Resources to help you and your organizations learn more about digital safety, identify potential gaps in your safety infrastructure and find tools and best practices to better protect yourself and your communities online.
Movement Technology
Database Management Using SQL
Overview
If you are looking to manage data using something more powerful than a spreadsheet, this course is for you. You will learn how the backend of a database works. SQL is a coding language that is used to build many databases. It’s likely that you’ve used a database built with SQL!
In this course, you will practice finding data in a database, adding data to a database, and learn the fundamentals for building your own database. For the duration of this course, we will provide sample data, and a “sandbox” account where you can work with the data.
Who is this course for?
Pre-requisites:
- No prior SQL knowledge is necessary; you should however understand how to do use the Vlookup formula in Excel or Google Sheets.
- If you are looking to learn Vlookup, you can take our Building Analytics Reports in Google Sheets course
- If you already know some SQL, including WHERE, SUM, and AVG, we suggest taking one of our other courses.
Ideal applicants come from all walks of life, from seasoned organizers and campaigners looking to sharpen their skills, to beginners who are passionate about organizing and want to start their learning journey. Here are some attributes shared by all our applicants:
Technical Aptitude: Whether you have experience in organizing online or not, we are interested in organizers and campaign practitioners who want to rapidly develop their technical skills.
Organizing Insight: You don’t need to be a professional politico, but we’re looking for applicants with experience doing organizing work on the ground. That work can be tied to grassroots, electoral, and/or issue organizing. We seek to support organizers who are currently part of a campaign effort or are seeking to build one.
Dedication to Inclusive Politics and Intersectional Solutions: At re:power, we center race, class, gender and sexuality across all our trainings – it’s part of our practice of inclusive politics. We want organizers to be open to new ideas regarding it and to the ideas and contributions from their fellow organizers who will reflect our diverse communities.
Lesson Plan
- Intro to SQL + Data Structures
- SELECT Statements
- Aggregates
- JOINS
- Case Statements
- Maps + GIS
Questions? Please email data@repower.org.
Analytics and Reporting in Google Sheets
Overview
In this course you will learn tools and tips to maintain and clean-up your data, and ways to better evaluate your program efforts. We’ll also share best practices about how to share those insights with stakeholders in a way that’s easy to understand.
Who is this for?
Staff across departments: Data, organizing, digital, communications, and fundraising staff will all find that this course takes their work to the next level. You will be provided with sample data for all assignments.
Pre-requisites: Before taking this course, you should know what a row and column is and how to add numbers; we will send a review beforehand. If you already know how to use the Vlookup formula or Pivot Tables, you may be too advanced for this course.
What will you learn?
Lesson Plan
- Week 1: Intro to Movement Data & Cleaning Data with Vlookup & More
- Week 2: Creating Analytics Reports with Countif & Pivot Tables
- Week 3: Presenting Analytics with Column Charts & More
VAN/EveryAction Administration
Overview
This course focuses on the core skills and decision-making practices necessary to manage voter data for an issue or legislative campaign. You will learn how to use the Voter Activation Network (VAN) to build lists, cut turf, build counts and crosstab reports and more. You will also learn to manage the events calendar and schedule email blasts in EveryAction.
VAN is a toolset used by progressive campaigns and organizations across the country. EveryAction is an accompanying fundraising management platform. Participants will be provided access to a VAN/EveryAction “sandbox” account with sample data for the duration of the course.
Who is this course for?
Volunteers and field organizers: If you are a volunteer or field organizer who has used VAN to enter data or look up voters, this course will take your skills to the next level.
Tech-savvy individuals: This course is appropriate for people who are looking to get into movement data─maybe you’ve never used VAN, but you have experience managing a database. However, if you already know how to cut turf and build counts and crosstab reports, we suggest taking one of our other data and analytics courses.
What will you learn?
- Week 1: Introduction to VAN and Targeting
- Week 2: Building Targets
- Week 3: Walk Lists, Cutting Turf and MiniVAN
- Week 4: Bulk Uploads and Counts/Crosstabs
- Week 5: Forms and Email Blasts
- Week 6: Bringing It All Together—Final Exercise
Data Engineering with Python
Overview
This course focuses on understanding the baseline principles of computer programming through Python (a computer programming language). Beginning with basic concepts like variables and arrays, over the course of six weeks, we’ll build on this knowledge to identify the types of scripts or languages necessary for data work. Students will walk away with the ability to write functions, create for loops, and work with various packages for data standardization.
Who is this course for?
- Folks completely new to computer programming or back-end languages
- Folks who are familiar with Python or another programming language, but want to get more comfortable with loops, IF statements, functions, and how to apply them*
*If you’re already very confident in these concepts, and know how to use modules, then you might be too advanced for this particular course.
- Organizing Insight: Folks with experience doing organizing work on the ground. That work can be tied to grassroots, electoral, and/or issue organizing. We seek to support organizers who are currently part of a campaign effort or are seeking to build one.
- Technical Aptitude: Organizers and campaign practitioners who want to rapidly develop their technical skills.
Intermediate Digital Organizing
Overview
This three-week course goes deeper into the strategies and tactics discussed in our Introduction to Digital Organizing course. Session topics will include Design Training, Data Collection & Syncing, Intro to Analytics, A/B Testing, and more. Participants will be able to immediately apply learnings to their day-to-day organizing.
Who is this course for?
- Digital Organizing Experience: Participants should have participated in re:power’s Introduction to Digital Organizing, or have experience using digital tactics such as mass email and peer-to-peer texting to move supporters to take action.
- Organizing Insight: Folks with experience doing organizing work on the ground. That work can be tied to grassroots, electoral, and/or issue organizing. We seek to support organizers who are currently part of a campaign effort or are seeking to build one.
- Technical Aptitude: Organizers and campaign practitioners who want to rapidly develop their technical skills and are excited about challenging themselves to learn new ways of doing the work and partnering with others to come up with creative solutions.
- Data Curious: Folks who are ready to take their digital organizing to the next level by adding principles of data & analytics to their strategy.
What will you learn?
Lesson Plan
- Session 1: Ladder of Engagement
- Session 2: Design for the Movement
- Session 3: Experiments and Tests
- Session 4: Online Ads
- Session 5: Narrative and Storytelling
- Session 6: Rapid Response Activity
