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Michael Roy

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Netroots Nation Roundup

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I just got back from an energizing three days at Netroots Nation – an annual gathering of 3,500 activists and digital campaigners – in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I previously attended Netroots Nation in Detroit in 2014, and St. Louis in 2016.

Founded in 2006 by Daily Kos, Netroots brings together digital practitioners with liberal (in the US sense) organizations to talk challenges, tactics, and tools. It’s one of the largest gatherings of progressives in the United States, comparable in size to many national union conventions. Walking around the event, you’ll see folks from labour unions, technology companies, movement organizers, and Democratic politicians connecting with one another.

It was great to see a strong Canadian contingent at Netroots, with folks from across the country coming to see the latest in the US campaign strategies and tools.

Netroots is well worth attending – a great chance to see what the US campaign machine is up to, connect with progressive grassroots organizers from across the US, and take in a baseball game if it’s not 32 degrees Celcius out.

I should also add that the fight-back against the concentration camps and ICE detention facilities was a major theme at this year’s Netroots. In addition to the rally against ICE at a nearby detention centre, Jessica Morales Rocketto spoke eloquently about the horrific injustices happening at the US’s southern border. You can watch her address here (have kleenex ready):

The Trainings

There are hundreds of individual events that make up Netroots – and more than 60 of them are hands-on trainings led by experts from the community.

Unlike a typical union convention, most of Netroots takes place in breakout rooms, with one shorter plenary keynote each day.

Here are a few of the highlights from the Netroots training sessions in 2019:

  • Beth Becker hosted a session on all the updates to the Facebook platform from the past few months. Of note: new rules for how video is prioritized on Facebook (organic over curated); repurposed clips (like news clips) are being deprioritized; Facebook is testing integrating stories and your newsfeed; video premiers; and community actions (aka petitions) are going away.
  • Ky Albert and Gabrielle Cardoza from Trilogy hosted a powerful session on how advertisers can diversify their list-building efforts. Key takeaway: we need to bring in people from the communities we’re trying to reach to work as part of our teams.
  • And Angelica Morales and Michelle Penson presented a panel discussion on how data and field need to be more closely connected. Big takeaways here: we need to challenge the bias inherent in our predictive modelling, and look to integrate better data to improve the way we target and reach underrepresented communities.

New Tools Shootout

One of the highlights of Netroots, for me, is the New Tools Shootout – a chance for organizations and technology companies in the progressive space to show off their wares to an engaged audience. Audience members vote on the top tools in each of three categories, and the best overall – which this year was Vancouver’s own New/Mode tools!

Here is the full list of participants (and winners) from this year’s New Tools Shootout:

Category: Best New Tech

  • Victory Guide
    • Digital Campaign Manager for candidates running for local or state office. Came out of the CEOs own experience – now serving in Maryland state house. Tech identifies likely voters, then daily guidance to stay organized. Manages volunteers, cuts turf/creates phone list. All the data goes back into campaign dashboard, shows progress against win number and other metrics.
    • Currently making tech upgrades to take on larger races.
    • First time candidates are twice as likely to win
  • Open Field
    • Deep canvassing app that lets you knock every door. 
    • The challenge: organizing people who move. Apartment dwellers, students, low income, displaced by gentrification. Can organize them, but they’re hard to track. And a challenge to register to vote. Where do you put your notes?
    • OpenField – knock every door, knock without a list, have a national address file. Or let canvassers add doors as they go.
    • Help you talk to everyone they encounter. Never lose a supporter.
  • Democracy Counts 
    • The problem: Congress is AWOL. They’re not doing anything about election rigging
    • The answer: same day election audits
    • DC empowers regular people to use mobile devices to collect data, collect evidence that can be used in court
    • 3 tools
      • Data preservation app – records polling place results to deter/expose fraud in transmission
      • Voter Suppression App – quantifies the effectiveness of suppression, allows a legal attack on voter ID laws
      • Parallel Vote System – Reproduce vote tallies from inside polling places
    • Goal – have this in place in all swing states in 2020
  • Change Research
    • A data-science approach to opinion research. 89-90% cheaper than traditional polling.
    • <$5K average cost, 4-6% average error rate, 1-5 days to conduct
    • Ad-driven survey instrument
      • Bias Correct tool targets demos needed
    • Nearly 600 polls in 2018, 1mil+ surveys completed
    • Lots of down-ballot races because of affordability
  • PlayLoops
    • Inspired by the challenge of creating engaging content – build small games and GIFs for a curriculum campaign
    • Not much political content on Giphy and other similar platforms
    • Fastest growing library of content for campaigns
    • Tools to edit video, convert to GIFs, etc. Can add animated captions and graphical elements, share with colleagues and partners
    • Reduces time organizers spend creating content, 150% bump in engagement
  • Reach
    • Move beyond one-off lists, one-off interactions
    • Canvass app built by digital organizing director for Ocasio campaign in 2018
    • Used on 14 campaigns in 2018 cycle
    • Rolling out Nationwide on Warren campaign in the coming weeks
    • Helps manage volunteers, gamify canvassing, and knock more and engage folks not in the voter file.
    • Public benefit corporation

