Advocacy campaigning

The Client

Better Cupertino, California
Better Cupertino is a group of concerned residents who act together for a more responsive and responsible Cupertino government through community engagement. Their focus is engaging residents and city government to balance growth and quality of life. The group was formed in November 2014 when they learned about the potentially significant General Plan amendments (GPA) that the City Council was planning to adopt.

The Challenge

Making a mark

The citizens involved in the Better Cupertino organisation have a mission which aims to support the informed, empowered residents who are engaged in civic matters. Their advocacy strategies focus on building transparency and accountability in local and regional government and also delivering sensible growth that is aligned with the needs and interests of a majority of residents. To carry out this mission, it is crucial to get feet on the ground and keep delivering key messaging to better inform the local residents on ongoing matters.

These issues are constantly changing, referenda and planning permissions being a main area of concern for those involved.

The Solution

Connecting with each other and capturing conversations were the main objectives of the Better Cupertino group and that’s why Ecanvasser was the complete advocacy software for them.

Their discussions on school and neighborhood chat groups and email lists evolved into a group that is focused on engaging residents and city government to balance growth and quality of life. Better Cupertino builds grassroots support for its cause and has a strong focus on face-to-face canvassing operations locally.

With a team of over 40 regular volunteers, Better Cupertino have managed to reach out to their community and advocate for the residents of the area. They average over 30 canvasses per day.

In the initial stages, Better Cupertino was concerned with onboarding volunteers for canvassing and making sure they were able to deliver canvassing routes to these volunteers easily. Once they had established best practice around canvassing operations they turned their attention to managing and understanding the data coming back from field operations.

Ecanvasser helped them to provide training documents and materials to their team so best practice was adhered to. Support was provided through the chat box on the website so they had access to immediate help with any issues. Any support tickets that came through out of hours were dealt with the next day.

Ecanvasser also organized tutorials with their team to ensure they were getting the best from the product. This is a standing offer with all campaigns and can be availed of periodically as the campaign changes. Finally, they used the Ecanvasser platform to inform their campaign messaging in the critical few weeks prior to one of their many election days. They were happy they were able to respond to the feedback from voters and ensure they were correctly representing their views.

Better Cupertino have radically improved their organizational structure for volunteer members. The quality of information being disseminated in the community is enhanced by Ecanvasser. Talking points which are delivered to volunteers directly through their mobile app help everyone stay on message.

The future of community engagement is now clear and capable of being reproduced as the organization scales.

"Ecanvasser was exactly what we were looking for. It helps us to reach out to residents on the doorstep and in the community easily. Our team love the easy interface on the mobile apps"

Xiawon Wang,
Advocacy at Better Cupertino