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Tech for Campaigns
Tech for Campaigns (TFC) is a political non profit that uses advanced commercial digital marketing and data techniques to fight extremism and help Democrats win.
Overview
Industries |
Nonprofit & Social Impact
Tech
Politics
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Website | https://www.techforcampaigns.org/ |
Social |
About
Tech for Campaigns’ (TFC) mission is to fight extremism and help Democrats win at scale by using advanced commercial digital marketing and data techniques.
To do that, we are building a lasting and permanent digital entity for the Democratic Party. We look for the highest ROI opportunities to utilize digital marketing and data to change electoral outcomes. Today, we run two main programs connected by one core technology tool: 1. Digital Campaigns Services provides swing-district, state level political campaigns with access to world-class talent to implement digital strategies needed to compete. These campaigns would not otherwise have access to this level of talent. 2. Digital Voter Turnout - we run a best-in-class digital voter turnout program to turnout low propensity Democrats. Turnout decides close elections. And, finally, we use our Leaning Engine platform to learn from all of our programs quickly and share that knowledge with our teams, campaigns and partners.
From 2009 to 2017, at the state legislative level, Democrats lost 1,000 seats and control of 39 chambers at the state level. They only gained one-fifth of those back by 2020. State legislatures control the destiny of reproductive rights, gun violence prevention, and voting rights and elections. Despite their importance, state races raise relatively little money and thus struggle to get attention from campaign professionals. TFC helps reverse this with a three-pronged strategy:
- Digital Talent - providing highly skilled, digital talent teams directly to swing-district state legislative campaigns.
- Data & Experimentation - running digital ad experiments to test new ways to target, reach voters, and understand messaging variations, often based on commercial best practices. This culminates in a best-in-class digital voter turnout program that has proven highly effective at registering harder-to-reach voters to vote by mail.
- Technology Tools - connecting it all are tech and data tools that help both campaign teams and TFC staff learn in real-time, test in ways they couldn’t otherwise, and understand what worked and didn’t now and in the future. A canonical database of digital best practices.
We've worked with over 700 campaigns on over 1,200 digital projects, registered over 500K people to vote by mail or vote early, and were pivotal in flipping or breaking supermajorities in 7 state chambers.
Founding Story
TFC started as an idea between three tech entrepreneurs in early 2017: What if, instead of just volunteering time and money, they could volunteer their expertise in web development, social media, paid marketing, and data analysis? They created a Google Doc to share the idea with friends, and within 72 hours had 700+ volunteer signups from Silicon Valley’s most sought-after tech and digital talent. The TFC model was first deployed in 2017’s Virginia state legislative elections and has grown to have worked in scores of states and with hundreds of campaigns since.
Team Bios
Jessica Alter
Co-Founder and Board Chair
Jessica is a serial founder and investor. She works with companies to shape and scale their marketing and growth operations and is a Partner at Leap Forward Ventures. She was previously VP, BD at Figma. Prior, she was CEO of Tech For Campaigns, having founded the organization in 2017, Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at Social Capital, Cofounder & CEO of FounderDating (acquired by OneVest), the LinkedIn for entrepreneurs. Jessica led Business Development and was GM of Platforms at Bebo (acquired by AOL for $850M). She holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from University of Michigan and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Ian Ferguson
Co-Founder
Ian Ferguson is an entrepreneur and a designer in equal measure. Both analyst and artist, he believes that good design and tactical business objectives are inseparable. He currently develops software and user experiences for emerging brands in both the technology and non-profit sectors through his own creative studio, Res Facta. From 2011-2016, he oversaw product and brand development as a founder of Kitchit, a marketplace connecting diners with professional chefs for full-service, at-home dining. Prior to Kitchit, Ian was a Consultant at Bain & Co. and earned a BA at Yale and an MBA from Stanford.
Peter Kazanjy
Co-Founder
Pete Kazanjy is a serial founder, and seasoned early stage Saas executive, advisor, and investor. Pete founded TalentBin, a category-defining talent search engine and recruiting CRM, which exited to Monster Worldwide in early 2014. Pete is passionate about HR tech, marketplaces, and tech-enabled sales and sales operations. Prior to TalentBin, Pete worked in product marketing and product at VMware, having graduated from Stanford in 2002.
Nora Levinson
CEO
Nora has been both a tech entrepreneur and executive and brings 17 years of experience to the table, having led and scaled businesses across consumer hardware, digital health, and climate tech sectors. She has an impressive track record of raising over $80M for her companies and has had several successful exits. She was also Board Chair at New Destiny Housing, a non-profit that secures housing for survivors of domestic violence. She holds a BS and MS from Stanford University.
Press
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