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Welcome back to Campaign Data 101, where we break down the what, how, and why of using data to run an innovative and efficient campaign. Last week, we covered how to use Data in your campaign in the field, messaging, and policy in part 2 of our blog series. Here, we’ll dive deeper into How to Use Data in your campaign, specifically in finance and internal operations.
Missed our previous Campaign Data 101 articles?
Keep your eyes peeled for our final part 4:
If you’re ready, let’s dive back in!
PART 3
How to use Data in your Campaign for Finance & Internal Operations
Using Data in your Campaign
In part 3 of our Campaign Data 101 blog series, we’ll discuss what kinds of data-driven projects you can work on in the finance and internal operations buckets of campaign activity. Here, we will share some projects that you can use in your campaign to raise money, optimize spending, and save valuable time and resources.
How to Use Data in Finance
Finance is the money raised and spent to staff the campaign and distribute your messaging.
Finance is the money raised and spent to staff the campaign and distribute your messaging.
Here are the four projects we recommend for fundraising: donor identification, automated reporting, contact prioritization, and outreach strategy
Identify potential donors by utilizing ACS data on median income and Zillow housing data from your campaign supporters.
Automate reporting using scripting and APIs to create custom dashboards of your data from ActBlue and automate the submission of campaign finance forms.
Prioritize contacts using finance data or Zillow data and ensure call time is spent on high-priority donor targets. Previous Bluebonnet teams have used campaign finance data and Zillow property value data to indicate which of the voters on your donor contact list might be able to contribute more money.
Inform your outreach to campaign donors by analyzing who is donating to your mission with the information available to you.
How to use Data for Internal Operations
Internal Operations is what’s happening inside the campaign, including the number of volunteer shifts covered, candidate time allotment, and team project management.
Internal Operations is what’s happening inside the campaign, including the number of volunteer shifts covered, candidate time allotment, and team project management
Here are the projects we recommend for using data to inform your internal operations: automated volunteer shift reminders, automating repetitive tasks, and campaign KPI dashboards.
Automate volunteer shift reminders and calls to action via Slack and email using Airtable automations, Google Sheets add-ons, or services like Integromat and Zapier.
Automate repetitive tasks with code scripts to save the campaign dozens or hundreds of volunteer labor hours. If your team spends a lot of time and energy submitting campaign finance reporting, there might be a way to automate that process using code scripts. Think of any repetitive digital task, and there is a good chance it can be automated.
Create dashboards with campaign KPIs to stay motivated and keep track of the progress to goal. Past Bluebonnet teams have created dashboards that automatically pull data from Mobilize, Outvote, and other software to keep track of the campaign’s progress.
Feeling like you’re understanding how to use data in shaping your policy and getting your campaign out there? In the final part of our Campaign Data 101 series, we’ll be sharing some case studies and resources to inspire and empower you to leverage data to run a more effective campaign.
If you like what you’ve read and want to learn more, you can reach us at info@bluebonnetdata.org. Or, want smart, passionate, young folx to help with your data now? Bring on a Bluebonnet team!
About the Author
Becca Blais is the Executive Director of Bluebonnet Data. As Bluebonnet's first employee and now Executive Director, Becca believes in the importance of investing in talent and data infrastructure at the most local level. Follow her on Twitter & Medium.
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