Case Study in Music Activism: Head Count

Update: Note the correction on the cost/registration data below.
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Last week, I reported that Punk Voter and Music for America would both be seriously scaling back their operations in 2008 - a huge loss as those two organizations together accounted for more than 2/3 of all music and politics events in 2004 (over 2,400 events). Together, those organizations spent almost 3 million dollars on young voter outreach and education, and they had paid national staff.

At the same time, Head Count, an all-volunteer effort in the Jam Band community operated a much more efficient organization that registered almost 50,000 voters for just under $150,000. Headcount worked with over 40 headlining acts at approximately 500 shows in 2004.

In 2006, as part of theirs "Midterm Matters Tour," HeadCount, registered 8,500 jam band fans at 30 events including Bonnaroo, Phil Lesh/Trey Anastasio's tour, and a dozen dates with the Dave Matthews Band. And they did it for less than $30,000, only ~$21,000 of which was spent before the registration deadline. That's $2.50 per registration half of what it costs to run a traditional field canvass ($10.40 per contact (pdf). - which is on the low-end for voter registration work.

This week I spoke with co-chair Andy Bernstein about how they did it.

Working a Show
One of the biggest problems in any volunteer, concert-based voter registration effort is flaky volunteers. Head Count tries to weed out the worst offenders by slightly raising the barrier to entry (or volunteering).

Unlike other music activism organizations, it is not possible complete the volunteer process via the Head Count website. Potential volunteers must submit a request over the web, which is returned with an email asking for a variety of information - location, interest, etc. This information, once returned, is tracked via a custom intranet system that regional and local team leaders use to match potential volunteers to an event.

If you are matched to a show, activist training is your first step. There's no script, or issue cards, but volunteers are taught how motivate people to register and how to help people properly complete the registration process. Best practices are taught as well (obvious, yet effective things like tacking a sign that says "Registration!" to the back of a clipboard and holding it aloft as you canvass the crowd). HeadCount takes this training component incredibly seriously, and even uses it as one of their metrics for success. In 2004, roughly 500 volunteers worked at more than one show, and Head Count places as much value in that output as they do in their 50,000 registrations.

After a show, registrations are mailed to their proper boards of elections from the field. In this process, everything is as automated as possible - envelopes are prestamped and prelabeled to ensure they arrive in their proper location. In this way, HeadCount ensures that human error doesn't send registrations astray.

Accountability
As I mentioned, flaky volunteers are the bane of concert organizing. Head Count has devised a number of ways to cut down on the flake factor. I've already mentioned the cumbersome volunteer process which weeds out folks just looking for a free ticket.

To keep everyone accountable, Bernstein fosters a disciplined internal culture. His philosophy is “one person who doesn’t do what they say they will do undoes the work of 10 other people.” to keep that from happening, Head Count basically runs a zero tolerance shop. It's somewhat ironic, coming out of the jam band community (as Bernstein freely admits), but if volunteers aren't committed to the cause, they soon find themselves out of the organization.

That's easily said and done in extreme cases. But Bernstein has devised a number of systems (some still in the works) to make it even more efficient. In 2006, the organization made a commitment to emphasize quality and accountability. They instituted post-show reports, which each team leader is required to complete and file after every show. These forms rated everything from overall registrations to the work quality of volunteers (bad volunteers are less likely to get asked back). This system allows team/region leaders to weed out ineffective or just plain bad volunteers. In 2008, Bernstein hopes to start tracking the quality performance of volunteers via the company intranet, so that local staff knowledge can be institutionalized and passed on to other team leaders.

As an illustration of just how serious HeadCount is, Bernstein offered the example of a team leader who forgot to file an after-show report on time. Bernstein pulled the entire organization onto a conference call to discuss the issue. He says that while that can be hard on some people, it has elevated the culture of the organization internally - a necessity in an all volunteer organization - and brought in the best people. HeadCount volunteers are not just the hippest, most socially connected folks at the shows, they are also the most serious about expanding civic participation.

