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.
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
- 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
