Digital canvassing on Impactive blends relational organizing and peer-to-peer texting for a feature that is both personalized and relationship-driven, but targeted to the specific contacts that an admin wants to reach. A particular benefit of canvassing actions is that they allow the same user to be assigned to a contact over time, letting a volunteer or organizer build a long-term relationship with a contact to lead them up a ladder of engagement, prepare them to ultimately GOTV, etc.
There are three types of canvassing actions on Impactive: assigned list canvassing, shared list canvassing, and open canvassing. This article covers assigned and shared list canvassing; find more info here about open canvassing.
Note that canvassing on Impactive refers to digital canvassing, where outreach is conducted via text message, email, phone call, social media DM, or postcard. Impactive does not offer an in-person/door knocking canvassing feature; while Impactive can be used for door knocking in a pinch (more on that here), other vendors like MiniVAN or OpenField offer more sophisticated door knocking functionality.
Assigned and shared list canvassing are action types that are published to Impactive users, which they can access via the Impactive volunteer interface for web or mobile.
Overview: Steps for Assigned/Shared List Canvassing Actions
The below article offers specific details on all of the settings and components of running an assigned or shared list canvassing action. But to begin, here's a general overview of the steps/prerequisites that are typically required to run an assigned/shared list canvassing action:
If gathering data (tags and custom fields) from the canvass is desired, set up tags and custom fields.
If syncing data from the canvass to an external CRM is desired, set up CRM integration.
Import the contacts that will be reached.
Ensure users (whether volunteers or staffers/admins) who will conduct the canvassing are onboarded.
Set up and publish the assigned or shared list canvassing action.
Canvass!
Track canvassing results.
Setting up an Assigned/Shared List Canvassing Action
To create a new assigned or shared list canvassing action, head to Actions > Canvassing and click + New Action in the top-left corner of the table. You'll choose whether to create an assigned list canvassing action, or a shared list canvassing action.
Difference Between Assigned and Shared List Canvassing
The difference between shared and assigned list canvassing is whether users are assigned the contacts they will reach out to (they don't have a choice who they contact), or if they self-select the contacts they will reach out to from a list shared with them.
Assigned List Canvassing: Admins upload a list of contacts. When users enter the action, they will see a batch of those contacts that has been automatically assigned to them (contacts are batched in groups of 10, but a user can claim more than one batch by re-visiting the action); these are the contacts they are responsible for. This works best when users don't know any of the contacts on the list, so it doesn't matter which ones they are assigned to.
Shared List Canvassing: Admins upload a list of contacts. When users enter the action, they will see the full list of contacts, and can pick and choose which contacts they are responsible for from that list. (Once a user claims a contact, that contact can't be claimed by any other user.) This works best when users might personally know some of the contacts on the list already, so you want them to be able to self-select which contacts they are responsible for.
Customizing List Canvassing Action Settings
After choosing whether to create an assigned or shared list canvassing action, you'll be taken to the action's edit page.
Assigned Folder(s) - Optional
Optionally, assign this action to one or more folders. Learn more here about using folders as an internal organizational system within Impactive.
Action Image - Optional
Optionally, add an image that will appear alongside this action for users; users will see it in their action feeds (for web or mobile). We recommend uploading one to boost user engagement! Recommended dimensions are 1,000px x 1,000px, though images are sometimes shown as a horizontal rectangle, so center content within the center 3/4 (vertically) of the square; this article shares an example of these dimensions.
Action Title - Required
An action title is required. Users will see this title in their action feeds (for web or mobile). This title will not be seen by contacts; it is user-facing only, to give users context about the action they're participating in.
Action Description - Required
An action description is required; users will see it in their action feeds (for web or mobile), and it will not be seen by contacts. We recommend including high-quality information here to boost user engagement! Tell users what they're doing, and don't forget the why - why will this action be impactful?
Start Button Label - Optional
Optionally, designate a different start button label for users to click when they open this action.
Target Contact List - Required
A contact list is required; this is the list of contacts that will be reached out to and/or reported on in this action. Read more here about importing contacts.
Keep Users' Contact Assignments Toggle
By default, assignments (of contacts to users) are maintained; these existing assignments could be from a previous action, or were imported as a CSV column when contact data was imported. If no existing assignments are present, assignments are made at random, on a first-come-first-serve basis when users start the action. Optionally, choose to un-toggle this feature to re-randomize assignments even if there were existing assignments.
Maintaining these relationships over time is often the point of using Impactive's canvassing feature - if you want the same volunteer/organizer to reach out to a contact over and over again, building a long-term relationship, make sure to keep this toggle ON!
Note that if you'd like to pre-assign certain contacts to certain users (for assigned list canvassing only), you can designate a contact's user assignment by uploading a CSV with that data. More on that here.
Assigned/Shared Canvassing Type
An assigned or shared list canvassing action can either include outreach, or not.
No Outreach: Users will only fill reports on their contacts, not send them a scripted message through Impactive. This works best if reported information will be derived from in-person conversations, or other methods that don't require a scripted message to start the conversation.