Category: Best New Use of Platform

  • The Prin
    • There is no established platform through a set of influencers and get it to the communities that trust them
    • Prin’s mission is to get your message out and win communications battles.
    • Great team of artists, activists, and entrepreneurs
    • To win these days you need repetition and social proof
  • Contest Every Race
    • Up to 75% of races are uncontested by Democrats
    • Look at down-ballot races with uncontested republicans, text unions and democratic leadership about it, then text potential candidates and provide info on exactly what’s needed to run.
    • 1:1 candidate coaching, connect them with RunForSOmething and other training orgs
    • Ran a randomized control trial. Folks who went through their program 3x more likely to go through their program.
    • ⅔ of folks are women and folks of colour, they’re Winning ⅓ of their races

Category: Best New Feature of Product

  • NewMode
    • Advocacy tools – only work with progressives, cheaper than competitors
    • Reaching decision makers across all the channels
    • New Feature – SMS Broadcast tool
    • Includes a chatbot to get people’s data and skip data points you already have
  • Quadrant2
    • Jotto is their new app
    • Let’s you crowdsource video without using social networks
  • ControlShift labs
    • New maps feature
    • Distributed organizing platform, help folks run distributed events, teams, and allow members to run their own campaigns
    • Vision is to help movements make the shift to distributed, participatory organizing. 
    • Maps of member-led events, partners events, endorsed candidates, field organizers in VAN, etc.
    • Has moderation tools that are easy to use. 
  • DemocraticAds.com
    • DSPolitical platform
    • DemocraticAds – self-serve platform
    • New platform rolls out this summer. 
    • Can now swap creative, change landing pages, update campaign timing, etc. 
    • Have added native advertising – more effective than traditional display advertising.

The Presidential Debate

I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t pretty excited about this.

Netroots hosted a US Democratic President Primary debate on Saturday afternoon featuring Senator Kristen Gillibrand, Secretary Juliàn Castro, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and Governor Jay Inslee.

If there was a winner of the group, it was definitely Warren – a long-time Netroots participant who seems to have a plan for just about everything.

(Cover photo credit: Steve Stearns – fb.me/stearnsimages)

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What Canada’s new election laws mean for your campaign this summer

With the passage of Bill C-76 in December 2018, a number of important changes to the Canadian Elections Act will come into effect this election cycle. Let’s take a look at the changes, and how they might affect campaign planning.

Limits to 3rd party spending in elections are nothing new. In Canada, there have been limits on 3rd party campaign spending during the writ period for more than a decade. The limit for the last election was about $211,000 nationally or about $4,200 per riding. However, that limit only applied to advertising (TV, radio, print & paid online promotion) – not to activities such as GOTV organizing, member mobilization or creating organic social media content.

The new rules regulate election-related activities a lot earlier and encompass a wider range of activities.

Starting on June 30th and continuing until the writ drop, a new “pre-election period” introduces rules around Partisan Advertising, Partisan Activity, and Election Surveys.

Partisan Advertising is any advertising that supports or opposes a party or candidate during the pre-election period. This puts an explicit limit on ads designed to define a candidate/party leader – a key tactic in traditional independent expenditure campaigns.

Partisan Activity is a new category covering any activity that promotes or opposes a party or candidate from June 30th to E-Day. This includes things like having a website with content that is critical or supportive of a party, organic social media content, texting, phoning, canvassing, communicating with members of your organization as well as the public, holding events (even for your own members), and similar activities that promote/oppose a candidate/party.

This new category is pretty wide-ranging and will require organizations like labour unions to either account for and report such expenses – or to restrict their communication and member engagement to non-partisan or issue-based messaging during an election.

