Resource Type: Social Science Research

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.

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.          

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.