Voter registration chase: A head to head comparison of postcards and letters
Sister District Action Network (SDAN) and the Voter Participation Center (VPC) conducted an experiment in April-May 2020 directly comparing the efficacy of postcards and letters as chaser communications to improve the response rate to voter registration forms.
Texting out the vote: Do GOTV texts help motivate voters to the polls?
Abstract: Sister District Action Network (SDAN) and the Mississippi NAACP (MS NAACP) partnered to conduct an experiment around GOTV text messaging during the days leading up to the general election in Mississippi on November 5, 2019. The study targeted predominantly Black / African-American voters whose prior voting history indicated they would be unlikely to vote […]
Activism in the Age of COVID-19: a Study
How has the coronavirus pandemic affected grassroots volunteering? Our new research finds out.
Location, Location, Location: Does postcard postmark location matter for voter turnout?
We sent GOTV postcards to voters in North Carolina and Texas to see if receiving a postcard at all might boost turnout, and to see if turnout was different for people who received a postcard sent from in-state as opposed to a postcard sent from out of state.
Relational Voter Turnout: Tag, You’re It?
Can Facebook increase voter turnout? Our study looks at whether being tagged in a status by a friend makes people more likely to vote.
Analyzing the 2019 Sister District Impact Report
We recently released our 2019 Impact Report. The report includes details about our fundraising and field achievements, program growth, campaign success and satisfaction, and volunteer/team success and growth. Read on for some of the takeaways from the report.
GOTV With Our Latest Research
Get Out More Votes, More Effectively The temperature is dropping, the leaves are changing, and pumpkins are popping up on front porches all over the nation. You know what that means: GOTV is here! GOTV, or “get out the vote,” marks a shift in campaign focus from persuading voters to vote for specific candidates or […]
Correlation vs. Causation: Tips for Reading Political Research Studies
You’ve probably heard the phrase “correlation does not equal causation” — but what does it mean? Here are some tips for reading Political Research Studies.
“Friendraising”: Goal-Oriented Fundraising Emails to Friends and Family
We conducted a mixed methods pilot study to determine if appealing to friends and family via email is a viable fundraising strategy, and if spelling out a specific fundraising goal is more effective in increasing the donation amount than using a general fundraising goal.
SDAN+VPC VR Voting Pipeline Postcard Study
We ran a randomized controlled trial to determine: 1) if people who received a handwritten postcard encouraging voter registration, along with an official voter registration form from Voter Participation Center (VPC), in our March and Sept 2018 studies had higher odds of turning out to vote in the November 2018 general election; and 2) if the effect of those postcards differed based on whether or not those targets had returned the registration form sent to them by VPC earlier in the year.