Finally, an Election Survey is any survey (a.k.a. opinion poll) fielded between June 30 and E-Day that in any way shapes or affects your partisan activity or advertising, including whether or not to engage in those things. Any such research tool has to be counted under the spending limit.

Pre-election period spending is limited to $700,000 plus a $323,400 inflation adjustment (for a total of $1,023,400, also limited to $10,234 per riding). While a million dollars sounds like a lot, it’s a relatively meagre amount for an impactful national persuasion campaign.

Spending during the election period (writ drop to E-Day) is limited to $350,000 plus $161,700 inflation adjustment for a total of $511,700 (also limited to $4,386 per riding). All regulated activities must be paid for using funds from Canadian sources.

Election advertising continues to be regulated during the election period. This includes any advertising that supports or opposes a party or candidate or issue with which they are associated. In the pre-election period, issue advertising is not regulated.

Sounds like the new rules are pretty draconian. So what does this mean in terms of tactics that you can use?

  • If you’re going to communicate with your existing membership about candidates/parties, make sure every communication is an effective one. This election cycle is a great time to re-examine your organization’s tactics and make sure they’re the best use of your spending limit. Is that letter from your union president to members actually moving votes? Does a campaign on an issue that’s not voters’ top concern actually have an impact? Now is the time to ask these tough questions.
  • Canadian organizations can contribute as much as they wish to other third party organizations for election-related activities. An organization can spend its $1.5M limit on member engagement, and also contribute unlimited additional funds to an independent organization who then conducts its own election-related campaign, independent of the first organization.
  • Issue ads are exempt during the pre-election period. While the million-dollar pre-election spending limit does capture Partisan Advertising, an ad that doesn’t support or oppose a candidate or party doesn’t fall under that spending limit. So issue advocacy campaigns can spend as much as they wish prior to the writ being dropped.
  • Finally, there are a number of voter outreach & mobilization tactics that have limited impact on spending limits. For example, the value of organic social media (content that doesn’t have a placement cost) produced in-house that promotes/opposes a candidate/party is the total staff time and overhead spent on it. So too with organizing volunteers for partisan GOTV activities – the value is the total staff time and overhead spent organizing the activity.

The new rules put some challenges in front of progressive organizations who want to have an impact during this election cycle. But with proper planning, there’s lots of room to do effective advocacy and organizing work – and to make sure we elect a progressive government in Ottawa.

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Rachel Roy is a partner at Allevato Quail & Roy, a boutique law firm specializing in campaign law.

Michael Roy is Principal of Spark Strategies, a boutique Canadian campaigns firm.

This article is presented for informational purposes only. Please seek legal advice about your specific campaign plans.

Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash

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Job Posting–Data Associate (Contract Position)

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About Spark Strategies

Spark Strategies is a boutique digital agency specializing in data and analytics, digital marketing, targeted online advertising, and data-informed campaigning.

Spark brings together the best practices in community engagement, data and analytics, and digital to help clients achieve their outreach and marketing goals using the tools and channels voters and supporters expect in 2019.

Michael Roy is Spark’s principal – and brings more than a decade of agency and in-house experience to his leadership role. Michael has worked on regional, national, and international campaigns. He has championed – and in many cases pioneering – the use of databases including Nationbuilder and Blue State Digital tools for advocacy, engagement, and fundraising.

Prior to founding Spark, Michael was Principal and Director of Campaigns for Point Blank Creative, a Vancouver-based creative agency. Michael led or contributed to projects with the Translink Mayors’ Council, BC Federation of Labour, the Alberta Premier’s Office, United Steelworkers, Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, and the Canadian Labour Congress.

Michael also served as the Digital Director for Canada’s NDP during the 2015 federal election, where he mobilized thousands of people to events, recruited thousands of volunteers, and set national fundraising records.

The Data Associate Job

At Spark we think that data builds a critical foundation for every engagement. We believe that good information is critical to making good decisions – and make it a priority to provide measurable insights to our clients.

