NGP VAN Erfahrungen

NGP VAN- The Only Choice for Campaigns

Kommentare: Very positive overall, it maintains all of the lists, data, call, knock, and text data as well as valuable targeting information.

Vorteile:

The platform is a fundamental tool to every campaign whether it be fundraising or canvassing, it is the most essential software a team can have when trying to win elections.

Nachteile:

The interface continues to be clunky and somewhat difficult to navigate for new users. It functions first as a database as opposed to an active management tool.

Our Path to Victory

Vorteile:

NGP VAN’s extensive voter data collection, analysis and microtargeting capacity enables [SENSITIVE CONTENT] personally to identify supporters about 5,000 doors, and collect the votes he needs to consistently win his district 60%-40%. Absolutely essential and very highly recommended.

Nachteile:

Data compartmentalization, although obviously necesary, can be a barrier to more effective utilization of the technology.

My first month with NGP VAN

Kommentare: The Help Desk is not helpful. As a new customer, my campaign manager and I needed a lot of reassurance and handholding, because the learning curve is steep. A natural place to start seemed to be at the Help Desk. Unfortunately, this was: (1) not live (it is via an online work order; (2) not necessarily prompt; (3) as often as not referred me and my campaign manager back to the written documentation, which too often was not helpful --and which we had typically already accessed and found it wanting. We simply stopped using the non-helpful Help Desk. My distinct impression was that my time was a lot less valuable than the Help Desk personnel time. Most of my questions could have been answered in a minute or two by an expert; instead, I was directed to online materials that took a long time to plow through, and often didn't answer the question. Now for the good news: the thrice-weekly Zoom sessions with [sensitive content hidden] have been CRITICAL to our going forward with NGP8. They know their subject matter cold, are patient and excellent communicators, and are able to provide quick, definitive solutions to problems. It gives me great comfort to know that they are there and accessible. I STRONGLY suggest that NGP clients be directed to them immediately in the onboarding process, and in fact recommend that it be a requirement that all newbies have an early-on get-to-know-you session with the Zoom team. This would short-circuit a lot of frustration and, frankly, anger with NGP. We shouldn't have had to suffer buyer's remorse and be on the verge of bailing on NGP. Fortunately, we got past that.
A suggestion: Consider having a "Suggestion" box, perhaps right on the user splash page. I know there have been several times with [sensitive content hidden] that they've said, "Yes, I see what the problem is and we'll talk with our team about changing that." It would be good to know that there is an embedded process for change and improvement... ideally, with feedback so that the person who made the suggestion could be apprised of follow-up. This would yield great buy-in from clients, since they'd now be a part of the 'development team' and would see that their input is important. Moreover, there is simply no better source of improvement than feedback from end-users.
NGP VAN is a great product, but is bedeviled by its rather outdated front end that is apparently layered on legacy design and nomenclature that made sense 10 or 15 years ago. It shouldn't take weeks of frustration to be at the point where you're confident that you made a good choice. And good software design shouldn't demand that a new user learn a non-intuitive front end. A suggestion: Have an alert, non-defensive site navigation team, good listeners, sit side-by-side with a few new clients and watch as they take their first baby steps with NGP8. Too often what is intuitive to engineers and experienced users is in fact counter-intuitive to new users.
The integration with ActBlue is really great, and critical to the utility of NGP8.

Vorteile:

It is comprehensive. The scope is remarkable, and I really appreciate the work that went into building it. It also appears to be pretty bomb-proof; it hasn't crashed on me yet. The best part of it has been the initial onboarding person ([sensitive content hidden]) with a special callout to [sensitive content hidden]. See my comments below about how critical they have been to successfully navigating the onboarding process.

Nachteile:

It starts with the name. NGP vs. NGP VAN vs. NGP8...this single example pretty much sums up the nomenclature and relationship confusion. It was not at all evident the flow of information between the various entities, between VoteBuilder-MyCampaign-MiniVAN-NGP VAN...and that NGP VAN is the same as NGP8. There needs to be a wholesale review of naming conventions and definitions. (Too often the definitions don't conform to standard English or are inconsistent--e.g., "Delete" can mean 'delete from a form or from a search result,' or it can mean 'delete the record from the database.') There should never be confusion about what is going to happen when you push a "delete" button. That is just one example of dozens.

County Party Struggles

Kommentare: Have been working in VAN since 2014 when I started using it as a Battleground Texas volunteer. Shifted what we learned to using VAN for the local county party. The data base was a mess! Worked diligently to improve the database, to try to get others (including other rural county parties) to use VAN, have given feedback from field use (often dismissed by the Texas Democratic Party's data team...which has had good and not-so-good people...which should be all about customer service and coaching, but mostly has tried to fit square pegs in round holes), coach other users as much as my experience allows. I continue to have issues that aren't addressed....back bulk uploads that resulted in bad data but that TDP wouldn't or couldn't back out, awareness of bad vendor phone numbers being placed ahead of good phone numbers collected directly from voters, and right now the SWITCH option has been removed so that I am unable to switch to other neighboring counties' VAN access to help their county chairs with projects (have filed two help tickets....but heard nothing...and there are no longer any phone numbers to reach any data team members with problems, everything is only through help tickets).

