Volunteers are the lifeblood of progressive campaigns. In 2016, the process of volunteering remained clunky and outdated, which created unnecessary barriers to entry. On the campaign side, volunteer recruitment and retention was equally tedious. Syncing paper sign-in sheets with NGP VAN, constantly calling supporters to remind them of their shifts, and converting new leads take time that Field Organizers often don’t have to give.
MobilizeAmerica has transformed the way that campaigns contact, recruit, retain, and re-engage volunteers. Mobilize is a digital platform that empowers activists to sign up for volunteer shifts and campaign events; over a million progressive activists are now on Mobilize and have attempted to contact over 36 million American voters. Mobilize constantly tests and optimizes communications with volunteers leading up to events while ensuring information is instantly synced with the campaign’s main database, NGP VAN. Volunteers can also browse events on a customizable feed that displays nearby opportunities for action. These same features are available for and popular within issue advocacy movements – the Human Rights Campaign, NARAL, End Citizens United, and Planned Parenthood are already committed year-round users.
Mobilize became a ubiquitous piece of tech infrastructure in the 2018 election cycle.
In 2018, every targeted DCCC race relied on Mobilize. Mobilize’s platform and concept was especially visible in three high-profile, toss-up races: Katie Porter’s (CA-45), Antonio Delgado’s (NY-19), and Max Rose’s (NY-11). The platform organized hundreds of thousands of door knocks for each of these campaigns, and they won by 4,200, 7,500, and 11,100 votes, respectively.
Looking forward, Mobilize plans to introduce several new features to make the volunteer experience more interactive for supporters and easier to coordinate for campaign staff. Since the midterms, Mobilize released a distributed organizing feature that enables supporters to create and host their own volunteer events on the platform. And, over the course of the next several months, Mobilize plans to implement in-app messaging, ticketed events, expanded volunteer profiles, and new CRM integrations.
Mobilize’s initial functionality stemmed from genuine areas of need within the practice of progressive campaigning. And since its launch, every innovation has strived to make volunteering more engaging and the platform more useful for Field Organizers. 2020 offers both immense excitement for Mobilize’s growth and new and engaging opportunities for volunteers to take action on the platform.