With Outreach: Users will first send a scripted message (which you'll write further down on the action edit page) to their contacts, and can then fill a report after.
(Only for Actions With Outreach) Attach Script Image - Optional
If With Outreach is selected for this action, optionally indicate that the action image (uploaded further up the action's edit page) should be attached to all initial scripts - meaning that the action image will be sent alongside the text script when users send their messages to contacts (i.e. contacts will receive the action image).
(Only for Actions With Outreach) Initial Scripts - Required
Write the initial script(s) that users will send to their contacts. Users can reach out to contacts in multiple ways, and you can set up different scripts for each of them:
Text: The most common method of outreach; users will send a text message (from their native messaging app, iMessage or Android messaging) to their contacts.
Email: Users will send an email to their contacts.
Phone Calls: Users will call their contacts. Note that this does NOT mean that they will use Impactive's phone banking feature; they will just place a call manually from their phone, and read the script as they make the call.
Social Messages: Users will send a social media DM to their contacts. Note that users will be responsible for copying this script, navigating to the social media app, locating the contact, and sending the message.
Postcard: Users will write a message for a postcard to their contacts. Note that Impactive will NOT automatically send postcards; postcard information must be exported by an admin and forwarded to a separate mail vendor for actual mail creation and sending. More on relational postcarding here.
A couple other notes on script creation:
Scripts require a name. Contacts will not receive the script name; it's purely an internal designation, useful if you'll be performing later data analysis on message performance. Users will also see this script name, which can help them choose which script to send (ex. a script for warmer contacts, versus a script for contacts they've never met).
You can use dynamic variables to customize scripts; read our full guide here for the many ways that dynamic variables can help to personalize scripts.
(Only for Actions With Outreach) Response Scripts - Optional
Optionally, write response scripts (also known as canned responses) that users can send to contacts as they continue conversations after initial messages are sent; these response scripts are typically answers to frequently-asked questions, additional information to send to contacts who are interested in learning more, etc.
Scripts require a name; this name is particularly important for response scripts, because it's how users will know what a response script is for (ex. "More Info on Org" or "Early Voting Info"). Contacts will not see the script name, it's only for internal use by admins and users.
You can use dynamic variables to customize scripts; read our full guide here for the many ways that dynamic variables can help to personalize scripts.
There's no limit on the number of response scripts that you can create.
Remember, you can always duplicate actions and their scripts (Manage > Copy from the action's individual page) if you'd like to write a large set of response scripts once, and then re-use those in subsequent actions.
Note that response scripts also allow you to set tags and custom fields that should automatically be applied to the contact if a response script is sent. For example, take a response script for "Early Voting Info" - if a user sends that response script to a contact, it presumably indicates that the contact said they're going to vote early, so you may want to apply an early voting tag or custom field accordingly.
Click the Advanced Options underneath the response script, and set up tag(s) or custom field(s) to be applied to the contact if that script is sent.
Report Settings - Optional
If you hope to capture data from your canvassing action (which is usually the case!), use these Report Settings to designate which tags and custom fields will be shown to users for them to fill reports on contacts. These Report Settings / Tags and Custom Fields drop-downs are populated with the tags and custom fields created in your campaign under Data > Tags and Data > Custom Fields. To edit the display names and/or the order of these tags and custom fields, edit the tags and custom fields themselves under Data > Tags or Data > Custom Fields.
Note that you do not need to add the "Canvassed At" custom field to Report Settings here (and Impactive will not allow you to do so); that custom field is automatically generated and stored when a user reports canvassing a contact.
Note that if either the Tags or Custom Fields drop-downs are left blank, any tags or custom fields marked Default in the tag's or custom field's settings (Data > Tags or Data > Custom Fields) will appear when users access reports. If you don't want these tags/custom fields to be shown in users' reports, remove the Default setting for that tag or custom field.
Publish Date/Time - Optional
Optionally, set a date and time to schedule this action to be published to ALL users. This field is optional because you can still publish the action - whether to all users or a specific user list - anytime after the action is saved by clicking the Make Public or Send to User List buttons on the action's page.
Limit Publishing to Specific Language - Optional
Optionally, limit publishing of this action to only users who use either the English or Spanish version of the volunteer mobile/web portal(users choose which language they'll use when signing up). This is great for creating a Spanish-specific version of the action. Learn more about using Impactive in Spanish here.
Getting Users Involved in Your Assigned/Shared List Canvassing Action
Once your assigned or shared list canvassing action has been created, it's time to take the action live so users can get involved!
You can:
Publish the action with "Make Public": Clicking "Make Public" for the action will share it with all users; the action will appear for all users in their action feed (for web or mobile).
Send the action to only certain users via "Send to User List": You can send the action to only a certain sub-set of users by sending it to only a specific user list (including teams).
Once the action is shared with some or all users, they'll be able to participate. Don't forget - Impactive offers template training decks to help train your volunteers!
Tracking Assigned/Shared List Canvassing Results
Our article here covers everything you need to know about assigned or shared list canvassing results, including how to track performance, syncing data to VAN/EveryAction, and more.