Identifying New Activists:
Environmental Voter Profiles
Innovative Voter Research and List Development
Heightening civic engagement among Americans is not tangential to environmental protection; it is essential. Now more than ever we need to make sure that all citizens who care about clean air, clean water, their health, and the health of the environment -- even beyond traditional "card-carrying" members of environmental groups participate in elections. Only when citizens get involved and vote their own interest in a healthy environment will decision makers heed the will of the environmental majority.
While ensuring that our state partners maintained the fundamental tool of membership list enhancement, the national LCV Education Fund turned its attention to developing new, innovative tools for pinpointing additional households with strong environmental values. We completed a series of profiling projects at the state-level to identify concerned citizens through diverse combinations of markers (consumer data, demographic information, public opinion research, voting frequency, etc.).
This research went beyond traditional voter opinion research about what general demographic group might be most receptive to environmental messages. Instead it allows us to more precisely target our message and outreach efforts in a more cost-effective and efficient way toward those individuals who are most likely to be motivated to action on environmental issues. Thus we have defined an environmental constituency that is simultaneously broader and more precise than card-carrying members of environmental organizations.
Methodology & Program States
Working with a nationally recognized public opinion and strategic research firm, LCV Education Fund performed sophisticated demographic analyses to mine existing consumer and demographic data and marry it to the results of new 5,000-person attitudinal and behavioral sample surveys designed specifically for LCV Education Fund. From the resulting data, we created a set of profiles of likely environmental activists in seven states. Profiling has been completed in Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada, Oregon and Washington, and Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Utilization & Long Term Value
After completing the voter profiling research, and conducting further opinion and attitudinal research, such as traditional surveys or focus groups, to help us learn what issues and messages motivate these likely environmental activists, LCV Education Fund is now able to pull a list of individuals with strong environmental activist profiles to contact for our grassroots action campaigns and our voter participation efforts.
Profiled lists will also form the basis for a long-term effort to grow and refine the pool of environmental activists and voters available to the wider environmental community. LCV Education Fund will own this new list of names, and will make the lists available to state and national partners for their own educational, advocacy, and voter participation work. As our partners use the lists to activate people on their environmental issues, they will gather data on how these individuals respond and will then feed the results back into the LCV Education Fund database, thereby continuously enhancing the value of these lists.
Profiling Project Results