Vorteile:

As voter database and tracking of contact is could shine! As a tool it is far more than any rural county party could do for themselves, so it needs to be used to its fullest (but isn't).

Nachteile:

...but when used exclusively by volunteers, we can't get the continuity going. Without everyone using it, the input is sporadic and incomplete. There needs to be better coaching from the state party in how a rural county party can and should use VAN, with regular projects designed FOR RURAL COUNTIES (with county party input on the projects)....then deadlines and followup. Tying the why we do something to the results and analysis of what we learn each go-around (and how to track progress from election cycle to election cycle...in our RED county).

NGP VAN is an extremely helpful tool

Kommentare: I've used NGP VAN for a couple of years, and we are actively using this program now prior to the March Primary Elections.
Being able to identify registered Democrats, and canvass them is a modern miracle. Just this week we used NGP VAN to perform a literature distribution (lit drop) encouraging folks to vote early if they can, or vote on Election Day. We put together door hanger bags with voting dates and times, info on President Biden's accomplishments, voting locations, and a list of candidates running for State and local offices.
NGP VAN offers so many resources like names and addresses, actual maps and directions to these homes. It includes video instructions for the program's use as well. We can cover large areas of our county and are prepared to ask for residents by name, which makes the first encounter go smoothly. Thank you for giving us this very valuable tool. M Davis 2nd Vice Chair & Volunteer Coordinator

Vorteile:

I like NGP VAN's accuracy and multiple options. There are different maps to help with locating an address. The screens switch smoothly from one to another, no lag time at all, as long as you have internet connection. Even in our small, rural mountain town we have very few problems. I can't always say that about some programs.

Nachteile:

You need some training, and actual experience, using this program, to maximize its use. NGP VAN can do so many things that it takes using it, with some instruction, to comprehend all it can do.

Satisfied but could use some improvements

Vorteile:

The Virtual Phonebank feature. After the trial and errors of creating script elements prior to actually putting it all together in your final script, being able to launch the phonebank session and send to callers via hyperlink is very convenient. Also, the reports that could be pulled from events, surveys, calls and canvassing made end of campaign reporting not so stressful.

Nachteile:

Bulk uploads are so finicky. If contact phone numbers are not in a particular format they are rejected and causes me clean and re-attempt several times. There is also an inconsistency in the data at times: I will create a list of contacts that were called (Contact Type: phone) and get one number but when I use the report manager sometimes the data doesn't match. I attest to maybe duplicate calls to same phone being shared by different contacts. But that is not the only inconsistency in the data.

Getting better, but fails at on some critical features.

Kommentare: VAN is like living with a completely overbred Siamese cat. It can be lovely most days, but at critical times, it WILL put a hairball in your shoes.

Vorteile:

It's a pretty robust database. We've learned to use these data to better support our political campaigns. We're a SMALL Democratic organization, so candidates are learning Mini Van, and I'm the only who uses VAN.

Nachteile:

That it can FAIL, and FAIL BADLY on election day. I didn't enjoy being screamed at by our Vice Chair because we could NOT chase people via phone who hadn't voted. The data were to update hourly, removing people who had voted, and nope, this did NOT happen. We used a simpler search, and then texted everyone who supposedly hadn't voted (thank you Scale to WIN, which is lovely), with lots of people who responded that "they had voted." BOO!

Enthusiastic VAN User

Kommentare: Most recently we are using VAN to support local candidates in the upcoming May 6 election. We are using it to generate lists for block walking, text campaigns, postcard campaigns, and phone banking.

Vorteile:

As a volunteer political activist, I find VAN invaluable in every aspect. We use it to identify like-minded voters in our relational outreach campaigns. It is robust and easy to use. The support staff is knowledgeable and responds quickly whenever I have a question.

Nachteile:

I'm having a hard time thinking of anything I don't like. I personally find it easy to use but I suppose users who skew older might think it's a little complicated. But their support staff is great, so that shouldn't be a problem.

So Many Billing Issues

Vorteile:

The actual features of the program are fine. I do wish that it was easier to resend emails to non-openers of previous emails.

Nachteile:

The billing situation has been a mess for years. Sometimes invoices sent, other times not before credit card is charged. Issues with multiple billings for same account.

Contact

Vorteile:

The internet processing and the phone number is still in my place I don’t know what to do with the other phone number

Nachteile:

Slow To with the new number of you guys at work and I wanna I gotta get you some good time to go home then go get it done so you don’t need me and you can give it back to me and then I’ll throw you a phone call me if you wanna or not I’m just waiting on you to call him and tell him you got the money I got you some money for me

Helpful Analytic Platform

Kommentare: Overall it is positive. I think a lot of my criticism of the platform comes from the administrators I have access through. There are a lot of levels of access and gaining the right level of access while maintaining proper security is cumbersome at times. But overall VAN is very helpful with a vast majority of the analytical work I need to do for the organization.

