Every few months, yet another democracy campaign launches with the same ingredients: a sober tone, a stack of statistics and a call to remember what’s at stake. Most of them are well-intentioned – and most of them reach the people who were already worried.

On October 22, we gathered Evan Weissman, founder of Warm Cookies of the Revolution, Joe Kennedy, founder of The Team, and Tova Wang, Harvard’s Ash Center for a conversation we called “Not Another Democracy PSA.” The premise was simple: The pro-democracy movement has spent years perfecting its arguments. Unfortunately, the arguments are not the problem.

The problem is belonging.

Think about your favorite sports team, performer or brand. You don’t have to be persuaded to care about what they share: you inherit a community, a set of rituals, a badge to wear and a seat next to strangers who feel like family. The identity comes first, and the participation follows. Democracy asks people to participate and at most, you can expect a sticker to show that you voted. The result: 19 million people attended NFL regular season games each year while 7 million attended No Kings rallies.

Together, with Evan, Joe and Tova, we reimagined what it would look like for civic life to work more like fandom, and what communicators, funders and organizations can do to make it happen.

Three takeaways

1. Go where audiences already are.

Start with what people already care about whether it’s soccer, Marvel movies, or running, then build from that to create experiences that engage people in civic participation. Joe Kennedy and The Team’s approach includes the pizza-fueled Virtual All-Star Meeting that features pro athletes that they refer to as “civic tailgating.” 

2. Build community, then weave in the issues you want people to care about.

Tova Wang said, “The most politically diverse place at any given moment in the United States is an NFL stadium on Sunday.” She told us how the Las Vegas Raiders stadium became a polling location in 2024 with a full fan experience around it. It became the most popular voting location. Its voters skewed younger and were more often first-time voters, with no partisan advantage. The Raiders are repeating it this year, with a follow-up survey planned.

3. Lead with fun.

Evan Weissman noted that their competition is church, Netflix and the NFL. That’s why they’ve organized 40+ arts-based programs including the Tax Day Carnival, The Huddle (a series of policy talks held at breweries during “halftimes” of football games), a neighborhood Olympics and civic bingo and game nights. 

What this means for communicators

If belonging is the missing ingredient, our task as communicators changes: Instead of asking how to make the case for democracy more persuasive, we should ask how to build the identity, rituals, and shared spaces that make participation feel natural.

That points to a few questions any organization can ask of its own work:

  • Are we offering people a reason to engage, or a place to belong?
  • Who are the trusted messengers our audience already follows, and are we working with them or around them?
  • What would our work look like if it were designed to be joined, not just understood?

This has been a focus of my work with Spitfire for clients like Hip Hop Caucus, who we worked with to place music culture back at the center of their work, and BIPOC Arts Network and Fund that we rebranded and renamed as Houston in Color.

Keep the conversation going

If you missed the webinar, you can watch the full recording below.

And if you’re working on belonging, culture, or civic engagement from the sports, brand, philanthropy or organizing side, I’d like to hear from you. You can email me at mcrawford@spitfirestrategies.com.