You:

  • Believe in making big change happen – and are excited about working with caucus and movements who believe in that too.
  • You are creative, collaborative, and a self-starter with 1-2 years experience in a data and analytics role

You’ll do things like:

  • Help undertake qualitative and quantitative analysis to generate insights and strategy
  • Execute data requests from clients and Spark team members
  • Use programming and analytics tools such as SQL, R, Python, and Tableau to interpret results in order to assist with decision making and policy and strategy formulation
  • Assist in the creation of universes and targeting recommendations for engagement programs
  • Design and develop reports to measure and monitor critical results, and make recommendations for campaign direction
  • Be responsible for internal project success, such as setting team agendas, following communication norms, and efficiently allocating time
  • Organize and facilitate client calls, meetings, trainings, and strategy sessions
  • Build timelines and keep teams (both internal and external) accountable and on track

To be successful in this role you’ll need to have:

  • Strong passion for answering key business questions with data
  • 1-2 years of experience working in a data management, business intelligence, or data analytics role
  • Ability to use data and analytics to drive decision making and program development
  • Experience in creating reports or dashboards that present key program insights and metrics
  • Excellent communication skills
  • Strong writing skills and a proven ability to produce written material within a deadline (using tools like PowerPoint, GoogleDocs, and Microsoft Word)
  • Strong judgment and critical reasoning skills, with the ability to navigate new situations
  • Confidence and professionalism while engaging with contacts ranging from grassroots activists to client elected leadership
  • A sense of humour, a willingness to embrace both your own quirks and others’, and a passion for progressive issues

Not all of these are required, but having exposure to at least a few of these skills or experiences will help you be even more successful in this role:

  • Using SQL and data visualization and experimentation tools (e.g. Tableau, Optimizely, Power BI, etc.)
  • Staffing or volunteering in a local, provincial, or national political campaign, utilizing Nationbuilder, VAN, Populous, and other field tools
  • Experience on advocacy campaigns

Compensation

We’re seeking contractors able to take on project contracts, similar to a freelance role. This job posting will help us identify interested contractors to engage on a project basis.

Spark is an equal opportunity employer

Rates are negotiated on a per-contract basis. However, Spark Strategies is a living wage employer. We expect the Data Associate position to pay between $40 and $65 per hour depending upon the candidate.

Successful candidates must be based in and able to work in Canada. This is a remote work position.

Application Process

Interested applicants should submit a resume, cover letter, and two professional references by email to jobs@sparkstrategies.ca. Please use the subject line “Application: Data Associate” when applying.

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Welcome to Spark Strategies

I’m thrilled to announce my new venture – Spark Strategies. I’m hoping it will help turn the campaign world on its head.

Spark is a different kind of agency. We’re about data-informed campaigning, helping organizations rethink their strategic approach, and building campaigns that make change happen.

By combining strategic planning, data-driven insights, and mission-focussed creative content, the team at Spark helps unions, governments, non-profits, and companies define their goals, measure their progress – and win.

A little about me

Before founding Spark, I spent a decade in the labour movement, electoral politics, and building a creative agency. In the process, I helped multiple organizations completely rethink the way they did digital; I set national online fundraising records; and I produced award-winning campaign ads.

Rules to live by

At Spark, we have a few rules that we work to live by:

  1. Aim close, miss close. You’ll never achieve more than your goal, so set lofty goals. Put another way, we work with clients who want to do big things.
  2. Break down silos. Working collaboratively is core to who we are. The best work happens when you work cooperatively and break down internal barriers – and that’s something we’re committed to helping our clients do.
  3. Prioritize diversity. We’re committed to diversity on our team – and are constantly working to recruit and train amazing leaders from underrepresented communities.
  4. Push the limits. Change rarely happens when you play it safe. We’re big believers in innovation and always trying new things.

What’s Next

We’re building our team, and looking for clients to partner with on projects that try to change your community – or the world. Reach out. We’d love to talk about your goals – especially great big hard-to-reach goals! – and how we can achieve them, together.

CRM

Which CRM are you using? A rundown of the tech stacks non-profits are using

One of the most common questions I hear progressive campaigners ask is some version of “what tools are you using?”.

So I set out to answer that question.

I took a look at 24 Canadian and international non-profits to see what I could learn about their tech stacks based on public facing information.

Here’s what I found:

On the CRM (Constituent Relationship Management) side, BSD Tools is the most popular, used by a number of NDP sections, the Liberal Party of Canada, and a number of US groups. Other organizations use platforms ranging from Marketo to Campaign Monitor to Everyaction.

On the CMS (Content Management System) side, Drupal and Wordpress both remain popular, with some organizations using ExpressionEngine and other platforms.

More to come.

2018Spring

Three things your union or non-profit should be doing in digital because it’s 2018

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(photo credit: Wikimedia)

Spring is here, and with the flowers (at least in Vancouver) starting to bloom, it’s a great time to take stock of your digital work, and start to make plans for 2018.

