Universe

You will need to create either a Saved Filter on the homepage or build a universe in Universes and turn them into a static lists in the Lists tab. Each Program is tied to a single static list.


Step 2: Create a Program

  1. Within Programs, click on the Create Program button
  2. Give the Program a name (required field)
    1. Program name must be unique within the same district 
    2. Description and Date fields are optional 
      1. Date fields are available to simply help the user organize their outreach efforts, but are not a required field.
  3. Status of Programs will default to Unpublished during Program creation, and will need to be published before it can be used for Canvassing or Phone Banking. 
  4. Save the Program 
    1. Once the program is saved the will show up in the Programs listing page 

Step 3: Set Up Canvass or Phone Banking

  1. After creating a Program, users can select Canvass Set Up by selecting their turf segmentation type or choose to set up up Phone Banking.
    1. Be sure to assign the canvassing or phone banking packets to users, if you want them to be visible to those volunteers.
    2. Toggle the Canvassing and Phone Banking on in the program, then Publish and Save.

    1. Updates can be made by clicking on the edit/pencil icon to the right to access the Program.
    2. Users can also delete their program by going near the 'Basic Information' header and clicking on the trash icon.

Step by step help articles on:


Turf Segmentation in RunningMate

Effective canvassing depends on organizing large lists of targets into smaller segments that can be reasonably walked by volunteers. The list segmentation feature users are able to divide lists into walkable packets, then assign those walk packets to canvassers. They can also choose to break the list up into precincts, to assign precincts to specific volunteers or leave the list as one larger packet to work from.

Turf Segmentation Methods in Canvass Set Up

There are 3 ways users can break down their walk packets:

  • Geographic Clustering. The clustering of targets geographically.
    • During setup, you choose roughly how many targets you want in the packets and the system will cluster the targets into packets geographically, attempting to keep them near each other.
      • For example, you may choose 75 households per packet during canvass setup. The system will then cluster the targets geographically, so you may end up with packets that have 60 targets, and others that have 80 with the majority being around 75 households.
  • By Precinct. Split a target list up by precinct, and have canvassers work at a precinct level.
  • Single List. Limited to 1000 households.

How to segment turf for canvassing

Once a user has created and saved a Program, they will be able to set up their canvassing efforts via the Canvass Setup tab found within the Program edit view. 

  1. Navigate to 'Programs' and select the program you want to edit
  2. Click on Canvass Set Up located above 'Basic Information'
  3. Select Create Packets then select the static 'List' you want to canvass from
    1. Drop down will populate with the all static lists users created for the district selected

  1. Select how you'd like to segment your list:

  1. If using the Geographic Clustering option, then hit continue:
    1. Choose the number of households you would like in each packet
      • Please note that if the list is large, the user should aim to make the packets no larger than 1000 targets, otherwise canvassers may experience loading issues or crashes, due to large packet size.

    1. Note, this may take a minute or two to complete. You can move on to the phone bank creation process while waiting for it to complete. (support article here on how to set up phone banking)

  1. Once a user has created their packets they are automatically saved and map of their packets will appear.
    1. Hovering over a packet will highlight it on the map.
    2. Click the three dots next to the packet to Download the packet for printing.
      1. To learn about how to print walk packets and record the data in RunningMate click here.
    3. Assign packets to canvassers by clicking the three dots next to the relevant packet. Multiple people can be assigned to a canvassing packet.
    4. If users would like to re-packet their list by increasing or decreasing the number of households per packet they will need to create a new program.

  1. Two final steps are needed to make the Program live and accessible.
    1. Toggle on the 'Outreach Method' access for either Canvass or Phone Bank.
    2. Then, change the Program Status to 'Published'


Program Status Types

Users can update Program status on the Program List view or by clicking into the Program Overview. 

Programs can have one of three status: 

  1. Unpublished
    1. Default status of all newly created programs 
    2. An unpublished program is not visible to users in Canvassing 
    3. This status is meant for programs that have been created, but setup is not complete yet, or its ready to launch (e.g. Admin is setting up programs for the next couple of weeks, but only want volunteers to see the program for the current week)
  2. Published 
    1. Program has canvassing setup and contains at least 1 packet to canvass off of 
    2. Published programs and their corresponding packets are accessible via Canvassing 
      1. Note: Only published programs will be available in Canvassing
  3. Closed 
    1. Closed programs are not accessible via Canvassing 
    2. This status is meant for programs that have completed.

Roles and Permissions

The following roles have permissions to access, create, and manage programs:

  • Owner
  • Admin
  • Data Manger 

The following roles have read-only permissions to programs:

  • Data viewer 

The following roles have no access to create or manage programs but they do have access to canvass, phone bank, or use the search functionality to add Support Scores, tags, and notes: 

  • Volunteer 

Packet Map Visualizer

Users can see the location of their canvassing packets within Programs in Canvass Setup.


Once packets are generated the visualizer will be helpful for field managers to see the location of the packets on map. A campaign may want to focus canvassing on a particular neighborhood or assign adjacent packets to a specific volunteer. Being able to visualize the location of packets will give our users additional data to help them organize their outreach efforts. 


Green Packet Markers

Each canvassing packet is represented by a marker placed at or near the center of the packet, which is located within the Canvass Setup portion of the Program.

  • The number within each packet marker represents the number of doors to contact

  • Household dots cannot be interacted with (clicking or hovering over it will have no effect) and is meant to show the user where the households are for that packet 
  • If a user packeted their list by precinct, precinct lines will display on the map. If user did not packet by precinct, only the district outline will be displayed. 

  • Hovering over a packet name in the packet listing on the left will display the popover for that marker
    • Popover will display the name of the packet and the number of doors left in that packet 

  • Clicking on the packet name to locate your packet on the map

  • Clicking on the packet marker will display household dots
    • To see the packet marker again instead of household dots, click anywhere on the map 

Packet Viewing on Browser

When clicking on a packet via the packet listing will zoom the map into that marker and the map will also display the popover for that marker that contains the packet name and number of doors remaining for that packet  

  • On mobile:
    • Clicking on a map marker will display the popover towards the bottom of the map.
  • Packet list view has been updated to include number of Households in addition to number of Targets for each packet
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