Meet Daily Kos Activism
This post was originally published on this site
Ever wonder about the work and team behind Daily Kos’ formidable advocacy? Well, then this breakdown is for you!
The Daily Kos Activism team provides progressive advocacy groups, civic engagement organizations, and Democratic candidates, elected officials, and committees with grassroots resources—email and SMS list sign-ups, small-dollar fundraising, GOTV and event RSVPs, petition signatures, and deliveries, as well as constituent letters and phone calls to elected officials—at scale to help their campaigns succeed.
One of our biggest priorities is supplying the Daily Kos community with tools to take impactful action on the most critical issues of our time. Sustained grassroots activism has delivered big results at every level of government. Let’s take a look at the tools we provide below.
Letter Campaigns and Petitions
One of the most effective ways of communicating our position to our elected officials is through constituent letters. We build grassroots momentum by mobilizing activists around a particular demand. When you send a constituent letter through a Daily Kos campaign, the letter is sent directly to your elected official, governmental body, or corporate decision-maker.
Daily Kos also organizes petitions to generate grassroots support for an issue. Petitions only require that you sign your name in support. Once a petition campaign ends, we deliver the signatures to the appropriate official, either in person or via email. We often write blogs and highlight petition signature deliveries on social media.
More than 3 million people subscribe to Daily Kos’ email list. Email is the primary driver for actions. Users who have signed up for our email list will receive petitions and letter campaigns dealing with today’s most pressing issues. Participating in our campaigns is an efficient way for the community to voice their support and concerns.
Call Campaigns and SMS
Calls to decision-makers are our most effective tool. We often coordinate with other progressive organizations to create a groundswell of calls on a specific day. We have found that Daily Kos readers are most likely to make a call when they receive an action alert via text, which is why most of our call campaigns are now run through mobile texting. When you sign up for our text message program, we will send you notifications with new call campaigns you can participate in to make your opinions known.
In 2018, Daily Kos began using SMS text messaging. Thanks to our SMS program, we have dramatically increased the number of phone calls we can generate for our lobbying campaigns—especially when it comes to “rapid-response” efforts—and can more effectively track our impact. We use SMS for action alerts, fundraising, and sharing good content such as video clips from Daily Kos’ The Brief podcast.
If you’d like to sign up for the text messaging program, you can do so here.
Long-term campaigns
Effecting change is never quick or easy. It often requires constant, ongoing action. Our long-term campaigns focus on creating momentum toward progressive goals. Currently, that includes voting rights, judicial campaigns, reproductive freedom, abolishing the filibuster, expanding social safety net programs like the child tax credit, making the rich pay their fair share, and reforming the U.S. Postal Service. We plan strategic actions designed to spotlight issues and influence policy conversations.
So far this year, we have generated more than 40,000 phone calls and 2 million constituent letters to Congress in support of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. We have also generated over 338,000 letters supporting voting rights and over 630,000 letters and petition signatures supporting Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination. And that’s just the beginning.
These issues are prevalent, systemic, and deeply ingrained in our society. We at Daily Kos are committed to keeping them at the forefront of the national conversation.
The power of collective action
Daily Kos doesn’t have billions of dollars to spend on lobbyists. We don’t have a constant stream of Koch or corporate money pouring into our coffers. But we do have readers like you who care about the future of this country and are willing to put in the work to make it a better place.
It’s your persistent advocacy that fuels our Activism team. Your stories, fears, and hopes influence our leaders to act. That’s the power of collective action. That’s the power of Activism.
We couldn’t do any of this without Daily Kos readers. Thank you for continuing to fight alongside us! There is so much more to share. Please follow our new activism group for all the updates from our team.