Hispanic Heritage Month Campaign: Driving volunteer growth, engagement, and impact through community-centered storytelling

Overview

For Hispanic Heritage Month, Movement Labs launched a multi-channel social media and volunteer engagement campaign designed to celebrate Latino organizers while driving measurable participation across our organizing programs.

The campaign combined outward-facing social content with internal volunteer incentives, creating a feedback loop that attracted new volunteers, re-energized existing ones, and increased overall contribution levels.

Campaign Goals

This campaign was designed around three clear objectives:

Increase volunteer signups for partner organizations
Grow Movement Labs’ volunteer base
Boost engagement among existing Movement Labs volunteers

Rather than treating these goals separately, the campaign intentionally connected them—using celebration, recognition, and community to drive action.

Strategy & Execution

The campaign consisted of two coordinated efforts: a public-facing social media campaign and the launch of a new internal volunteer incentive program.

Effort 1: Social Media Campaign

We published a series of Hispanic Heritage Month social media posts highlighting the importance of Latino organizing, community leadership, and civic participation. Each post was designed to:

Celebrate Hispanic and Latino contributions to progressive movements
Create an emotional connection rooted in shared values
Include clear calls-to-action encouraging viewers to get involved

These posts were optimized for engagement and volunteer conversion, linking directly to signup opportunities for Movement Labs and partner organizations.

Campaign posts:

Effort 2: Monthly Badges Program

Alongside the social campaign, we launched the Monthly Badges Program—a new volunteer recognition system designed to encourage consistency and sustained participation.

This program rewarded volunteers for:

Completing monthly organizing activities
Increasing their time commitment
Maintaining consistent engagement over time

To support adoption, we promoted the program directly within the Movement Labs volunteer Slack channel, creating visibility, friendly competition, and peer motivation.

This internal reinforcement ensured that new volunteers didn’t just sign up—but stayed engaged.

Results & Impact

The campaign produced strong, measurable outcomes across all three goals:

15% increase in average donations
25% increase in total volunteers
Monthly average volunteer texting time increased from 1 hour to 4 hours

These results demonstrated that pairing values-driven storytelling with structured incentives can significantly increase both participation and impact.

Why It Worked

Several factors contributed to the campaign’s success:

Cultural relevance: Messaging was timely, celebratory, and community-centered
Clear calls-to-action: Every post guided viewers toward tangible next steps
Internal reinforcement: The badges program converted interest into sustained action
Positive feedback loop: Increased engagement led to higher morale, which drove even more participation

Rather than relying on a single channel, the campaign aligned external outreach with internal engagement—creating momentum on both fronts.

Takeaways

This campaign reinforced a key insight for volunteer-driven organizing:

Recognition, representation, and purpose are powerful motivators when paired with clear pathways to action.

By celebrating community identity while offering concrete ways to participate and be recognized, Movement Labs successfully expanded its volunteer base and deepened engagement among existing volunteers.

Looking Ahead

Building on this success, Movement Labs plans to:

Expanded the Monthly Badges program
Refine social-to-volunteer conversion strategies across future campaigns

This Hispanic Heritage Month campaign now serves as a model for future community-driven organizing initiatives.

Hispanic Heritage Month