MyCampaign data-hygiene guide

OrgDash reads straight from MyCampaign. Every number on these dashboards (supporters identified, volunteers active, contact rates) is only as good as the data your team enters. Clean, consistent data in MyCampaign means the dashboards tell the truth. Messy data means the dashboards mislead, even when the work was real.

This is a short, plain-language guide to the handful of MyCampaignhabits that keep your campaign’s data trustworthy. You do not need to be technical to follow it.

Volunteers are only countable if they are recorded the same way every time. Pick one method and use it for everyone.

• Use one signup path. A single survey question or online form for “I want to volunteer,” so every signup lands in the same place.
• Apply an Activist Code (for example “Volunteer 2026”) to everyone who signs up. OrgDash counts your active volunteers from codes like this.
• Tag interests separately. Use distinct activist codes for canvassing, phones, data, and so on, instead of writing it in a notes field.
• Record availability and skills as survey responses, not free-text notes. Structured answers can be filtered and counted; notes cannot.

Event types are how the dashboard groups your shifts and turnout. A short, standard list keeps those groupings clean.

• Keep a short, fixed list and reuse it. Your standard types right now are Canvass, Phonebank, Textbank. Resist creating a brand-new type for every week or location.
• Put the specifics in the event name or description, not the type. “Saturday Canvass, Summit County” is a Canvass event, not a new event type.
• Decide owner-ship up front. One person approves new event types so the list does not sprawl.

A source code records where a contact or action came from: a specific ad, a petition, an imported list, a tabling event. They are how you learn which efforts actually produce voters and supporters.

• Use a consistent naming pattern. A structured code like channel-effort-yyyymm (for example fb-gotv-202605) sorts and groups cleanly later.
• Apply one on every intake. Each form, import, and ad should carry its own source code from day one. You cannot add it accurately after the fact.
• Do not reuse a code for two different efforts. If you cannot tell two campaigns apart by their source code, the report cannot either.

MyCampaign has two related fields that are easy to confuse. Using them for different jobs keeps your reporting clear.

• Set the market source to the channel, the source code to the instance. A Facebook GOTV ad is market source “Digital,” source code fb-gotv-202605.
• Do not make one field do both jobs. If you only use source codes, you lose the channel rollup; if you only use market source, you lose the detail.

A few small habits keep records accurate, de-duplicated, and map-able.

• Fill the fields that matter: a name, at least one good contact method (email or phone), and an address so the contact can be matched to the right district and county.
• Search before you add. Look up a person by email or phone first. Use MyCampaign’s duplicate tools, and merge duplicates rather than creating a second record.
• Be consistent with names and places. Title Case names, standardized city and county spelling, and one date format. “Summit,” “summit,” and “Summit Co.” should not be three different things.
• Record the Supporter ID on every meaningful contact. It is the most valuable field your canvassers and callers collect, and it drives the supporter numbers across OrgDash.