DEFENDER S TOOLKIT FOR PHONE BANKING Welcome to our Defender s Toolkit for Phone Banking. In 2016, while running for president, Donald Trump said that if he was able to appoint two or three justices to the bench, overturning Roe would happen automatically. Trump s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh puts him on track to make good on that promise. Kavanaugh s nomination also puts anyone who needs access to abortion, birth control, or the Affordable Care Act at risk. But if we can get enough senators in key states to oppose this nomination, we can block Brett Kavanaugh s confirmation to the Supreme Court. How do we do this? We do this by calling thousands of Planned Parenthood supporters in key states, and asking them to call their senators and tell them to oppose the nomination. We know we can win, because we did it when we protected the Affordable Care Act. Whether you want to round up a group of friends or do some phone banking on your own, we invite you to use this toolkit as a source of empowerment to lead your own phone banking actions. Don t worry if you re not a computer whiz! Our guide was created as a step-by-step walkthrough to get you going. What you ll need: Phone (either cellphone or landline is fine) Computer with internet access What s in this guide: Training Video How to Make Calls Answers to Common Questions You ll Get from Supporters Phone Banking FAQs for You 1
Training video: Click to watch Watch a previously recorded training video from one of our virtual phone bankings. (Please note: Since the video was recorded from one of our live trainings, you won t need to leave your camera on or download zoom when leading your own phone bankings. ) 2
How to Make Calls: 1. Email defenders@ppfa.org to request a link to our phonebank tool. 2. Make sure your phone and computer are all charged up. 3. Open your web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Safari) and click on the link that we provide in our response email to obtain our phonebank tool. 4. That should bring you to a page that looks like this. Click on Log In with ActionID even if you don t yet know what that means or have an ID. We ll get there soon. 3
5. Now you ll be on a page with the following box: Don t try to log in you don t have a login yet! (If this is your second or third time phone banking here, you DO have a login, and you can go straight to logging in.) Instead, click on Create ActionID. 4
6. To create a log-in, enter your information and click Create. Be sure to follow the password instructions. 7. On the next screen, click No Thanks, Continue. 8. And you re in! You can dismiss the Welcome box by clicking the x in its top right corner. 5
9. You ll see a couple of things on the screen. The first is a name on the top left that s the first PP supporter you ll be calling! On the top right is that person s phone number. Take a minute to familiarize yourself with the script. Then, using your own phone, dial the number on the top right. 10. Did the person at the top of the script answer? If yes, great! Keep on reading. If you can t have a conversation with the person for any reason, click I couldn t reach [name] and mark the reason why. Don t be alarmed if you don t have many connected calls! You ll have more unanswered calls than you will connected calls (with some wrong numbers sprinkled in). 6
NOTE: You will NOT be able to click Save & Next Call until you ve selected one of the options for how the call went (e.g. Not Home, Wrong Number, etc.). The button will turn from grey to blue when you ve selected a response, and that s how you ll know you can move to the next call. 11. If the person answers: Run through the script naturally. Once the person tells you if they will call their senator, will not call, or will call later, mark the appropriate response in the drop-down menu. (You will have to click on the bar with arrows to make the menu appear.) If you reach an anti-planned Parenthood person, check the Anti-Choice box and move on. 7
12. And then you re done with your call! Hang up your phone, and click Save/Next and go back to step 9. NOTE: You will NOT be able to click Save/Next until you ve selected the person s response from the drop-down menu. The button will turn from grey to blue when you ve selected a response, and that s how you ll know you can move to the next call. 13. Keep going with calls until the end of your shift. When it s time to wrap up, finish your last call, don t forget to hit Save/Next, and then click Log Out in the top right. Answers to Common Questions You ll Get from Supporters Do you think we can still stop Kavanaugh? Yes! That s exactly why we re calling. Right now, it looks like there are enough senators on the fence that we could get enough no votes to stop his confirmation, which requires 51 votes to pass. The best way to make sure those swing votes become no votes is by calling your senator right now. If someone is hostile, openly anti-planned Parenthood, or wants to argue about politics: We don t anticipate this will happen often, but we want to equip you to handle it just in case it does. Thank the person for their time and hang up. The vote could happen any day we don t want to spend our time convincing people we re right. Instead, move on to the next call and talk to someone who s with us! If someone wants your opinion on a particular political figure (Trump, Clinton, any others) or a different issue: That s not what we re calling to talk about. The critical issue right now is stopping the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, regardless of your political stripes. Try not to get sucked into a conversation about something else and if someone presses you, you can say you re not authorized to speak for Planned Parenthood about any other candidates or issues. 8
Phone Banking FAQs for You Why are we phone banking? Because we know it works! Senators are under immense pressure from powerful interests to support Trump s nomination to SCOTUS, Brett Kavanaugh. However, all it will take for the Senate to block this nomination is two votes. That s why we need defenders like you to call your senators and tell them to vote against Kavanaugh s nomination. I keep getting a lot of answering machines. / Someone told me they didn t want to make a call. Don t worry, that s how phone banking goes. There are a lot of missed calls and a fair amount of nos. If you get two people to say yes in an hour, you re right on track. If you get even more people, great! If not, well, you ll be joining thousands of experienced phone bankers who ve moved monumental votes; all of whom sometimes have a slow hour. Regardless, we know phone banking is a very effective tactic. Can I get a paper list of names and numbers to call instead? We get it online phone banking can take a little getting used to, or maybe you re a veteran campaigner or volunteer who s made calls from a paper list all your life. Unfortunately, privacy and technical constraints prohibit us from offering printable lists this time around. But if you re having any trouble with the online phone banking tool, take another look at the instructions above they re very thorough. Still running into bumps? Email defenders@ppfa.org and we ll help you troubleshoot. What if I m not comfortable using my own phone or someone calls me back? If you re comfortable with it, set your voicemail greeting to say you're phone banking with PP, so if folks with missed calls call you back, they'll know what the call was about. Over the course of an hour, you'll probably only talk to 5-15 people, most of whom don't call back, so it's unlikely you'll get many calls. Someone was just curt with me on the phone or hung up on me. We don t anticipate this will happen often, since we re calling PP supporters. But if it has happened we re sorry, and we feel you! Calling folks you don t know can feel a little rough sometimes. But their behavior is not about how well you re doing, and it s not about PP. You might have caught someone at a bad time; it doesn t mean you messed up. We ve got your back. If you want a little pick-me-up, go on to the next caller and talk to a supporter! You can also email defenders@ppfa.org if you need to report something inappropriate. 9
Someone asked to be removed from the list. Email defenders@ppfa.org with their name and phone number, and mark them as refused under no contact. Are we leaving voice messages? No! We are not leaving voicemails at this time. We want to talk to as many real people as we can today! Need help? Email us! defenders@ppfa.org 10