In early 2020 I set up Momentum’s phone-banking infrastructure and database. Following the 2020 General Election campaign, Momentum would work on the Rebecca for Leader Campaign: they needed to rapidly pivot their suite of tools to a new focus, while carefully navigating privacy rules. They needed urgent help to set up a new Nationbuider instance to house the new data and integrate it with CallHub to unlock new features and maximizing data impact. I was brought in because of my knowledge of the existing phonebanking infrastructure. Finally, I created an 50 page manual and accompanying video, documenting the use and functions of the NationBuilder / CallHub integration.

Integrating NationBuilder and CallHub

My first task for Momentum was to configure and test an integration between two substantial pieces of political advocacy software: NationBuilder and CallHub.

CallHub is phone banking and texting software for political campaigns, nonprofits, advocacy groups, and businesses. This needed to be integrated with the (legendary) Momentum database in NationBuilder. NationBuilder is feature-packed political CRM software used by a range of campaigns (including both sides of the Brexit referendum in 2016!). Following this a separate NationBuilder “Nation” was set up to securely accommodate data from the Labour Party, made available to the Rebecca For Leader Campaign. I configured the integration between that Nation and CallHub.

Integrating these pieces of software unlocked a range of features used by the Rebecca Long Bailey leadership campaign. I worked with the Momentum technical team and liaised with both CallHub and NationBuilder on this project.

Increased efficiency of data processing made an agile campaign

In set up the nationbuilder-callhub bridge and automated several processes creating a “real time” workflow. This to removed any lag in accessing data from phone banks which allowed more work to be done by volunteers at peak time and more agile targeting of relevant groups by campaign managers.

I researched and tested the best ways to create targeted regional phone lists in NationBuilder, then set up the several hundred filters ready for use in the leadership election. I worked with the Campaigns team on the content of phone banking scripts, helping the script to fit the tool better. This created additional opportunities to utilize the data that came back in from the scripts, such as follow up calls and texts.

I then set up the phone bank surveys and established a corresponding voter ID metatag schema in natiobuilder to allow new groups and analyses to be made quickly.

Over the campaign I worked on two substantial data-sets, the Momentum Database and the Rebecca for Leader database. This required a good understanding of privacy/ GDPR laws and regular communication with the data protection lead at Momentum.

Internal Documentation

We created a 50 page internal manual, with accompanying video, documenting the integration between CallHub and NationBuilder, including processes, bug reports and case studies. Using my background in the social sciences and momentum policy documents I integrated a best practice guide for survey writing into the manual.

This manual bought together my knwolege the project with that of several key staff members, to ensure continuity and a good handover at the end of the project/campaign.