About the DVC
What we do
Volunteer activities
- We organize in-person and remote phone banks and provide training and support to phone bankers
- We provide supplies, information, and events for volunteers who want to write postcards or letters to voters
- We promote and support text banks by our partner organizations, and we can connect you directly with people who can answer your text banking questions
- We promote and support canvassing activities in key California districts, primarily in the Central Valley
Special events
We host both in-person events and virtual events over Zoom, including:
- Chances to hear from and meet Democratic candidates
- Fundraisers to support Democratic candidates
- Debate watch parties during primary and general election season
- Movie nights
- Talks from elected officials and speakers like Katie Porter, Anna Eshoo, Michael McFaul, and Dan Pfeiffer
Supporting local organizations
During campaign season—summer and fall during midterm years or spring through fall during presidential election years—we provide physical office space and infrastructure for our own volunteers; this space is also available for use by other local organizations that are dedicated to electing Democratic candidates. If your organization needs event space during campaign season, email event-coordinator@demvolctr.org.
Our mission and history
The mission of the Democratic Volunteer Center is to support volunteers and activist groups in the democratic process by providing the space, infrastructure, and resources necessary to elect Democrats and pass legislation aligned with Democratic Party values at the local, state, and national levels.
The Democratic Volunteer Center began in 2010 with the goal of harnessing the expertise, passion, and resources of the SF Bay mid-Peninsula to elect Democratic candidates. A founding principle of the DVC is inclusion, bringing together volunteers across the progressive spectrum, regardless of any relationship with the Party.
We are based in Silicon Valley and serve volunteers both local and remote. Originally a local organization, in 2020 we moved our phone banks and meetings online, and began distributing supplies for people to volunteer from home. We now have volunteers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and abroad.
In August of 2022 we were able to open a physical location in Mountain View. In August of 2024 we opened a Mountain View office that was large enough for 115 laptop stations for phone banks, tables and chairs for all our postcard and letter writers, and a spacious area for events with a dais and large screen. DVC volunteers participated in 125 in-person phone banks at our Mountain View office with training and tech support and 50 others that could be accessed remotely. Writers produced nearly 100,000 postcards/letters to swing states or districts with us, and we helped the Harris campaign get 200 volunteers on buses to Reno with the DVC to knock on doors.
The DVC Board
- Pam Salvatierra, Chair
- Lawrence Byrd
- Herb Engstrom
- Melanie Erasmus
- Rita Friedman – Board member emeritus
- Mary Gill
- Bruce Hahne
- KJ Janowski
- Michelle Kraus
- Bill James
- Kacy McClure
- Noelle Smyth
- Tessa Solomon
- Emily Thurber – Board member emeritus
What has the DVC done to help elect Democrats?
- In 2024, DVC volunteers participated in 125 in-person phone banks at our Mountain View office with training and tech support and 50 more that could be accessed remotely. They wrote nearly 100,000 postcards/letters with us, helped the Harris campaign get 200 canvassers to Reno, and participated in many text banks with the DNC, CADEM, Field Team 6, NextGen, and more.
- In 2022, DVC volunteers made over 150,000 calls and wrote over 11,000 postcards. In less than one month, we wrote an additional 9000 postcards and made another 7000 phone calls to send Raphael Warnock back to the Senate.
- DVC volunteers made nearly 1 million get-out-the-vote calls for Democratic candidates in the 2020 general election. This includes more than 94,000 calls made for the runoff that elected Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to the Senate. Our texters sent more than 3 million texts to voters in key states, and our postcard and letter writers hand-wrote more than 200,000 messages.
- In 2018, our volunteers made more than 300,000 calls on behalf of 26 campaigns in 15 states.