www.EvolveStrategies.net
Online Voter Protection Tool Collects and Reports Election Incidents Nationwide
Just in time for the most contentious mid-term election in years, Evolve Strategies has developed a Web-based “widget” to collect and report election incidents that may require voter protection intervention.
VoterStory.org is an open-source utility that can be placed on any website to feed data into a central database, which in turn alerts voter protection groups each time a new incident is reported in their district.
Voters fill in an online form with the details of their incident. When the voter clicks "Share my story!" the system sends an e-mail to a registered voter protection organization for follow-up. At the same time, an e-mail confirmation is sent to the voter informing them that they may be contacted by one of these organizations.
Once they have received the information, voter protection groups can filter data by categories, such as “state” or “voter intimidation” in order to focus on specific issues.
Development of the VoterStory Widget was made possible through the support of Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, and the Open Society Institute.
Visit VoterStory.org to get this widget for your site. For more information about this groundbreaking utility, call (215) 825-4018.Evolve Strategies — Now in 3 New Offices
It's been an exciting first year for Evolve Strategies — so much so that both our Philadelphia and New York offices have moved, we now have an office in the Boston area, and we've redesigned our website. We figured now would be a good time to share some of what we've learned and done in that time. And if you'd like to know more, by all means give us a call: (215) 825-4018.Site Helps Disparate Groups Pull Together
For Sensible Handgun Controls
Pennsylvanians Against Trafficking Handguns is a coalition of community groups uniting to pressure the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pass sensible handgun control legislation.
Evolve Strategies created HandgunSanity.org to unite these disparate groups and help expand the network of people dedicated to the cause. Within two weeks of its launch, it helped turn out more than a thousand people for a rally drawing statewide attention to the epidemic of gun violence.
Beyond that, the site is helping keep the rally going — by showing video clips of the men, women, and children sharing powerful personal stories that day about the damage handguns have done in their lives. Site visitors can add their own stories to the site as an ongoing testament to the importance of the cause.
eCampaign Gets the Message Out
About the "Self-Defeating" War on Terror
Philanthropist and author George Soros came to Evolve Strategies this summer to help him get his message out about the war on terror.
The project began with the launch of a website timed to coincide with the publication of his book on the subject, The Age of Fallibility. At the site, Web users can find out about Soros' upcoming appearances, sign up for his mailing list, listen to his podcast, and read chapters from the book and his other writings, including his recent Wall Street Journal editorial, "What makes the war on terror self-defeating?" In its first 12 weeks, the site was visited by some 140,000 people and enabled us to increase Soros' mailing list by 50%.
Progressive Candidate Had
Conservative Incumbent on the Run
Donna Edwards came within a few votes of unseating the incumbent in the primary for Maryland's fourth Congressional district, thanks in part to Evolve Strategies' eCampaign services: website, email, ads, flyers, endorsements, pr, and more.
Edwards secured many high-profile endorsements, from both national figures and local supporters. We made the most of this groundswell of public support by developing a new user-generated-content tool that allowed site visitors to publicly "Endorse Donna." With this rich list of public endorsements, DonnaEdwardsforCongress.com proved to even the most casual visitor that support from her campaign was both strong and deep, both national and local — without requiring any work from campaign staff.
Then, when her opponent made a dramatic misstep — his campaign staffer physically attacked a Donna Edwards volunteer — Evolve capitalized on the moment by spreading a viral video of the moment. Bloggers from around the nation rallied behind Edwards after the attack, and the traditional media blitz that followed pushed her race into the national spotlight.
Ultimately, the Donna Edwards website site generated $100,000 in donations to her campaign and helped her come within a hair's breadth of winning her race.
Hot Site
Coordinates Cool
Campaign Organizers
The Sierra Club conceived its Cool Cities campaign as a grassroots movement of local leaders acting to solve global warming. But they wanted a way for the far-flung local activists to share community-organizing ideas and resources with each other.
So we created an online community where activists could post questions and ideas and upload campaign materials for each other to use. The site also offers concrete actions non-activists can take and directs them to Cool Cities activities in their area.
The site was even more popular than the Sierra Club had hoped, immediately exceeding all expectations. It was expanded one week after its initial launch.
