Leading eco-influencers are harnessing online platforms for education and social change around environmental, climate, and justice issues. Kristy Drutman of Browngirl Green and Green Jobs Board is working to improve the anti-racist practices of environmental organizations and publicly speaks on climate justice. Isaias Hernandez of QueerBrownVegan creates online educational climate content and collaborates with writers, communicators and researchers. Sophia Kianni of Climate Cardinals is working to make the climate movement more accessible by translating and sourcing crucial climate resources into more than 100 languages.

This report offers a succinct view of the progressive technology landscape that can be used for future election campaigns. Campaigns flock to streaming services as more begin to accept political ads. Influencer marketing has achieved institutional adoption. Political text messages can reach a tipping point. Campaigns are starting to purchase their tech earlier in electoral cycles. Tech has improved at the down-ballot level, but campaigns sometimes still lack affordable and effective basic tools. Large company mergers of infrastructure for key tactics (such as NGP VAN) raises questions among practitioners regarding the future of core voter data systems.

Across TikTok, from newcomers to seasoned professionals, virtually no progressive groups feel they have a grip on what effective political content looks like, how to generate it, or how to have it support organizing strategy consistently. This report studies how to fill that gap. First, narrative content blows strictly informational content out of the water. Second, connect a message to identity — or not at all. Third, in-house content can work, but only if you break from the meta playbook. Fourth, TikTok is still a black box—there’s much more to learn.

Social movement attempts to boycott a company’s product may actually backfire. This research assessing different “disruptive capacity” tactics found that countermovements to boycotts, sometimes called “buycotts,” can have effects that are stronger than boycotts. In other words, boycotts of company products can cause increases in product sales. This research assessed the effects of a boycott and countermovement’s “buycott” of the company Goya’s products in 2020, finding that sales increased.

The nature of engagement with and donations to nonprofits have changed, as nonprofits’ digital presences have increased. Total online revenue for nonprofits decreased by 4% in 2022, and nonprofits reported especially sharp drops in revenue on Giving Tuesday and December 31. While one-time giving declined, monthly giving revenue increased by 12% — accounting for 28% of all online revenue in 2022. Digital advertising investment by nonprofits increased by 28%, and internet search remained the most reliable platform to generate a positive return on ad spend. Nonprofits sent 60 email messages per subscriber, including 29 fundraising appeals, and email generated 14% of all online revenue. While platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter dominated nonprofit social media engagement, 30% of participants reported being active on TikTok. Return on ad spending was highest for search ads: $2.75 for every dollar spent. Return on ad spending for Meta was $0.50 and $0.41 for Twitter. The majority of nonprofit website traffic came from users on mobile devices — 57%, with 43% of traffic from users on desktop devices. However, 75% of revenue came from users on desktop devices.

Video gamers are somewhat more concerned about climate change and are more willing to act than the average American. About three in four video gamers (73%) think global warming is happening, and the majority of video gamers (56%) understand that global warming is mostly human-caused. About one in five video gamers (22%) have seen or heard content related to global warming as part of gaming in the last 12 months, either as a topic in a game they have played (16%) or in a video gaming stream they have watched (16%). About half of video gamers are at least "moderately confident" that people from the gaming community, working together, can affect what local businesses (52%), corporations (52%), their state government (50%), the federal government (49%), or their local government (48%) does about global warming. More than half of video gamers (59%) say they either “probably” or “definitely” would sign a petition about global warming.

Today, an overwhelming majority of Americans get news at least sometimes from digital devices. A large majority of U.S. adults (82%) say they often or sometimes get news from a smartphone, computer or tablet, including 49% who say they do so often. This is similar to the 51% who said they often got news from digital devices in 2021, but lower than the 60% of those who said the same in 2020. When asked which of these platforms they prefer to get news on, about half of Americans say they prefer a digital device (53%), more than say they prefer TV (33%). Even fewer Americans prefer radio (7%) or print (5%). Among digital platforms, news websites or apps are also the most preferred source for news: About a quarter of U.S. adults (23%) prefer to get their news this way, compared with 13% who prefer social media, 12% who prefer search and 4% who say they prefer podcasts.

Americans who play video games are generally more personally concerned about climate change than the rest of the country, making them good targets for appeals to take action. About three in four video gamers (73%) think global warming is happening, and the majority of video gamers (56%) understand that global warming is mostly human-caused. These proportions are nearly identical to the proportions in the U.S. population overall, as measured in the Climate Change in the American Mind study conducted in April and May of 2022 (72% believe global warming is happening, 56% believe it is human-caused). Seven in ten video gamers (70%) say they are either “somewhat” or “very” worried about global warming, compared with 64% of the U.S. population overall. About half of video gamers are at least “moderately confident” that people from the gaming community, working together, can affect what local businesses (52%), corporations (52%), their state government (50%), the federal government (49%), or their local government (48%) does about global warming.

How do we build the power to win? The Lab is constantly working to uncover and share what works (and doesn’t) to help build grassroots power and win equitable solutions through evidence-based advocacy. A common request we receive is for rigorous best practices to grow people power. Last year, the Lab finalized our research vision and research agenda and solicited research project ideas from the Lab community, rooted in how to improve organizing and mobilizing, and grounded in a common conceptual framework.

Today we share results from these six collaborative research projects, and our guidance for your recruitment and mobilizing work, based on the evidence we gathered together.

This tool shows which issues are most salient in which congressional districts, using Google search data. The tool allows users to search by issue (e.g., abortion, gas prices) and by congressional district. The current data online is from June 6-13, and jobs, taxes, gas prices, firearms, and wages are receiving the “most interest,” while abortion is receiving “medium interest.” Users can see issue salience/interest by absolute or relative interest.