Political campaigning is an enormous effort at any level of office. Entire campaigns can go by in a blink of an eye, so it’s important to make sure all staff, volunteers, and supporters can operate as efficiently as possible.
Fortunately, there’s a whole industry devoted to increasing the impact of political campaigning. Political technology is on the rise, especially as more campaigns aim to streamline their operations. Here are six political tech tools that campaigns of any size can leverage:
Impactive: Best Political Tech Tool for All-in-One Digital Organizing
Impactive is an all-in-one digital organizing tool for political campaigns up and down the ballot. Impactive allows campaigns to reach voters and supporters quickly through three essential texting solutions: Friends and Family Messaging (also known as friend-to-friend texting), Peer-to-Peer Texting, and Broadcast Messaging to user lists on Impactive. In a few clicks, campaigns can remind voters of polling locations, check in on friends and family ahead of election day, or text encouraging messages to staff and volunteers.
ActBlue: Best for Political Donation Management
ActBlue is a popular donation tool used by Democratic campaigns and progressive movements. This political tech company famously provided the platform for small donors to power the political campaigns of 2020 — the average contribution size was just below $40. ActBlue easily allows political campaigns to view financial contributions through a dashboard, with breakdowns on donor location, payment method, and device type.
Political Data, Inc.: Best Political Technology Platform for One-off Voter Lists
Political Data, Inc (also known as PDI) is a political tech platform that allows campaigns to access voter data. PDI offers single lists and files, which is useful for smaller campaigns that are less flexible with their budget, or simply don’t need the level of detail of larger, more in-depth voter lists. However, campaigns do have the option for greater access to data through the PDI Campaign Center, a software platform that grants campaigns the ability to create their own lists.
NGP VAN: Best for Detailed Voter Data
NGP VAN is a political tech company that offers a variety of products. One of its most well-known products is SmartVAN, a detailed voter file. SmartVAN’s data is updated about five times per state every year, which means campaigns can get the most up-to-date details on target voters. Campaigns that want to strategize using more granular data should use this voter file to engage with supporters and push get-out-the-vote efforts.
Mobilize: Best Political Tech Platform for Event Management
Mobilize is an events management platform that allows campaigns to create and manage events for volunteers. Democratic campaigns can use Mobilize to set up virtual webinars, meetings, or trainings, as well as in-person events such as protests or gatherings. Mobilize also sends automated emails and texts to remind those who signed up to attend the events. It even allows top volunteers to host events on the campaign’s behalf.
DemocraticAds.com: Best for Political Advertising
DemocraticAds.com is a self-serve digital ads platform for Democratic campaigns. This political tech platform allows campaigns to leverage programmatic advertising to reach custom lists of target voters directly, especially since the platform integrates with NGP VAN. DemocraticAds.com serves ads on websites that the campaign’s target voters are on, like news sites. It can also run multiple types of ads, including display ads and video ads. Programmatic ad spending is predicted to grow yearly, so campaigns looking to stay ahead of the curve should keep this platform in mind.
Political tech companies have one central goal: to increase voter engagement in the simplest way. These tools will make the process of campaigning a whole lot smoother, and help staff and volunteers stay quick on their feet.
