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PUTTING
LIST ENHANCEMENT TO WORK
Ideas on How to Use Enhanced Lists Effectively and Creatively |
Contents
What is List Enhancement?
Building Your Organization
Lobbying and Organizing More Effectively
Conducting Legally Permissible Political Work
Working in Powerful Coalitions
Better Understanding Your Progressive Community
What
is List Enhancement?
A list enhancement project takes the membership lists of participating
groups, matches them with the public state voter file, and returns the
lists to the groups "enhanced" with new data. Participating groups receive
the following information for each registered voter on their membership
list: age, gender, phone number, congressional and state legislative districts,
county, voting precinct, how many other participating organizations they
belong to, political party affiliation and frequency of voting.
There are many ways you can use this information to better meet your
organization’s goals. This document is designed to provide a sampling of
how list enhancement has been used successfully around the country* and
to foster additional innovative ideas for using enhanced lists.
Building
Your Organization
Through list enhancement, your group will gain important information
about your membership as a whole, such as average age, geographic distribution,
gender ratio, and how many of your members belong to other participating
organizations. This information can be invaluable in providing you with
a better understanding of your membership, which is helpful for organizational
building activities like fundraising and membership solicitation.
· Target your frequently voting members with special fundraising
appeals. Since motivated voters place a premium on involvement, they are
often your best fundraising targets.
Case Study: The Washington Environmental Alliance for Voter Education
(WEAVE) matched a list of 231,000 petition signers for the anti-takings
referendum with the state voter file. The campaign then contacted the registered
voters on this list for donations. They found that the fundraising solicitation
made money when contacting frequent voters (those who had voted in three
or four of the last four elections) but lost money when contacting infrequent
voters (those who had voted in only two or less of the last four elections).
Case Study: The Washington Conservation Voters (WCV) examined the correlation
between its members’ voting frequency and giving levels. WCV found that
57 percent of its money came from perfect "4 of 4" voters (voters who voted
in all of the last four elections), 25 percent from 3 of 4 voters, and
only 9 percent from 2 of 4 voters. A similar analysis done by the Washington
Environmental Council showed that a larger number of their donors were
4 of 4 voters. The Washington-based Northwest Ecosystem Alliance and PAWS
also found comparable correlations between their high donors and frequent
voters.
· Send out a membership appeal based on gender or age or geography.
Women and men, people of different ages, and people living in different
areas often respond to a solicitation differently, based on its medium,
message and visual images. Since list enhancement provides you with the
age, gender and geographic location of each of your members (or potential
members, if you rent another participating group’s list), you can craft
and target membership appeals for different audiences, so they will have
the maximum impact.
Case Study: The Washington-based Inland Empire Public Lands Council
has a campaign to fight water pollution emanating from Idaho mining operations.
The Council decided to target vacation homeowners from Spokane owning lake
front property in Idaho. Its fundraising appeal to this group performed
at a rate two to three times higher than their standard appeals.
· Develop prospecting lists and programs based on group demographics.
The
information you receive on your memberships’ demographics will reveal the
strengths and weaknesses in the make-up of your organization’s membership.
This will point out opportunities and also signal areas where you may need
to focus efforts. For example, if the average age of your membership is
above 60 years, you may want to consider targeting younger audiences to
round out your membership.
Case Study: When Friends of the Earth in Washington found out that
the majority of its members were senior citizens, the group began exploring
the creation of a planned giving program and other programs targeted for
senior populations.
Case Study: The Washington Environmental Council contacted its younger
and older members to ask if they were interested in becoming office volunteers,
since these age groups often have more free time and more flexible daytime
schedules.
Case Study: A Washington State organization focused its membership recruitment
efforts in precincts where the recent takings referendum was opposed by
90 percent or more of the voters. Specifically, the group bought lists
of 4 of 4 voters in these anti-takings precincts who were not members of
environmental groups (i.e., weren’t on the Washington enhanced list). This
group obtained a nine-percent success rate when making "cold" member recruitment
calls to these voters.
· Do list swaps with groups with similar demographics. Although
all data is kept confidential by LCVEF, if participating groups want to,
they may share the demographic profile of their membership with other organizations.
Groups with similar age and gender ratios may then choose to swap lists
to recruit additional members.
Case Study: The Washington Wilderness Coalition obtained membership
lists from other list project groups, asking for jurisdictional and demographic
sorts that paralleled their membership. The Council found that phone fundraising
from these lists yielded a higher performance level than other lists.
Lobbying
and Organizing More Effectively
List enhancement allows groups to more effectively and affordably contact,
inform and motivate their members. Individuals who vote consistently in
every primary and general election tend to be more motivated and educated
on issues, and hence are more likely to take action or become volunteers.
· Recruit motivated voters as activists for an email action
network system. The Environmental Defense Fund and LCVEF have combined
list enhancement and email technology to create action alert networks that
inform activists on key issues and converts their email response letters
into faxes to key decision-makers. Motivated voters (those who voted in
at least three of the last four elections) are called and asked if they
wanted to participate.
