Although not the most glamorous, data management and infrastructure problems can be seriously vexing issues for our clients. While the grassroots solutions team frequently recommends out-of-the-box data tools to our clients, sometimes a customized solution is needed. Fortunately, we can turn to our friends at Digital Turf for customized data management, website development, and new media solutions.
Our recent work together on the Arkansas Senate Democratic Primary (and subsequent run-off) is a great example of how Digital Turf’s data management superpower can make big field efforts run better. grassroots solutions had been hired to put together and manage a large-scale voter education canvass, which we quickly launched with 40 newly hired staff. We partnered with Digital Turf to train them on using the VAN (Voter Activation Network – used to manage voter files). Digital Turf also worked seamlessly with the grassroots solutions targeting and analytics team to create and manage the canvasses’ field universes, and they provided ongoing data support and management as the canvasses were rolled out. We’ve had the pleasure of working with Digital Turf in similar capacities on more than a dozen other political campaigns over the past ten years, including last fall’s high-profile initiative for marriage equality in Maine.
Our clients often ask for help in planning and deploying large-scale GOTV efforts or voter registration drives. With so much data to manage on those campaigns, it’s great to be able to turn to Digital Turf when we need to, and sometimes even embed them as the campaign’s data team. As Marc Cerebona, co-founder of Digital Turf, puts it, “the VAN puts a very powerful tool in the hands of almost every campaign, but there are no directions that come with it. Digital Turf can provide those directions. You’ve got this great tool, and we can help you use it most effectively and to its greatest potential.” In situations when our clients don’t have access to the VAN, we’ve commissioned Digital Turf to provide custom databases that will help clients manage their voter file, create custom solutions to sync voter file data for a Palm Pilot canvass, and build a range of hybrid databases to maximize data integration.
One of the biggest challenges both our electoral and advocacy clients face is working with disparate data that are held in different corners of their organizations. The software and databases that organizations and campaigns use don’t always integrate with each other on the back end – for example, an organization can have separate fundraising software that doesn’t integrate with its client relationship management (CRM) system, or its content management system (CMS). Again, the grassroots solutions team often calls on Digital Turf to partner with us in finding the best solutions for those clients. Instead of trying to move clients into an elusive one-size-fits-all (often expensive) solution, one of Digital Turf’s greatest strengths is building application programming interface (API) systems to integrate the disparate data that clients have, allowing the various systems to talk to one another, which streamlines data management.
It is that kind of knack for problem solving and customized solutions that led Digital Turf into the business of building custom Facebook pages. In a world with multiple channels to reach people online, a rule of thumb is to find people where they already are (Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc.). However, while it is one thing to build support on Facebook, it’s not always easy to move those fans elsewhere to take action. Digital Turf can do just that by building custom Facebook pages that mirror an organization’s website, with an embedded form to capture information (through a sign-up, donation, or take-action form) and move it into a central database.
At grassroots solutions we value each client’s unique needs and objectives, which is why we are happy to share one of our best kept secrets – Digital Turf. For more about Digital Turf and their work, visit http://digitalturf.net/welcome.html.