Here are three things your team can commit to as part of your “Digital Spring Cleaning”:

1. Up your email game

Despite being 47 years old (the first email was sent in 1971 on ArpaNet), email remains the gold standard for supporter engagement, communications, and mobilization.

Email is a truly personal medium that drives supporters to take meaningful action — but only if it’s done right.

Ask yourself: does every email my organization send have a clear moment, theory of change, and action? If you can’t answer that question, it’s probably time to break out the whiteboard and workshop a new email program.

Think about personalizing your mail program by introducing real people as senders, each with a distinct style. Create a simple action for your supporters in every email — rather than just informing them.

2. Get in the texting game

The 2016 Democratic primaries moved text-messaging forward in a big way, putting this 20-year-old technology back on the front burner.

Both the Clinton and Sanders campaigns made innovative use of texting to mobilize their supporters, and more and more orgs are adopting texting as a way to engage their members.

Consider re-vamping all your online actions and sign-on forms to require a mobile phone field, and opt-your supporters in.

If you use Nationbuilder, ask your supporters to RSVP for events by text message.

You can get started with an affordable peer-to-peer tool like relay.txt, or even take advantage of Nationbuilder’s super basic text-blasting tools.

But most importantly, keep your texting genuine, and your calls to action simple. That was the key to SMS success for both the Clinton and Sanders campaigns.

3. Everyone’s gone mobile. So should donations.

The 2018 State of Email report from Litmus shows that solidly 50% of emails — that’s one out of every two! — is opened on a mobile phone.

Yet many donor-funded organizations require that their supporters key in credit card information every time they want to donate. Because, you know, I’m definitely pulling out my credit card while I’m squished in between strangers on a skytrain.

There is another way. Several eCRMs support a form of saved payment information, where supporters who’ve previously donated can store their credit card info secure to donate in a single click.

Bluestate Digital Tools provides QuickDonate using Stripe, and Engaging Networks offers One-Click donations.

Any step you can take to make it easier for your donors to give will increase your online fundraising. This is big!

FBLive

Six tips to build deeper engagement with Facebook Live

Over the last two years, Facebook has made user video a high priority. The reason is simple: video content is incredibly engaging and sharable — and part of that democratization of video has been through the widespread introduction of Facebook Live.

Facebook Live helps bring your supporters and friends into the moment. Whether it’s sharing the scale and power of public events like Saturday’s Women’s Marches across North America, or holding a Q&A to more deeply engage your union’s membership, FB Live makes live video super-accessible.

I’ve produced dozens of livestreams using a range of platforms including Facebook Live — and I want to share my experience in this unique space. Here are six tips to help you up your Facebook Live game.

1. Get close (really close!)

Facebook Live makes use of your smartphone to broadcast live video. The camera in most smartphones is very high quality, but they typically have a wide-angle lens. That means that objects (or people) that are far away appear very, very small — and are hard for your audience to see (especially on their phones!).

When setting up your Facebook live, consider your framing. Can your audience clearly see the speaker? Are they the focal point of the shot you’re broadcasting?

Try to get as close as possible to the speaker in your Facebook live. Avoid using digital zoom — if you’re at a rally, walk up as close as you can to the stage. If you’re an event organizer, try to set your phone on a tripod nice and close to the podium.

2. Engage with your audience

Facebook Live gives you an incredible toolset to engage directly with your viewers. Every time someone joins, you get a notification — just as you do when they comment or ask a question.

Try to respond to comments and answer questions. If you’re on-camera, read out and respond to comments, or have a helper read them to you from off-camera.

For larger events, consider having a volunteer dedicated to finding great questions in the comments and providing written answers from another smartphone.

This one-to-one engagement can deepen your relationship with your supporters, and make the Facebook Live experience feel that much more personal for them.

3. Go live for as long as possible

As soon as you go live, anyone who follows you or your page will get a notification to join. But wouldn’t you find it frustrating if by the time you joined, the Facebook Live was over?

Try to go live for as long as possible to give your audience time to join and enjoy your live event. If you’re live streaming a rally or other public event, consider going live 5–10 minutes in advance and engaging with your audience, introducing the event, welcoming them, and encouraging questions or comments. Once the event begins, you can turn the camera to the on-stage speaker. After the event concludes, stay live, take questions, and give your supporters a way to get involved.

Make sure you welcome people to your Facebook Live throughout the event (think talk radio, “If you’re just joining us, we’re live at the Vancouver Women’s March where thousands of people have turnout out at Jack Poole Plaza…”).

