FAQ Page

1. What is Grassroots PhoneBank™?

   Grassroots PhoneBank™ is a custom, web-based application that allows your volunteers to make phone calls against your list or public voter lists.

   Grassroots PhoneBank™ breaks down lists into chunks that individual volunteers can access, one chunk at a time, to make outgoing phone calls from wherever they have access to a phone and the Internet.

   Candidates or initiative sponsors can set up separate, scripted campaigns, and direct all or selected volunteers to execute those campaigns and record the results.

   Individual volunteers can view summaries of their results. Candidates or initiative sponsors can view overall results by campaign.

2. How much does it cost to use Grassroots PhoneBank™?

   Costs are reasonable. Even though there are many cost factors, Grassroots PhoneBank™ is priced so that even small local campaigns can take advantage of the power of volunteer phone banks.

   The major cost factors are the costs of acquiring or building the lists (discussed below), the costs of loading the data into the database, the costs associated with each campaign, and the costs of exporting the data to common data formats, should you desire that.

   All these costs are based on the nature of the data, the size of the lists and the amount of storage required, the length of time the lists are available for use, and bandwidth costs associated with actual usage.

   Whether the telephone information comes from public voter lists or custom built candidate or initiative sponsor lists, the total costs of acquiring the lists are born exclusively by the licensee. Lists, even public lists, change over time, so lists are never pooled.

   Grassroots PhoneBank™ can also provide custom consulting services and training in connection with the use of the lists, scripting, and building and executing effective telephone campaigns, for which additional fees may be charged.

3. Will my opponents be able to use Grassroots PhoneBank™?

   No.

   Once a candidate or initiative sponsor has established a relationship with Grassroots PhoneBank™, we will license no other party on the same ballot for the same office or initiative to use the application.

   However, when a ballot allows more than one choice for an elected office, then other candidates may license the application up to the number of choices permitted on the ballot.

   For example, if a local ballot permits the voter to vote for up to three choices for the identical office, then we may grant up to three licenses for that office.

4. Are there any criteria for choosing which candidates may receive licenses?

   Grassroots PhoneBank™ may license the application to any candidate or initiative sponsor regardless of party affiliation or ideology.

   However, any licensee must agree to a set of strict ethical rules about how the application is used.

   In addition, every volunteer must subscribe to a similarly strict set of ethical rules.

   At the very minimum, the rules of the Federal Elections Commission, the Secretary of State or chief election overseer for the State, and the Clerk or Voter Registrar for the county or other local district are incorporated into the agreement, as applicable for the candidate or initiative sponsor.

5. Who owns the data?

   You do!

   You provide the lists.

   You provide the volunteers that make the calls and maintain the lists.

   You own their work product.

   Your lists are not shared with anyone else.

   At the end of a campaign, or at any time, you can ask for an export of all the data. One standard export is always free with any paid license.

6. What do I need to get started?

   You need a list, either your own (minimum 100 individual voting-age persons in the geographical boundary for the office or initiative) or a public voter list that you have purchased.

7. Does Grassroots PhoneBank™ work with surveys.

   Absolutely.

   Surveys, when done correctly, are very effective to gauge the views of the electorate. Surveys done early in your campaign can help you focus on the things that are important to the voters.

   In addition to regular scripts which push information to the public, you may also create survey scripts. Each survey script builds a custom response database. The responses are summarized by standard demographic categories to the extent that the criteria are contained in your list. For example, public voter lists typically contain gender, age, party, and ethnicity information, so the results can be summarized by these demographic criteria.

   We can help you create effective surveys to suit your circumstances.