Vorteile:

The ability to create snapshots of areas quickly - e.g. after the most recent election we used VAN to analyze how various groups of voters performed around our various districts. This would have taken significant time before we were using VAN but now it was no more than an afternoon and did not need to wait for anyone outside our organization to get us data.

Nachteile:

The interface. I think an overhaul to the interface would allow for used to unlock more of what VAN has to offer.

VAN from a Precinct Chair Leader point of view

Kommentare: I am continually looking for new Precinct Chairs and VAN is critical in this search.

Vorteile:

Ability to find potential activists and volunteers. Ability to see how reliable a voter a person is. Ability to see how the person identifies themself.

Nachteile:

It can be difficult to learn. It makes it harder to train new Precinct Chairs when different levels of users see different views of VAN. For example, I do not understand why Precinct Chairs cannot see Scores.

A County Committee Review

Vorteile:

Texas Democratic Party makes VAN available accessible to county committees.

Nachteile:

Can't create a list using only VANID or StateFileID.

Single person small campaign got good value

Kommentare: I enjoyed using it once I was comfortable with it.

Vorteile:

Once you figured out the interface and how it all works it's a powerful tool for identifying your targeted audience. It made it easier to coordinate volunteers and see what their status was for work getting done.

Nachteile:

Took awhile to figure out the interface. It's definitely not for the tech-disinclined and you have to look at it through a certain point of view.

Van the invaluable tool to electoril success

Kommentare: I've been using the van since forever and haave had a positive experience, usung the produt and if there were any opportunites, I could just call up the team and have it resolved

Vorteile:

Easeof use and the to teach others to grow your capacity

Nachteile:

Doesn't have a dog emoji, sounds sill but very important in the islands

2022 Virginia State Senate Campaign

Vorteile:

What I like the most about VAN is how thorough of a software database it is. Everything you need to run an effective strategy in a political campaign are there.

Nachteile:

Nothing. A first time campaign manager with now experience was able to figure out the basics. It may seem like a daunting UI interface, but with practice and understanding of what the parameters do, it can be learned.

Voter info but limited

Vorteile:

Generally has good VAN has the state voter information.

Nachteile:

VAN does not have all voter information and sometimes information is incorrect.

List expiration date

Kommentare: Everything is great except the expiring lists

Vorteile:

I love being able to pull up lists of voters when I need them

Nachteile:

A bunch of our lists expired in the middle of our campaign. Lists should not expire until after election day - I wrote software for years at giant financial firms, and in my opinion, any voter contact system that expires a voter list before election day was designed by absolute dopes! Fix this.

Just a user

Vorteile:

Complete list of voters Dem Support Scores are useful

Nachteile:

I know data is in there, but there should be better ways to get them out.

Pretty Good

Kommentare: Overall, good. Uploading data for lists could be streamlined,

Vorteile:

Ability to send emails to a large list is crucial

Nachteile:

Ability to edit existing lists is limited to one record at a time

Review from a Red District

Kommentare: As a Candidate in a very small dollar campaign with a district hundreds of miles in size, it was invaluable to have a tool like NPG VAN that also syncs to the phone app

Vorteile:

Can access the entire district, create large lists and then add filters to get more targeted results

Nachteile:

Unfortunately some information is outdated, and the lack of email addresses (especially when so many are registered for VBM and have provided them to the SOE's) and the unreliable phone data is a hindrance.

Keep up with Compliance Requriments!

Vorteile:

NGP VAN contains LOTS of useful tools for a local political organization. I like the homepage, and updating activist information is easy.

Nachteile:

We rely on NGP VAN as our primary tool for complying with the state regulatory authority. When the state regulatory changed its systems in March 2023, NGP VAN's form populator started injecting nonsensical data. Manual override is difficult to implement, and it has nearly overwhelmed our treasurer (a volunteer). Customer support blames the state regulatory authority, while offering no solutions or even a timeline for expected solutions. We're approaching the start of the third month of this frustration. We need better from NGP VAN.

Great product but needs diligence to keep updated

Kommentare: Overall good experience, and absolutely essential for political campaigns.

Vorteile:

I like the ease of researching voters and designating turfs for campaign.

Nachteile:

It seems in there is some updating required as there are many disconnected numbers or wrong numbers.

Mobile Messaging

Vorteile:

Bulk Upload Feature Wizard Function yes.

Nachteile:

Maine Democratic Party needs mobile messaging to send bulk texts with opt-out and data sync functionality.

Need to increase functionality

Vorteile:

Not much, the data is outdated many times because other users aren't updating and saving their responses. System needs to be tied in directly to Secretary of State updates in each state.

Nachteile:

Not enough cross tabs to micro target by race, or economic status