4. Make sure you have a strong connection

Good quality video requires a strong internet connection. Make sure you’re in a location with as many bars as possible. If you can, join a wifi network as well — your phone can make use of extra data. Consider scouting the location ahead of time to ensure you’re not in a dead zone. There’s nothing worse than a bad connection to ruin a great Facebook Live.

5. Pre-schedule your broadcast

Pre-schedule your Facebook Lives

Facebook allows you to pre-schedule your Facebook lives — giving your audience a notification about when you plan to go live, and on what topic. This gives your supporters a heads-up, and lets them plan to participate.
You can also promote the Facebook live through a boost (i.e., paid advertising on Facebook), or through an email blast to your supporters.

6. Sound is everything

Nothing ruins video like bad sound. Most people will accept poor quality video, but they won’t stay on long if they can’t hear what you’re saying. Bad sound can mean low volume, echoing, or too much background noise.

There are lots of simple audio devices that can up your Facebook Live game.

Joby Griptight Micro Stand ($40)

Tripod — OK, not an audio device. But avoiding shaky video is important. This tabletop stand from Joby is great ($40 from Vistek) — and there are many other options available that mount on a regular photo tripod.

Rode Clip-on Mic — This simple directional mic by Rode clips on to your smartphone. Its a directional mic — which means it will ignore background noice from around you, and “focusses” in on the direction it’s pointed. It’s not magic, though — you still want to get as close as possible to your speaker! ($80 from Vistek)

Rode XLR input — originally designed for audio recording, this accessory will let you plug-in to the sound system with a professional XLR input. It’s great if you’re an event organizer and want to get clean audio from the mic and the podium. Often the sound company will have a feed for TV stations — you can just plug into that. ($240 from Vistek)

Sennheiser Lav Mic — This clip-on lapel mic plugs into the lighting port on your iPhone or iPad, and captures crystal-clear audio at an interview. This is also great if you’re speaking in a crowd. It’s a bit pricey, but it will really up your game. ($200 from Vistek)

Taking advantage of new outreach tools like Facebook live is a great way to bring your supporters into the moment, and making them a part of the campaign.

YEEmail

Year-end Fundraising Email Roundup

Ah, the holidays. The time of year for awkward family gatherings, ugly sweaters, and an avalanche of fundraising emails from donor-supported non-profits.

While everyone loves to complain about getting another fundraising email at 9 pm while they’re at a New Year’s party, the reality is that Canadian and US non-profits rely on year-end fundraising for a large part of their annual revenue. And most importantly , Canadians and Americans step up big time when non-profits ask.

So here’s my roundup of the email fundraising trends I saw* at year-end 2017.

*Author’s note: I’m subscribed to these lists as a “non-donor”. Due to list segmentation or other factors, other individuals may have received different sets of emails in the same time period.

First, the big picture:

This year I followed 44 email lists from Canada, the US, Australia, and the UK. As a digital campaigner, I like to see what innovative organizations — progressive, conservative, and non-political — are up to.

Email lists by country, and political party/non-political org.

I looked at every email these groups sent from December 1–31, 2017. There’s a list of the organizations at the end of this post.

I only examined emails from organizations that were engaged in fundraising. I did include non-fundraising emails from groups who were fundraising — for example, the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) sent a number of survey emails out late in December, and those are included in this roundup.

This list is certainly not exhaustive — and I welcome any additions you might have. Feel free to email me at mikelroy@gmail.com.

What I found

I examined a total of 747 emails sent in December, looking at timing, frequency, the number of emails sent, and a few other fun metrics.

December 31st was the most popular day to send a fundraising email — organizations sent an average of 2.6 emails that day, with a combined total of 81 emails landing in my inbox. One organization (Ontario NDP) sent 7 total emails on deadline day.

The four days leading up to the 31st were also among the most popular, but I was interested to see a pre-Christmas spike, with 30 total emails going out on December 20th. Many organizations are now using a pre-Christmas deadline to help boost their year-end fundraising.

I mapped out the average number of emails sent per organization per day (I excluded any organizations that sent zero emails on a given day).

Interestingly in the mid-December window, both the number of emails and average number of emails tend to grow and shrink based on day of the week. December 9, 10, 16, and 17 are all weekend days—generally not when non-profit staff are working.

Does day of the week timing work to your organization’s benefit? Are there days you prefer to send on — weekdays vs weekends?

