Resource Type: Field Research

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.

This article offers empirical evidence supporting a relationship between social influence and voter turnout by comparing the effectiveness of face-to-face get-out-the-vote visits by canvassers living in a voter’s local neighborhood against visits by canvassers from other neighborhoods. This study, published in 2013, looked at canvassing in Los Angeles in 2006 and attempted to discern a difference between canvassers local to the neighborhood in which they were working and those working outside where they lived. In addition, this study confirmed that low-propensity voters can be turned out to vote based on a face-to-face conversation.