Adding Activist Codes in VAN that Integrate with Empower
Much how Empower uses tags to group and organize people, VAN uses activist codes to categorize their contact records. If you create and use activist codes in VAN, there is a way to integrate them with Empower.
What is an Activist Code
Activist codes are tags in VAN that describe groups of voters that you would want to categorize together. You could create Activist Codes like ClimateVoter or SignedPetition. Activist Codes are used very similarly to how tags are used in Empower.
To Create an Activist Code
Ask your VAN administrator to set up the Activist Code priority buckets that you’ll want to come connect to in Empower.
Brainstorm how you want to prioritize and organize the universe of contacts you are reaching out to via your Call to Action outreach (e.g. by geographic location or by a voter turnout score).
In MyVoters, create the Activist Code that you will use to prioritize contacts in Empower.
Create a list in VAN of voters that should fall into each of your tiers of priority. Use the “Bulk Apply” feature to add the appropriate activist code to the list of voters. A full explanation of how to use this VAN feature can be found here.
Example Activist Code
Here is an example of how to create and prioritize an Activist Code. Let’s say we wanted to organize people based on their Absentee Ballot request status.
First, we would ask our VAN Administrator to create an Activist Code for “Requested ballot, not returned” and an Activist Code for “Returned Absentee ballot” and one final code titled “Needs to request Absentee Ballot”.
Next, we would tag the appropriate people to the correct Activist Code in VAN. Remember, we can do this quickly using the Bulk Apply feature.
Related Articles
Adding and Creating Filters
This article will show you how to add and create filters to view your network. Additionally, we will provide some best practices around using filters. Empower is a tool that is meant to make your role as an Organizer easier. We spend a lot of time ...
Adding Contacts
Whether you are a Director, Organizer, or Volunteer, you can add contacts onto Empower to build your network on the app. In Relational Organizing, these Contacts are people that you can talk to about the issues you care about, whether they are ...
Adding Volunteers
The word “Volunteer” is customizable by each organization and might differ based on the settings that you’ve selected. You can change the term “Volunteer” on your Edit Organization page on the Empower Web App. In the Empower App, you will also see ...
Introduction to Empower
Empower is a tool that you can use to manage relationships at every level of your organizing program. As an organizer, your work revolves around following up with community members, volunteers, and other stakeholders. We follow up to make asks, check ...
Cutting Turf for Door-to-Door Canvassing in Empower
If your organization doesn’t have an easy way to divide up turf to assign it to canvassers and upload into Empower as a CSV file, then this article will walk you through using our Rapid Turf Cutter Tool. This tool will turn a VAN exported list into ...