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The Really Busy Person's Guide to Political ActivismLife-hacking for partisans.

By Christopher Beam
Posted Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008, at 4:43 PM ET
Volunteer. Click image to expand.

There are 29 days left in the election. (Update: 28!) You have X hours, Y dollars, and Z calories to burn on behalf of your favorite candidate. What's the best way to allocate these precious resources?

The campaigns will tell you every bit helps, and they're right. But some tactics help more than others. A lot of it depends where you live and how much money you make. Say you make $10 an hour—should you donate $100 or volunteer for 10 hours? (Quick answer: If you live in Dayton, volunteer; if you live in Berkeley, donate.) For that reason, we've divided activism strategies into two categories: If You Have Time and If You Have Money. We then look at the best—and worst—ways to spend it before November.

If You Have Money (in descending order of usefulness)

Bundle. Not everyone has rich friends. But if you do, milk them. If they max out at $2,300, that's enough to fly your candidate to a campaign stop, blast a mailer across a contested county, or buy ad time in a battle ground media market. "It's a supply line," says Allen Raymond, a former Republican operative. "If you're in California, your job is to give resources to candidates so they can get out and win." Some people think money matters less in the waning days of a campaign. They're wrong. Obama spent roughly $55 million in August. In 2004, President Bush spent about $18 million from mid-October through Election Day.

Make your own Swift Boat ads. Now you can be the next T. Boone Pickens. If you've got cash to burn, start your own 527—just incorporate an organization, file with the IRS (and, in some cases, the FEC), hire a production company, and you're off. If your budget is lower, there are companies that parcel out cheap air time. With Saysme.tv, you can design an ad and run it on CNN or Comedy Central or Animal Planet for as little as $6. (That's at 3 a.m. on a weekday. For prime time, it costs more.) The company lets you pick exactly which media markets will see the spot, so you can smear McCain in Colorado Springs or ding Obama in Boulder. Even easier is to make a Web ad—quick, dirty, and just as likely to get media coverage.

Throw a party. This is bundling for people who fly commercial. Have a party, invite everyone you know, and make sure they all give money. Small-scale events are often more profitable than blow-out concerts with big-name artists. If you spend $90,000 on an event that raises $100,000, that's a net benefit to the campaign of only $10,000. Better to keep things modest—and possibly even more lucrative, says Eli Pariser of MoveOn.org. "It's much easier to raise $20,000 with smaller event," he says.

Give your own cash. Small donations have become critical this election cycle, so don't worry if you can give only $10. Obama raised a record $66 million in August and still relies on donations to push him through. McCain receives public funds but could still use your Hamiltons; just give them to the RNC instead. Plus, if you don't have time to volunteer, giving money "helps assuage guilt," says Louise Simmons of the University of Connecticut School of Social Work.

Make your own robo-call. Sick of phone-banking? Record your own robo-call for your candidate. It's easy to set up and can cost only a couple of cents per call. Problem is, you'll probably end up pissing off more voters than you win over.

Buy a lawn sign. Yay. Now you have a lawn sign.

If You Have Time (in descending order of usefulness)

Knock on doors. Boring, but true. If you live in a battle ground state, the single best thing you can do is make face-to-face contact. "Personalize, personalize, personalize," says Tracy Soska, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work and a community organizer. Try to show up before dark—people hate answering the door after night falls, even if it's only 8 p.m. Of course, door-knocking is useless if you live in a blue or red state. In that case, you should probably …

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Christopher Beam is a Slate political reporter.
Photograph of an Obama campaign volunteer by Alex Wong/Getty Images.
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