Key Metrics

Least emails sent: 1 (UK Labour & CCPA)

Most emails sent: 73 (DNC)

Average number of emails sent: 16.98

Largest number in a single day by one org: 7 (Ontario NDP on December 31st)

2nd largest number in a day by one org: 6 (Federal Liberals on December 15, Democratic National Committee on December 30, all 3 federal parties on December 31st)

Organizations using emojis in subject lines? 10

Organizations using matching programs? 8 (including 6 Canadian orgs)

2nd most popular sending day: December 20

Political Parties

Political parties have long been trend-setters in the digital space, especially in fundraising. The Obama campaign set the gold standard in 2008 and again in 2012, and Canada’s federal parties continue to lead the way.

Among the organizations I monitored, political parties in both Canada and the US significantly outpace other donor-funded organizations in the volume of email they sent.

Email volume by organization, December 2017

Among Canadian political parties, the Liberal party sent nearly 40% more email than the other two national parties. The Liberal campaign also made more frequent use of graphic emails, animated GIFs, and emoji than the NDP and Conservatives.

Canadian federal political party year-end fundraising emails

Trends heading into 2018

Three main themes emerged in looking at 2017’s year-end fundraising emails:

1. Organizations are sending more email

The volume of email continues to rise as donors continue to respond in ever-increasing numbers. Email creative and tactics also continue to evolve, and new tactics are being used as donors shift away from direct-mail and phone.

2. “Matching” programs have become popular

2017 saw a spike in the use of “donor matching” programs — where an organization recruits a large donor to “match” every grassroots donation during a specific timeframe. Eight organizations used matching programs as part of their year-end campaigns in 2017.

2017 Year-end Matching Programs
Action Canada
BC NDP
OpenMedia
Democratic National Committee
Greenpeace USA
Evas
Broadbent Institute
BCSPCA

3. Emoji are 🔥💩

2017 saw the widespread use of emoji in email subject lines. Organizations like Emily’s List have long used emoji — but new organizations including the Conservative Party of Canada and Press Progress took up the practice this fall (it’s possible the Broadbent Institute went a bit far with it!). When I tested the use of emoji in 2015, I didn’t find that they provided any sort of lift — just something fun to add. Has your organization tested them to different outcomes?

2017 Emoji Users
Andrew Gillum for Governor
Broadbent Institute
Conservative Party of Canada
Democratic Congressional Campaigns Committee
Democratic National Committee
Liberal Party of Canada
Emily’s List
Ontario NDP
Press Progress
Donald Trump Campaign/RNC

4. Saved payment still not being used

Saved payment systems — like BSD’s “Quick Donate” introduced by the Obama campaign in 2012 — are still not seeing widespread use, especially in Canada.

The Liberal Party of Canada has a saved payment system, as does the Democratic National Committee in the US. However, despite saved payment features being available in Bluestate Digital Tools and Engaging Networks, their use is quite limited.

I rolled out the use of saved payment systems at Canada’s NDP when I was digital director. Our “QD segment” — that is, “Quick Donate” donors — were an incredibly motivated group of supporters who would chip in $20 or $40 on a very regular basis.

In this time of huge shifts towards mobile for web and email, saved payment systems are increasingly important for online fundraising. I hope to see more widespread use in Canada in 2018.

SMS

A quick note about SMS: with the launch of Hustle and Relay.txt in Canada this year, we saw the first early attempts at online fundraising through peer-to-peer SMS.

I received two texts from Broadbent Institute staff as part of their year-end fundraising program. I didn’t receive follow-up texts when I replied — but I’m very curious to hear how that trial worked, and what they might do differently.

Conclusions

As we head into 2018, online fundraising is only becoming more important for Canadian and US non-profits. Many are still playing the catch-up game — setting up their first online giving program, or revamping an older program to introduce new features and better creative.

One thing is certain — the scale of these programs is only going to grow, and non-profits are working hard to innovate and better engage their supporters.

What did you think of the 2017 year-end fundraising cycle? Any successes or failures you want to share? Comment below!

Happy 2018!

List of organizations

Number of emails sent in December 2017 by the 44 organizations I subscribe to
BCNDP Leader John Horgan stops off at the IOUE training facility.

An open letter to my friends on the upcoming BC Election

In case I haven’t told you lately, you’re the best. Thanks for being you.

I’m writing because in 48 days, our province is headed into an important election, and it’s going to be a very, very close race.

