The 2020 Digital Innovation Fund

Written by Aneta Molenda and Daniel Lander on behalf of the Cooperative Impact Lab

The global coronavirus pandemic and racial justice protests in 2020 upended “business as usual” in a Presidential election year with implications for virtually every aspect of the campaign ecosystem. Organizations had to transition to digital programs across organizing, fundraising, and voter registration, often for the very first time.

In early fall, the Cooperative Impact Lab (CIL) partnered with 2020 Vision Ventures/Resilient Democracy Fund, Way to Win to form the Digital Innovation Fund (DIF). Established to support experimental and innovative digital organizing tactics for state-based organizing groups and sharpen organizer skills in digital strategy and data analysis, DIF was based on a prize methodology utilized in other fields to:

• Reach a wide and diverse applicant pool of organizations
• Incentivize new approaches by being non-prescriptive about “innovation”
• Center the experience of the grantee by simplifying the application and reporting process
• Get funding in the field quickly and responsive to the needs of organizers

The 18 funded projects ranged from experimenting with faith-based relational organizing, to engaging communities with in-language messaging apps, to running micro-influencer campaigns on Instagram and TikTok. Almost all of the projects focused on engaging black, latina, asian, indigenous, and other BIPOC communities, and leveraging digital technologies to do so safely.

The 2020 Digital Innovation Fund Report can be read in full here:

In addition, the DIF team prepared six case studies on the experiments conducted by grantee organizations:

• We The People Michigan’s experiments with layered deep canvassing
• Going digital during a pandemic: Moses ACTION’s pivot to online relational organizing
• New Florida Majority’s experiments with gamified influencer marketing to turn out Latina voters
• Rising Voices Of Asian American Families’ experiments with in-language digital organizing
• The Texas Freedom Network’s influencer marketing experiments
• One APIA Nevada’s experiments with digital organizing in Asian American communities

The organizations that received grants from the Digital Innovation Fund achieved the following in the 2020 cycle:

made half a million calls to voters

sent out 5.9 million peer-to-peer text messages

mailed out over 700,000 pieces of mail

reached 72,000 voters via relational organizing

reached 922,000 people via influencer marketing.

Learnings

The grant process and projects led to several valuable insights and learnings. More details are included in the attached report:

1. The particular tools that organizations have access to can dramatically impact outcomes.
2. Diverse communities require a range of tools and tactics to do culturally relevant in-language app-based organizing.
3. COVID-19 widened a digital divide that made volunteering and voter contact more challenging.
4. Digital solutions aren’t (always) a replacement for hands-on support.
5. Organizations and organizers need more capacity, training, and skills to run effective Facebook ads.
6. Micro-influencer marketing is an affordable, effective way of reaching beyond traditional audiences.
7. Numbers don’t tell the full story — but data analysis is lacking and needed.

Impact

The Digital Innovation Fund funded organizations to experiment with digital organizing, often for the very first time. Several grantees reported they had exclusively run traditional field programs in previous election cycles and had to either drastically cut or eliminate door knocking as a strategy due to the pandemic. Pivoting field resources to the online space required preparation, skills, and resources.

“The support from the Digital Innovation Fund helped to attempt a new, innovative approach to engage young Latinas… without the funding to support this special experiment we would not have had the opportunity to explore this project. The findings from this are valuable for future campaigns and initiatives where we hope to use a similar approach.” — New Florida Majority

The grant allowed grantees to invest in new tools and tactics. Several grantees experimented with influencer marketing for the very first time and used grant funds to pay micro-influencers who could reach target audiences. The Texas Freedom Network was able to gain access to digital tools like Upfluence, Social Rank, and the deepbench payment system through the grant and partnership with The Movement Cooperative. They spent their resources both building the digital infrastructure and directly paying influencers. Leaders Igniting Transformation used the funds to roll out influencer marketing and put on a virtual concert with two artists that reached half a million people.

The DIF team experimented with creating different pathways to building community for organizers and campaigners across states. including several learning sessions on specific issues like changes to Facebook ads or using TikTok for voter turnout. These optional learning sessions helped share lessons across states and generated ideas for future cycles.

“We loved the digital coaching and the learning calls to hear from other folks. Influencer marketing honestly was not on our radar and is now something we’re building into our digital outreach toolkit for next year.” — Laura Misumi, Executive Director of Rising Voices of Asian American Families

DIF funding also meant that several organizations could hire digital and data staff and make previously temporary positions permanent. Washington Community Action, a small organization with only three organizers, said that the grant “helped us build an infrastructure that was needed for our organization to enter the digital organizing realm.”

The Digital Innovation Fund grantees:

Rising Voices of Asian American Families (MI)

One Pennsylvania (PA)

One APIA Nevada (NV)

Washington Community Action Network (WA)

Poder Latinx (NV)

Community Change Action (MI, FL)

Somali Action Alliance Education Fund (MN)

Texas Freedom Network (TX)

New Florida Majority (FL)

Make The Road Nevada (NV)

Living United for Change in Arizona (AZ)

Leaders Igniting Transformation (WI)

Illinois Muslim Civic Coalition (IL)

Instituto Power (AZ)

We the People MI (MI)

Grassroots Collaborative/Grassroots Illinois Action (IL)

MOSES Action (MI)

Faith in Florida Action Fund (FL)

New Georgia Project (GA)

We would like to thank for their partnership in the Digital Innovation Fund the following people and organizations: Kate Gage, Daniel Lander, Nirmal Mankani, Aneta Molenda, Josh Wolf, Malia Fisher, Patricia Murphy, Marium Navid, Sierra Houk, The Cooperative Impact Lab, The Movement Cooperative, The Resilient Democracy Fund, and Way To Win.