Key Question

The Key Question is part of your Campaign Ladder, the central ladder of support or engagement for your Campaign. Mobilizers answer the Key Question about every contact they add, and you’ll be able to set actions for mobilizers to take based on their contacts’ response to this question.

Campaign Ladders & Key Questions

For electoral campaigns, the Key Question is often what campaign lingo calls a “Support ID”, a question gauging support for a candidate or issue– for example, “Will they vote for Peter Pan for President of Neverland?”, with the answers ranging from Definitely (strong support) to Definitely Not (strong oppose). 

For a Campaign aiming to mobilize people to take advocacy actions, a Key Question might be “How ready are they to take action to fight for mermaid equality in Neverland?”, with answers ranging from “They don’t believe mermaids should be equal” to “They aren’t aware of the barriers mermaids face” to “I think I could get them to take action” to “They are fired up and taking action”. 

Campaign Ladders are designed this way so that you can make sure Mobilizers are engaging with their contacts in the most impactful way possible, and meet them where they are. If a contact isn’t aware of the barriers facing mermaids, you’ll want Mobilizers to persuade and educate that contact, and you’ll be able to set actions targeted at contacts with that Key Question response designed to do just that. If a Mobilizer thinks they could get their contact to take action, you’ll want Mobilizers to encourage the contact to speak at the Neverland Legislature, and you can set actions to make that happen. 

Deciding on Your Key Question

You can think of your Key Question as the overarching goal that your program is working toward.

To determine your Campaign’s Key Question it may first be helpful to answer these questions about your relational program: 

• What’s the purpose or primary goal of your program?
  • This might be electing Jana Peterson as Portland Mayor or registering Floridians to vote. 
• Who are your Mobilizers?
• Who are they going to be talking to? 
• What does the Campaign need to know about those Contacts in order to decide who should be asked to do what? 

Here are a few examples of how we might turn a program’s use case into a Key Question for their Campaign:

Keep in Mind

• Remember that Mobilizers will answer this question on behalf of their contacts, so you’ll want to phrase your Key Question in language directed at the Mobilizer. For example, instead of asking “Will you vote for Peter Pan for President of Neverland?” you’d want to ask “Will they vote for Peter Pan for President of Neverland?” since the Mobilizer is answering the question on behalf of the contact.
• Your Key Question should be detailed! Include relevant dates (like Election Day) or other information
• When possible, the Key Question should be a specific call to action that achieves the goal of the Campaign. If there is a date the action needs to happen, include it! If there is a specific issue the Key Question is addressing, name that issue in the Key Question itself!

Key Question Responses

Think of these answers (values) like rungs on your Campaign Ladder. For example, if someone starts at a 5 (Definitely Not Supporting), you want to move them closer to 1 (Definitely Supporting). The answers are fixed to five possible responses. You can use our default 1-5 answers, or customize them. If you plan on exporting responses to a platform like VAN, the numerical values that are tied to your responses will help you translate your data from Rally.

Revising Your Key Question

You can edit your Key Question at any time. If folks have already answered the key question, their previously recorded responses will be renamed to reflect your edits.