As you’ve probably seen, I’m posting a fair bit of stuff about the provincial election and the BC NDP. While I appreciate that you are not all die-hard politicos (see paragraph one), I am hoping that you can do me the following favours:

Donate to the BC NDP. OK, now I know not everyone is in a good position to do this, but every bit counts and it feels good.Christy Clark’s conservative knuckle-dragging friends have raised an ungodly amount of money from people with a lot at stake in this election, and good people like you need to reach deep if we’re going to win. Think of this as buying your right to complain.

Don’t just like, share. Don’t believe the negative hype about “clicktivism”. Sharing things about John Horgan and other anti-BC Liberal posts can be powerful endorsements for your friends online who don’t really pay attention to politics. If you occasionally share a graphic about why Christy Clark has to go, it could go a long way towards helping people form an opinion about the parties.

Keep your eyes on the prize. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t agree with everything the NDP does. I’m sure you don’t either. BUT — I stand with my party during this election because I know that their worst day is going to be one-hundred times better for our province than the best day we’ve had under the BC Liberals. If you have your doubts, just remember the Liberals millionaire tax cuts, endless scandals, attacks on unions and working people — the list goes on. Let’s keep our eyes on the prize.

Hang in there. You will be door-knocked. And called. And called again. And emailed endlessly. Do not unsubscribe. Hang in there. Getting a few extra emails is a first world problem and it’s all for the greater good. If you unsubscribe or take yourself off lists, you risk missing important calls to action that will help us change this government. If you hear others complain about calls/emails, tell them to hang in there.

Thanks, folks. I promise this will work.

Thank you to Ian Boyko for the inspiration for this piece.

Email

Ending The Chill From Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation

It’s been almost two years since Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation — known as CASL — came into effect. Most of us probably remember the flurry of emails we got in the spring of 2014 urging us to stay on organizations’ mailing lists — that was the new law in action.

Two years in, it’s unclear whether CASL has actually been effective at reducing spam in Canada. But the new law has created an email “chill” for many non-profit organizations — limiting their digital activities for fear of breaking the rules. CASL is still not well understood, and many organizations are unaware of, or under-informed about, the rules resulting in an overly cautious approach that can negatively impact fundraising and member engagement.

To mark the law’s upcoming 2-year anniversary, here’s a quick non-profit-focused refresher on CASL and bulk email.

Working under CASL is pretty simple.

Compliance is pretty simple. For email blasts, you just need to follow three simple rules:

  1. Each email needs an unsubscribe link that’s instant.
    Easy. Major mailers like MailChimp, Blue State Digital andNationBuilderall have this requirement built in.
  2. Every email must identify the sender.
    Just add your organization’s name, address and phone number, email address or web address in the footer of your default email template in small type — that way you won’t forget. Again — most mailers already require this.
  3. You need the recipient’s consent.
    The good news is that if the recipient gave you their email address through an online form like a petition, you probably already have consent. Consent is not time-limited. To make sure you’re getting consent through your online forms, either include a toggle for people to opt-in to your email list or include a statement such as, “Enter your email below to receive email from us. You can unsubscribe any time.”
    Be sure to record where you got consent for everyone on your email list — you may need to produce this information if you’re the subject of a complaint.Oh — and if you’re a non-profit membership organization, you have implied consent to email your members, as long as they’ve been active in the last two years. For registered charities and political parties, you have implied consent to email your volunteers and donors, as long as they’ve been active in the last two years.
 

There’s a good chance much of your email is exempt from CASL.

CASL regulates “Commercial Electronic Messages” — messages that encourage recipients to take part in commercial activity. Although this includes fundraising emails, other emails that have no commercial character, such as newsletters, are exempt.

The new law has created an email “chill” for many non-profit organizations — limiting their digital activities for fear of breaking the rules.

Significantly, CASL exempts emails from charities, political parties and candidates where the primary purpose of the email is fundraising. “Fundraising emails” can also have a secondary purpose — like inviting a participant to a rally or event, or asking them to volunteer for example.

CASL doesn’t need to stand in the way of a great campaign.

CASL is designed to reduce spam while creating an even playing field and a mechanism to hold those breaking the rules accountable.

CASL should never stand in the way of a great online fundraising program, building and mobilizing your community around an issue, or campaigning for change. Knowing the rules lets you use the entire playing field.

Rachel Roy practices labour, election, and privacy law at Allevato Quail and Worth. Michael Roy is Principal at Spark Strategies.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide on the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.