Case Study: The first email action network was pioneered in Colorado
with the Colorado Action Network or CAN. Similar projects have been developed
(or are in process) in Michigan, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Georgia, Idaho,
and Ohio.
·Target action alerts based on geography and voting frequency.
Groups can save money and get a higher response rate by targeting action
alerts to only those legislative districts where responses are needed and
to their members who are most likely to respond.
Case Study: The Northwest Ecosystem Alliance is trying to overlay
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data about key watersheds and forests
with the location of its members to see if they can prompt members to greater
action on "problem sites" close to their homes.
Case Study: When the Washington State Legislature attempted to pass
legislation gutting the recently-passed anti-bearbaiting initiative, the
WA Wildlife Alliance made "cold calls" to 3 of 4 and 4 of 4 bearbaiting
initiative signers in key districts. These voters were asked to call their
lawmakers to oppose the legislation. The response was overwhelming and
the legislation was stopped.
· Turn out members in a particular locale to an important town
meeting, legislative hearing or organizational event.
Case Study: The Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides
and the Oregon Environmental Council held joint meetings around Oregon
to recruit activists to work on a pesticide right-to-know law. They combined
their enhanced lists to mail and phone their frequently voting members
in the targeted legislative districts where the meeting were being held.
Case Study: The Washington Environmental Council (WEC), WEAVE and the
Mountaineers needed to generate a high turnout for a Seattle candidate
forum one week before the state’s primary. They accomplished this goal
by doing a targeted mailing to environmental group members in the Seattle
area who were 4 of 4, non-absentee ballot voters.
Case Study: In 1997, Environmental Advocates of New York used the enhanced
list to increase participation in their Earth Day Lobby Day.
· Identify constituents of key legislators for lobbying purposes.
Case Study: WEC contacted its 4 of 4 voters in targeted districts
where support would be needed in the upcoming legislative session. These
voters were invited to attend a workshop on policy issues expected to be
debated by the legislature. The Council hoped to build a "green tree" activist
network to help lobby on key issues.
· Build activist recruitment programs based on voting frequency.
Again, since people who vote in each primary and general election tend
to be more motivated and committed to civic involvement, they should be
your first targets if you are recruiting volunteers – for activities ranging
from phone banks and office help to wilderness mapping projects and rally
organizing.
Case Study: For its program to increase the environmental voter turnout
in county level elections, WCV called 4 of 4 conservation voters to recruit
them to make 50 GOTV phone calls to fellow conservationists in their communities.
An astounding 50 percent volunteered to phone bank and an equally impressive
97 percent completed their GOTV phone calls, as promised.
Case Study: In the 1998 elections, the Colorado LCVEF office contacted
conservation group members who had voted in the last three or four elections
to ask them to volunteer for their "Green Phone From Home Project" to achieve
victory on an important factory hog farm ballot initiative. Through this
and other recruiting efforts, more than 200 volunteers were recruited to
make 50 Get Out the Vote phone calls to fellow conservationists in their
communities for a total of more than 10,000 calls.
Case Study: Washington’s People for Puget Sound obtained a significantly
better result by calling its 3 of 4 and 4 of 4 voters to recruit them to
join their activist network than its would have by calling its entire membership.
· Increase your lobbying clout by being able to inform a lawmaker
on how many members of your group are voting constituents in their district.
Case Study: Several years ago, Congressman Rick White cancelled a
meeting with the Heart of America Northwest because staff felt there weren’t
enough group members in White’s district to warrant a meeting. When the
group analyzed its membership database and found they had 2,000 voting
members in the district, this information was relayed to the Congressman’s
office and the meeting was promptly rescheduled.
Case Study: WEAVE designed a "Meet Your Legislator" program with other
Washington State groups, under which 34 legislators were visited by more
than 200 constituents. These visits were particularly impacting with legislators
because the constituents were able to report the exact number of registered
environmental voters in each member’s district because of the list project.
Case Study: In 1998, the New York League of Conservation Voters used
the enhanced list to inform politicians about the number of voting environmental
activists in their districts.
· Identify key legislative districts where your group has few
or no members and actively work to recruit members in these areas, or work
in coalition with groups who are strong in these locales.
Case Study: The People for Puget Sound have targeted their membership
recruitment efforts towards key legislative districts where they need more
lobbying clout.
Case Study: In the Washington "Meet Your Legislator" program, coalition
groups divide up the list of key legislators to lobby according to which
groups have the most members and 4 of 4 voters in a lawmakers’ district.
Conducting
Legally Permissible Political Work**
· Conduct an absentee ballot voting program to increase voter
turnout.
Case Study: LCVEF and WEAVE undertook an absentee ballot program in
Washington in 1998, which tested various methods to encourage infrequent
conservation voters to apply to be permanent absentee voters. Twelve percent
of the 16,000 voters receiving an absentee ballot application form opted
to become absentee voters.
Case Study: The LCVEF office in Colorado took the Washington absentee
mailer, altered it for Colorado and mailed it out to 44,000 infrequent
conservation voters. Seventeen percent mailed in the form requesting an
absent ballot. This had a significant impact on turnout since absentee
ballot voters in Colorado voted at a rate of 93 percent in 1998!
