Resource Library

I vividly remember this phrase from my time at ACORN, an organization once known for its unbending commitment to organizing. It’s the perfect header for today’s newsletter, a guest insight from Ned Howey, the CEO of Tectonica Digital Campaign Solutions. Tectonica works with digital-first campaigning organizations looking to build lasting power. This work is pushing them to figure out how to get more organizations to do more organizing, so we can win big things.
Digital-first organizations are steeped in metrics and analytics, so they have naturally started thinking about ways of measuring organizing and its impact. And measuring is built on tracking. And if you aren’t tracking, you aren’t organizing.

Virginia voters largely support Democratic policy proposals; they’re also ideologically moderate overall (based on self-described ideology). Based on a 2021 phone survey, Virginia voters on the whole view Republican elected officials as more conservative than they view Democratic elected officials as liberal. On environmental policy, a strong majority of Virginia voters overall support renewable energy investments (82%). 65% support/strongly support a “Green New Deal” to address climate change by investing government funds in green jobs and infrastructure, and 53% support/strongly support a carbon tax or cap-and-trade program to reduce carbon emissions. Republicans strongly support expanding offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters (83%), which is opposed by both Democratic voters (72%) and independents (63%). The survey also asked about healthcare, immigration, and economic policy.             

Convenient at-home charging options and financial incentives are key for encouraging plug-in electric vehicle owners to continue to purchase them. Using survey data from 2015-2019 in California, the authors find that approximately 1 in 5 electric vehicle owners do not purchase an electric vehicle on their next vehicle purchase. Dissatisfaction with home-charging options is the strongest factor determining electric vehicle discontinuance. Having more cars in your household also leads to discontinued electric vehicle use. Finally, those who discontinue electric vehicle use are more likely to say they would not purchase an electric vehicle without yearly incentives to do so.             

SMS texting can boost voter turnout. The results of a field experiment in the 2021 Pennsylvania state primary found that text messages increased voter turnout by 0.8 percentage points. Three specific message wordings were tested: the strongest turnout effect (+1.0 percentage point) came from asking voters to ask their friends and family to vote. Two other messages were called “Fight for your rights” and “Assumed good behavior” increased voter turnout by 0.7 percentage points. All voters targeted were also identified as more likely than the average voter to care about the climate crisis.

Two core ways that movement organizations can build and wield “strategic capacity” are by (1) continuously learning about what tactics have worked and which haven’t and (2) re-organize or adapt its resources to new challenges and opportunities. “Strategic capacity” is the ability of an organization to make decisions with uncertain information about how to deploy its resources to achieve a goal. Democratic governance structures within organizations can be especially key in building and deploying strategic capacity. This report delves into much more detail about each of these components and describes a few organization case studies, such as of Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, Dakota Access Pipeline protests, and 38 Degrees. A secondary attached report provides guidance on how an organization can execute a process to evaluate its own strategic capacity.