Managing Personal and Canvassing Contacts

Managing Personal and Canvassing Contacts

Managing contacts is a critical component of running a successful organizing program and is an important feature of Empower. As a refresher, contacts are people you follow up with via a call to action (such as people you know or a list of people you want to engage) but do not use Empower themselves.

Personal Contacts vs. Canvassing Contacts

    There are two different types of contacts in Empower: Personal Contacts and Canvassing Contacts. We separate these canvassing contacts so volunteers don’t mix them up with friends, family, acquaintances and other personal contacts. Contacts that Volunteers add to their list are Personal Contacts by default. Contacts that are added by Volunteers doing an Open Canvassing Call to Action are Canvassing Contacts by default. Contacts that are uploaded during the creation of a Phone Banking Calls to Action, Text Banking Call to Action, or Door-to-Door Canvassing Call to Action or added by Volunteers during these Calls to Action are also Canvassing Contacts. By default, contacts added through one of these four types of Canvassing Calls to Action are assigned to the person who canvassed them. Volunteers can change a contact from a Personal Contact to a Canvassing Contact and vice versa if the default is not right for a particular contact.

    How Personal and Canvassing Contacts Appear in the App

    When you have both Personal and Canvassing Contacts, you will be able to differentiate them on the mobile app with buttons for both Personal and Canvassing Contacts. This toggle is shown to Volunteers on both the My Network page and for any future Relational Calls to Action, as well as in the Organizer and Director's views of their list.



      Following up with Personal or Canvassing Contacts

      To have Volunteers follow up with any of their contacts, including Canvassing Contacts, simply create a Relational Call to Action. Both Personal and Canvassing Contacts are shown under a toggle. You can use the prioritization feature to ask volunteers to prioritize talking to Personal or Canvassing contacts in future Relational Calls to Action.
      ​

      Managing Personal and Canvassing Contacts

      When managing contacts, it’s important that you differentiate between personal and canvassing contacts. Especially when you are bulk promoting, reassigning, or deleting people. You don’t want to accidentally delete your mom!

      We recommend using the Filter feature to help you manage your contacts:
      1. Click on the People page and then click on the Filter Button. Next, click on either Contact Relationship or Contact Source, these two filters are the most helpful in differentiating between personal and canvassing contacts.
      2. The Contact Relationship filter will allow you to separate between Personal contacts and canvassing contacts. As a reminder, by default, contacts added through a Canvassing Call to Action are assigned to the person who canvassed them, but they will be shown on a Canvassing list which is separate from someone’s Personal list of contacts. This toggle is shown on both the My Network page and for any future “Relational” Calls to Action, as well as in the Organizer and Director’s views of their list.
        1. While canvassed contacts appear on the Canvassing list by default, this can be changed by setting the contact Relationship field anywhere that a contact can be edited. For example, volunteers can move a contact from Canvassing to Personal contact if they develop a more personal relationship with that person.
        2. Contact Relationship will tell you whether the Relationship field is set to Canvassing or Personal contact. You can use this before doing any bulk reassignment or deletion to be sure you don’t accidentally reassign or delete someone’s friends and family.
        3. If a contact was added through canvassing, but manually changed to personal, they will show up as Personal here - however, the contact source filter will show the source as coming from canvassing.
      1. The Contact Source filter will tell you how a contact was added. For example, you can tell if a contact was added by a Volunteer to their personal list, whether they were assigned to that Volunteer by someone else, or whether they were added from an Open Canvassing Call to Action. This can also help you determine whether a contact should be reassigned or deleted.
        1. Personal contacts are contacts you added yourself
        2. Assigned contacts are contacts that someone else added to that person's list
        3. Canvassing contacts were added through canvassing calls to action, including open canvassing or a list uploaded for a phone bank, text bank, or door-to-door call to action
        4. Within the Canvassing contact option, you can select a specific live call to action, and see which contacts were added on this call to action




      Changing Someone's Contact Type

      There might be instances where you want to change someone's contact type. For example, if you meet someone while door-to-door canvassing, but continue to keep in touch with them and develop a strong relationship with them, you might want to add them to your personal list. To change someone's Contact Type:
      1. On the Empower app
        1. Using the People or My Actions page, find the contact whose contact type you would like to change
        2. Go to their Volunteer page and click edit
        3. Under Relationship you can change the contact type

        1. Click Save.
      1. On the mobile app
        1. Go to your list of contacts and select either Personal or Canvassing
        2. Find the name of the contact that you would like to change and click on them
        3. Click Edit
        4. You will see either Canvassing or Personal listed under City. Change the contact type to the type that you prefer

      When someone makes a change to the Contact Type, it will impact the Contact Relationship filter. Changing the Content Type will not impact the Contact Source filter because that filter organizes Contacts by how they were added to Empower.

      Being able to differentiate between personal and canvassing contacts is key to strategically managing and organizing your contacts. 


        • Related Articles

        • 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 ...

        • Open Canvassing Calls to Action

          This article will walk you through creating and managing an Open Canvassing Call to Action. Open Canvassing Calls to Action ask volunteers to create more contacts to grow your relational network. Open Canvassing Call to Actions can be great ways to ...

        • Matching Contacts to VAN

          VAN is a helpful tool that many different community organizing programs utilize. This article will describe how to match contacts between VAN and Empower. Matching between Empower and VAN happens both automatically and manually. Regardless if you are ...

        • Door-to-Door Canvassing Calls to Action

          This article will walk you through creating a Door-to-Door Canvassing Call to Action. What is a Door-to-Door Canvassing Call to Action? A list-based Door-to-Door Canvassing Call to Action is when a Director or Organizer asks volunteers to go ...

        • Personal Calls to Action

          This article will walk you through creating Personal Calls to Action. Personal Calls to Action allow volunteers to read the call to action and then take action themselves. Personal Calls to Action are an excellent way to position volunteers to take ...