Resource Type: Experiments

Members of the Climate Advocacy Lab, along with experts from the Analyst Institute, held a (strictly C3!) conversation on GOTV best practices and GOTV learnings from members of the Lab community. 
Key takeaways:
1) Most GOTV programs leave votes on the table by not fully implementing established best practices
2) the single best GOTV return on investment in most cases comes from a simple ‘social pressure’ mailer (see below).

Presenter slide decks:
• Karuna Koppula, Analyst Institute (slide deck here)
• Brandyn Keating, United Citizen Power (slide deck here)
• Emily Kreiger & Lennon Bronsema, Washington Environmental Council (slide deck here)
• Marcus Starr, Conservation MN (PDFs found here)

As EPA Administrator Pruitt and the Trump administration moved ahead Monday with their rollback of common-sense clean car standards—and Americans everywhere uttered a collective groan of frustration—this week we revisit why it is so critical at moments like this for advocates to give their supporters clear actions to take in response to discouraging news.

The emerging body of “best practices” around peer-to-peer texting programs shared during this webinar includes: (1) Make a plan and factor in the learning curve. Create a calendar to make sure volunteer shifts match with campaign needs since it takes time for staff and volunteers to learn new technology and data processes. Don’t forget to factor in necessary training (and re-training); (2) Build personal, ongoing relationships. If possible, have the same volunteers text the same list of members and supporters to build trust and consistency in the relationship; (3) Test everything! Since the platform is relatively new, there is much to be learned – including motivating message content, layering with other modes of contact, which emojis generate the most actions, etc.; and (4) Honor opt-outs and don’t over-text.             

Online to offline movement of activists occurs with only a small fraction of online activists, but does represent a significant share (35%) of those who do become offline activists. Donors are more likely than non-donors to become regular offline activists. These are among numerous insights from a webinar that presented findings from an analysis of merged member data from seven environmental organizations and over 12 million records of members, activists, and donors. Kate Duch has prepared far more analyses than she had time to present, so you can take a look at the full “Multi-organization member engagement” project deck, too.

Use sequenced messages of fear and then hope to promote pro-climate attitudes and behaviors. People’s beliefs about climate change and subsequent willingness to act after being introduced to climate messages are affected by their emotions. Information about climate change or policies on their own are less likely to inspire action than ones framed in terms of paired messages tied to “threat” and “efficacy” (empowerment). And “emotional flow” through multiple emotions is more effective than messages that inspire only one emotion. Climate messages that evoke fear and then hope increase advocacy behavior, relative to messages that emphasize the threat of climate change alone (which are themselves more effective than totally neutral information).