Political data mapping – North America

You can map your supporter data to data relating to some of the contact (target) databases that you have available in your account using the political data mapping tool. You can then use this information to get a better understanding as to which political area your supporters live in, for example their Congressional district.

Using this newly mapped information, you can send segmented emails to your supporters. For example, if your mapping found out that you had 1,000 active supporters in the Colorado District 03 and it was important for your campaign to email that Representative, you could ‘filter’ your email list to only send these supporters an email as opposed to everyone. Localizing campaign actions could help to get your message across.

Which databases can be mapped against?

You will be able to map your supporter data to any of the following databases provided they have been included in your licence.

• USA/English: Congress – House

• USA/English: Congress – Senate

• USA/English: State Legislature House

• USA/English: State Legislature Senate

• Canada/English: Federal MP

• Canada/English: Provincial MLA

Before you start

Before you start mapping your data you will need to create the extra database fields in your ‘Account data structure‘, if you haven’t done so already. For example, if you want to map US Representative data to your supporter data, you will need to create up to 5 extra columns, for Representative title, Representative first name, Representative last name, Representative constituency and Representative party. You’ll need to go to the ‘Account Settings’ section of the software and click on ‘Account Data Structure’ then ‘+ Add Field’ to add the additional data fields.

When adding the data fields, set the field visibility as ‘Not visible’ as this information does not need to be pulled into supporter form fields. 

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Setting up data mapping

When you have added the extra data columns to your supporter database, go back to the ‘Political’ section of the software.

Go to Data & Reports > Political Tools

Select the + New Mapping button option to create a data mapping. Select the relevant database from the dropdown list that you want to map your supporter data to, and select ‘Next’ to continue.

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Then match the contact data fields to your newly created user data fields. If you leave any dropdown blank, this contact data will not be mapped.

Please be sure to click ‘Save’ to apply all mappings selected. 

What happens next?

The mapping settings will be saved and the mapping will run on a regular basis (every day at 9pm EDT / EST). You will be able to access the first set of mapped data the following day.

Managing mapping settings

Updating data set that is being mapped

By default every time the mapping runs it will pick up only the new records that haven’t been mapped before.

You can remap the entire database at any point by updating the settings for the specific mapping.

To do that, go back to the Data & Reports > Political Tools > Database to supporter mapping page.

Any data mapping that is currently running in your account will be displayed on the page.

The mappings can also be modified by selecting the gear icon alongside the saved mapping you’re looking to update on your account, or delete the mapping completely using the red X icon.

To remap, you may update the Processing Options below the mapping editor to select to either: ‘Only run for new and modified supporters’ or ‘Run over the entire database.’

Note: It is recommended that you revert to the default settings after the mapping reruns the entire data set. So please return to the page the following day, deselect the checkbox and save the settings.

Recreating the field mapping for a database

If you decide to delete an existing database mapping (using the red X icon), that database will be added back into the dropdown list on the ‘New mapping’ tab. You can now create a new mapping for that database.

Reviewing the data

To view your mapped data, go to the ‘Supporter data’ tab in the dashboard (in ‘Advocacy’) and click on ‘Export supporter data’ or ‘Manage supporters’. You can now search supporters based on ‘form data’ and when you export the data or view it online you will be able to see the new mapped information in the additional data columns. Similarly, if you search by ‘campaigns’ you will find details of who has taken an action and appended to their data record will be the details of the relevant political contacts.