Broadcast vs. Peer to Peer
HeadCount is a big believer in the festival and the large show (the opposite of MFA). In part this is a matter of necessity. As an all volunteer operation, they need to work as efficiently as possible and get the biggest bang for their man-hours. If they can register 200 people at a Dave Mathews show, or at Bonnaroo, that's a much better deal for them than registering 10 or 20 kids at a small club event.

It's a matter of scale. As a non-funded operation, Head Count can only afford to work so many shows per year. They need to get the most out of those shows. Registration takes precedence over general education and an altering of the scene (which was a higher goal for MFA). In some respects, this philosophy is also a luxury born out of the fact that the organization was created by artists, working within a cultural niche. Some of the biggest names in the Jam Band scene either sit on the board of HeadCount or are supportive of the organization in other ways. As a result, everything Head Count does can instantly reverberate through the whole jam band scene from the top down. This allows Head Count to change the culture of the jam scene (vis a vis electoral politics) while focusing primarily on registration and a limited number of high-impact events.

Bernstein was reluctant, though, to assign too much value to the size of a venue as an indicator of "success" (measured by registrations). Instead, he again emphasized the quality of volunteers as the most important factor in achieving higher numbers, as well as greater artists involvement. Quality volunteers will register more folks than lazy ones. This make instituting a reliable volunteer rating system even more important for future success.

In addition to volunteer quality, he noted that artist involvement is also key to success at events. If artists work the booth/table, or give HeadCount a shout out from stage, registration at a show tends to double.

Scalability
HeadCount accomplishes all of this with almost no permanent physical infrastructure. They have no real office, (somewhat of a bonus since they have almost no overhead). The only paid person in 2004 was a clerical person to deal with registrations and who worked out of Bernstein's house. As a result of their shoe-string finances, HeadCount has been forced to run a very lean operation. It's both an advantage and a disadvantage. Advantageous because it has made them efficient. They don't bite off more than they can chew. Disadvantageous because it's limited what they can do. The amount of shows they work each year is limited by how much volunteer coordination they can accomplish during the hours they dedicate to the project. It has also meant that they've chosen to abandon certain states - Massachusetts and Wisconsin - with overly strict registration laws. The election laws of those states are incredibly stringent, and compliance would stretch Head Count beyond its limits, breaking the model.

One of the challenges for Head Count in the coming cycle will be to find a way to surmount those problems of scale. Major issues in that respect are time and money. The people who run HeadCount (a core group of 30 or so folks) all work 40 hour weeks on top of the time and energy they donate to the organization. There's only so much more they can do. Without more resources, HeadCount will fail to grow further, and many of those who run the organization could burn out from the workload.

GOTV
Head Count doesn't do GOTV followup with those they register. At least not in the traditional sense of taking the information and canvassing/calling their supporters. Rather, they ask all affiliated organizations and bands to email to their members reminding them to vote. Bernstein estimated that in 2006 this request generated over a million emails. Personal anecdotes suggest that many of these emails reached people more than once, creating a drumbeat of reminders from some of the most respected names in the Jam Band community.

Donors and Sustainability
Thus far, HeadCount has operated on almost total volunteer labor. With the exception of a clerical worker, they have no paid staff. They have no office, all work is done from the field or at people's homes. All the money they have raised thus far - primarily from a mix of artists, friendly organizations and small donors - has been spent to cover costs at shows and for their PSA program. What they accomplished on such a shoestring budget is nothing short of amazing, but this is not a sustainable model.

Beginning this year, Head Count is looking to hire a full time executive director to assist with fundraising. The organization is looking to hold benefit shows, court high level donors, and forge corporate partnerships to supplement the donations they receive from artists committed to their work.

Unfortunately, like many youth-based organizations, they don't have connections to the private donor world, or the experience in the grantmaking/foundation world that could help get them on their feet. And non-traditional outreach like concert-based organizing can be a tough sell to some of those donors. Hopefully the strict culture of accountability, and dedication to metrics and efficiency will help them secure some of the donor support that has eluded other, similar operations this cycle.