Summary:

Leslie Graves, Founder and Publisher of Ballotpedia, is a leading figure in digital media and civic activism. Today, Ballotpedia is one of the top 500 websites in the country and the gold standard for election information at the federal, state, and local level. She shares the actionable systems and processes that have shaped their success, including their secret weapon that has transformed their workflow and efficiency over the last year.

Show Notes:

Leslie Graves, Founder and Publisher of Ballotpedia, currently resides in Spring Green, WI with her husband Eric O’Keefe. Leslie’s career in digital media and civic activism spans several decades with highlights including contributions to academic scholarship, various publications, and helping establish the nonprofit Rachel’s Vineyard. 

Today, her company Ballotpedia is one of the top 500 websites in the country and the gold standard for election information at the federal, state, and local level.

The Why Behind Ballotpedia

Leslie founded Ballotpedia after the 2006 elections. She saw a huge gap in information on the internet when it came to election candidates and political information. 

In the beginning, their focus was on covering statewide and local ballot measures. Now, they have reached over a billion total page views and have gradually added over 300,000 articles of information on candidates, referendums, and elections at every level.

In 2018, nearly one in four voters visited their site in the six weeks leading up to the election. 

3:46 “Our goal for 2020 is that in that six week period, one out of three voters will be on the website looking for all of that information before they vote.”

Distilling the Information

Leslie emphasizes that for the higher level elections, it’s easy to find information on candidates.  They’ve focused on summarizing information about every election candidate into clear, straightforward, bi-partisan, and easy to access articles

For smaller scale elections like school boards, it can be tough to even find basic information. To remedy this, Ballotpedia is working with candidates to make it easier for them to share their information for publishing.

Building a Nonprofit

Leslie shares that when she set out to build Ballotpedia, she did not know how integral fundraising would be to her role. She wanted to focus on solving the problem at hand by making information more accessible, hire an expert fundraiser, and call it good. But she soon learned that as the CEO, she is essential to the success of fundraising efforts. 

7:18 “It’s 100,000% true that you need to have a great fundraising team, but as I really learned from 7-Figure Fundraising… it’s on the CEO.”

You need to both hire an expert to lead your team and be involved as the CEO. 

Hiring and Delivering On Your Word

Leslie shares that in the early years they grew steadily, but the real growing pains began after their first seven-figure donation. Navigating the business during these growing pains required persistence, clear responsibilities, and cultivating a team with a learning mindset. Over time, she has discovered:

• The power of reacting to donor’s gifts with 7-Figure Fundraising’s shock and awe method in which gratitude is shown to the donor in a myriad of creative, thoughtful ways.

• How having a clear detailed blueprint is crucial to achieving the donor’s vision, and how Gant charts provide a tangible way to help their team stay on track with the timeline. 

• That communicating often and clearly with the donor is key in creating a trusting relationship. Setting expectations from the beginning can prevent a lot of unnecessary confusion or dissatisfaction. 

Ballotpedia’s Actionable Processes for Project Management

1. An attitude of act, learn, adjust. 

2. Spreadsheet lists that clearly outline expected deliverables.

3. Creating concrete specificity.

4. Looking beyond the company for resources in order to solve issues.

5. Embracing a learning mindset.

6. Learning how to technically coach co-workers in order to make things happen.

The Secret Weapon

While the above tools are important, Leslie highlights how implementing their “There-here path statement” from Great Leaders, a technical coaching program, has helped her team perform exceptionally. This tool measures productivity, pushes the team to hold each other accountable, and prevents the staff from feeling micromanaged or wasting time going in the wrong direction on a project.

The “There-here path statement” makes up five tabs in a spreadsheet with the following:

1. Project overview/summary.

2. There: What does this project look like if it wins and the goal is achieved?

3. Here: Where are we now, what is the current day reality?

4. Path: This is created by the employee or team in charge of this project. 

5. Detailed logistics: These are the specific, concrete tasks that plug into Asana (a project management software).

Creating a Culture of Remote Workers 

Ballotpedia is a company devoted to serving the normal person in America. Leslie shares that this mission has informed how they have built a company of remote workers across the country who represent their diverse audience.

When hiring, she draws inspiration and guidance from Patrick Lencioni’s book “The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues.” She looks for individuals who are hungry, humble, and smart. 

The book “Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career” by Scott Young has also informed how Ballotpedia empowers their team with intense learning periods and quick feedback for efficient training. 

Leslie’s Challenge

Learn how to create and kick off your implementation sequence following a donor’s gift. By creating a strong implementation sequence, you will be prepared for any project that comes your way. Here’s an overview she provided of the method she uses.