Web Presence Expands Audience for
Groundbreaking ACLU TV Series
The
American Civil
Liberties Union and Robert Greenwald (Outfoxed, Unconstitutional)
asked Evolve to produce a powerful online experience to complement
their revolutionary television series about civil liberties.
Working with CivicActions, we developed ACLU.tv, a highly interactive website that pushes the marketing envelope with interactive games, streaming videos, and ways for viewers to take action. Working closely with Air America Radio we developed a robust advertising strategy that included banner ads, flash movies, and interactive elements. The site continues to attract tens of thousands of visitors even when no new episodes are airing.
We're proud to have helped the show develop an audience and get picked up for a second season.What You Need to Know About Mobile Campaigns
Is there anything to text messaging besides voting for the next American Idol winner? In a word: Yes. Here's what you need to know.
Texting is Not Just for Kids
Internationally, 52% of mobile phone owners have sent or received a text message on a mobile phone.
Americans may be mobile phone laggards compared to the rest of the world, but 35% of U.S. cell owners already use text messaging on their phones — and 118 million of us send text messages at least once a week.
Organizers Are Texting
In 2001 a million Philippinos used text messages to organize street demonstrations and topple President Estrada. Supporters of Roh Moo-hyun used text messages to turn the tide of South Korea's 2002 presidential election in its final hours. Texting increased the youth turnout in Spain's 2004 presidential elections.
With open rates of 95-98% and response rates of up to 97%, it was only a matter of time before American organizers realized what international organizers have long understood: mobile phone texting is a powerful organizing tool.
Already, American organizations like the NRDC, the ACLU, and People for the American Way are testing the waters of texting campaigns, as are John Edwards and Rick Santorum. Earlier this year organizers used mobile text messaging to organize the huge immigration protests. And the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has partnered with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Ad Council, and the wireless industry to deliver free wireless AMBER Alerts.
How it Works
This summer the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund encouraged people attending Lollapalooza to use their cell phones to send the text message "MABO" — for Move America Beyond Oil — to a special number, or short code.
Specialized software then compiled the text-messagers' phone numbers. Later, the NRDC Action Fund will call those numbers to enlist support for its MABO petition, which lobbies for specific policies aimed at reducing American oil dependence. Later still, the NRDC Action Fund could send campaign progress reports to those numbers as well.
Where it Gets Tricky
Texting is easiest using the Latin alphabet, but it's a little more difficult with Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai scripts. "One way of circumventing this problem," one researcher suggests, "is to choose readymade messages from menus presented on web sites: once romantic messages, jokes, or short poems have been downloaded to a mobile, it is then easy to pass them on."
Let Us Answer Your Questions
We helped set up the SMS campaign with Rights-Group for the NRDC. Give us a call if you'd like us to set up one for you.
Rob Stuart Named One of Philadelphia's Top 101 Connectors
LEADERSHIP Philadelphia named Rob Stuart one of The Area's 101 Connectors, its list of the Philadelphia region's "connectors" who exemplify high-quality leadership and concern for the common good.
LEADERSHIP Philadelphia, the nation's oldest community leadership program, mapped the leadership structure of the entire Philadelphia urban area using Web-based survey techniques and sophisticated analysis.
In its survey, 4,800 people were asked to nominate people who they know and trust; are great thinkers, innovators, and doers — people who turn great ideas into reality.
They were also asked to consider people who have a concern for the common good and would roll up their sleeves to see this work through to the end.
(While there are 101 connectors on this list, there were 4,300 unique connector names submitted.)
(215) 825-4018.
Or write to us at info@EvolveStrategies.Net
|
Philadelphia Office
1 South Broad St., Suite 1840Philadelphia, PA 19107 Rob Stuart, director Rob@EvolveStrategies.Net (215) 825-4018 |
New York Office
18 West 27th St., 11th floorNew York, NY 10001 Ramsay Adams, director Ramsay@EvolveStrategies.Net (845) 231-3468 |
Boston-area Office
199 Sudbury Road, Suite 2BConcord, MA 01742 Garret LoPorto, director Garret@EvolveStrategies.Net (978) 369-5070 |