Top Rated NGP VAN Alternatives
I tell candidates that the cost of NGP VAN is justified by focusing on voters most likely to vote. I also use voter extracts to identify mail in ballots received including what party and which ones were cast. Extracts of petitions signed for various causes also help. Integration with such tools as Hustle (though this can be better) all add to the power. In the end the benefit is contacting the most, best voters possible, and while not wasting resources on ones less likely to vote. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
One might consider the web interface clumsy but the cost of educating thousands of activists on something new would be difficult. More features in Mini Van that emulate cusomization for paper sheets would be great. I like to have hints about a voter that can be used at a door. For example, did they sign a particular petition of note? Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
71 out of 72 Total Reviews for NGP VAN
Overall Review Sentiment for NGP VAN
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All voters are available and their information is usually up to date. Basic functions like quick look up and simple lists and turfs usually work well. The best part for me is the customer support for my area. Katie and David do their best to assist promptly and thoroughly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
During advanced use there are many roadblocks to accomplish goals.
Right now I am struggling to make sure that when lists are printed out for contacting voters, that canvassers can adequately note if the voter has never been contacted or is hostile or especially if they are threatening. Making sure this happens is time consuming and could be easily accomplished if the result of the contact was displayed as a note on the list. Right now, only notes are displayed on the list.
Also, once a result is input, an answer to a survey question is purported to influence likely party so that when the voter contacted is a self-proclaimed MAGA Republican, they will stop showing up under likely party Strong Democrats.
The program times out quickly and constantly having to reenter my log in information is a headache. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
It's great for accessing voters and compiling and outputting lists in various ways. Tools are easy to use and self-explanatory, or at least can be figured out with a few tries. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
We experienced a problem when building and using Virtual Phone Bank: our goal was to add email addresses but the input form would not let the user advance to the next record if the email field was left blank, which was most of them. I could not find a workaround and calls to our state party VAN expert went unreturned. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
NGP VAN is great for organizations to strategize their field organization. I can easily upload lists as well as export them for mailing, canvasses, and voter contacts. The ease of connecting with texting API as well as Phone banking creation is great in one software. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The learning curve is steep - mass email creation is clunky - updates on the backend were very late in the cycle, and ineffective for GOTV planning Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Works great for sending large number of emails. A great list with details is very comprehensive. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
There are no people to talk to about support of the product. I would pay money to speak to a person to get technical support. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
While VAN has a lot of strong features, perhaps it's strongest feature is it's dominance/ubiquity in the progressive sphere. Practially, what this means is that virtually everyone who volunteers or joins your org has at least some level of familiarity with your CRM which makes onboarding and training far, far easier.
Also some of the new features have been amazing and VAN supports an orgs ability to build out an extremely detailed infrastructure mapping out levels of engagement, automating contacts, etc in a way that's virtually unmatched in it's field Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
VAN definitely has quirks, at times features can be deprecated or left to wither without support Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I have access to everything I need to know about my user base at my fingertips at all time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
It should be easier to track VBMs. A person should be able to press a single button and see three columns. One, the universe of people requesting a VBM; two the list of people who have returned their VBMs; three, an easy contact sheet of outstanding ballots. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The compliance software is well designed, produces desired report product, the disclosure report. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Before the pandemic, the NGP help line was fully staffed; if you called with a question, a human answered the phone and generally was able to resolve your issue in that phone call. During the last several years, a call to the help line generally was not answered by a human, rather you had to leave a voice mail. Then if you were lucky you would receive a call back the same day. Therefore, the end product you were working on is delayed at least a day. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I like the ability to enter information regarding newly registered voters after completing a voter registration event. I also can obtain the missing information needed to complete a citizen's initiative petition so that it is not thrown out by the local Supervisor of Elections. I am a member of my local Democratic Executive Committee. I have used it to look up phone numbers for the registered Democrats in my Democratic Executive Committee district so I can encourage them to sign up for Vote By Mail balloting. I also call the Democrats in my DEC district to ask them to sign citizen initiative petitions that the Democratic Party is supporting. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I wish that training on how to use the NGP VAN was available more consistently than it is. It is very good when it is available. Also, maybe there could be a phone number to call if you need help with any issues. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
How organized and comprehensive it is, good resource Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Idk it's clunky at times and needs a bit better UX. I don't wanna scroll to the right to add contact info, and "View contact record" is mostly useless Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I can verify that individuals are registered, produce lists of voters using multiple parameters, and put lists as desired on the phone app MiniVAN. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The lists that are generated almost always have mistakes. A list in your precinct, for instance, will always have some folks listed who live outside your precinct, even in another city. And the VAN has trouble with voters whose address is a highway. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