· Participate in ballot initiatives.
Case Study: LCVEF conducted a highly successful voter education and
get out the vote (GOTV) project for two 1998 factory hog farm ballot initiatives.
The project targeted infrequent voters with an absentee ballot application
mailer, a brochure on the hog initiatives and a GOTV phone call from a
volunteer-run phone bank. The pro-environment initiative won with an overwhelming
vote of 64-36 percent, while the anti-environment initiative lost by a
similarly decisive margin.
Case Study: A number of other coalitions and organizations around the
country have used enhanced lists to support environmental ballot initiatives.
In the 1995 takings initiative in Washington State, WEAVE was able to achieve
a 13 percent increase in the turnout of targeted voters in King County.
Other efforts include the 1998 open space measure in Washtenaw County,
Michigan, and the 1996 Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act in New York.
Case Study: To combat a recent anti-affirmative action ballot initiative,
a Washington organization used GIS technology and census data to identify
ethnically diverse precincts, and then targeted GOTV efforts in these communities.
Although initiative ultimately passed, the group was successful in defeating
the initiative in all targeted precincts.
· Design Get Out the Vote programs. Although organizations often
use ballot initiatives as a hook to get their members to go to the polls,
you can also target the infrequent voters on your enhanced list with a
straight GOTV message that simply talks about the importance of voting.
Case study: In Connecticut, the Legislative Education Action Program
(LEAP), helped labor and community organizations in the city of Groton,
Connecticut jointly enhance their membership lists with voter status information.
When the result showed that almost 30% of the individuals on the combined
lists were not registered to vote, a registration drive was launched. List
enhancement enabled organizations to target registration, so that autoworkers
visited autoworkers, nurses visited nurses, etc. The result: in the 1999
municipal election, union voter turnout increased 20%, and progressive
forces secured a stunning upset.
· Create a green voter list. Many groups have taken petition
signatures gathered to put an environmental initiative on the ballot, matched
these lists with the state voter file and then called through the lists
to identify "green" voters. This expands the pool of names you can contact
for future ballot initiative or GOTV efforts.
Case Study: WEAVE paid to match a list of 231,000 petition signers
for the 1995 anti-takings referendum with the state voter file as a contribution
to the campaign. Approximately 76,000 registered voters were used in a
phone and mail program for the referendum. These voters were also successfully
contacted for donations. This list became WEAVE property after the campaign
and has been used for additional fundraising purposes by Washington environmental
organizations.
· Rent or sell the enhanced list to a PAC or candidate. As long
as the primary purpose for undertaking your list project was for 501(c)(3)
uses (such as those outlined above) and contains only appropriate 501(c)(3)
information, you can rent or sell your enhanced list for fair market value
to other non-profits, including PACs. You can also do the same with political
candidates or political parties, as long as you also make it available
to all candidates for the same position or parties. This is most easily
done with a list broker.
Working
in Powerful Coalitions
The list enhancement process creates an enhanced list of environmental
organizations in your state, which is held by a third party (usually the
vendor that does the matching) for research purposes only and may not be
used without written permission from participants. This allows your group,
if you so choose, to easily and cost-effectively participate in coalition
projects with list enhancement partners. Many of the previously mentioned
projects involved groups combining their enhanced lists in a coalition
effort.
Case Study: Seventeen Colorado groups joined with LCVEF in 1998 to
undertake the "Infrequent Conservation Voters Project" (discussed earlier)
to increase voter turnout and achieve victory on two factory hog farm ballot
initiatives. LCVEF obtained written permission from each group to contact
their members on the combined enhanced list with voter education and GOTV
messages. List enhancement allowed LCVEF to target infrequently voting
conservation members and, by avoiding double counting of members belonging
to more than one group, helped save money.
Better
Understanding Your Progressive Community
By doing a statistical analysis of the enhanced mega-list, you can learn
useful information about the environmental and progressive communities
in your state, including the average voter turnout, age, gender ratio,
and political party affiliation.
Case Study: When WEAVE first pioneered list enhancement technology
in 1995, the Washington environmental community assumed that its members
were more active voters than the general public. List enhancement statistics
showed, however, that more than half of its environmental group members
vote only half the time or less. This information triggered new efforts
to educate the conservation community on the importance of voting and to
undertake innovative GOTV projects.
* Many examples are excerpted from "Help Wanted: WEAVE’s
Environmental List Development Project" and "Mobilize Your Members: A Simple
How-To Guide for Using Lists Effectively" by LCVEF.
** For more guidance on legally permissible uses of
list enhancement, see LCVEF’s "Maximize Your Grassroots Power: A Legal
Guide to List Enhancement and Citizen Contact."
Many thanks to the League
Of Conservation Voters Education Fund Southwest Regional Office for
creating this guide.
Northeast Action • NEAction@NEAction.org
30 Germania Street • Boston,
Mass. 02130 • 617.541.0500 • 617.541.0533 fax
621 Farmington Avenue • Hartford,
Conn. 06105 • 860.231.2410 • 860.231.2419 fax
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