Campaign Tech Updates: NGP VAN, Mobilize, ActBlue
- Zack Arnold
- Oct 10
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 22
Tracking Platform Enhancements That Could Change Your Campaign Game
Campaign software is evolving fast and campaigns that don’t keep up risk falling behind. In this article, we’ll walk through key improvements in NGP VAN, Mobilize, and ActBlue, and explain why these updates matter for our campaigns.
What Are The Largest And Most Used Campaign Software?
Before we dive into updates, let’s quickly remind ourselves which platforms dominate:
NGP VAN / VAN: The core integrated suite for Democratic campaigns, covering fundraising, compliance, contact management, event organizing, and digital tools.
Mobilize: A volunteer/event organizing platform that integrates with NGP VAN; used for event signups, volunteer shifts, and grassroots mobilization.
ActBlue: The go-to donation platform for progressive and Democratic campaigns; supports contribution forms, recurring donations, and various fundraising tools.
These platforms are interoperable, often syncing data across systems, which makes updates to one especially impactful across the tech stack.
Their Latest Updates & Why They’re Helpful
One of the biggest recent enhancements is in Mobilize’s QR code check-in feature. You can now generate a unique QR code for each shift of an event, enabling volunteers to scan and check themselves in. This streamlines attendance capture, reduces data entry, and improves accuracy.
Mobilize’s recent upgrades (announced July 2025) also include Spanish-language translation for event feeds, improved QR check-in flow, and BlueSky sharing + group chat features. These changes help campaigns deepen grassroots engagement and accessibility. Because Mobilize integrates in real time with NGP VAN / VAN, attendance data flows directly into campaign systems.
NGP’s event management tools let campaigns set goals, manage host committees, track performance, and integrate with online forms.
The greater push in recent months has been in improving how users see relevant insights at a glance – better dashboards, more intuitive reporting, and more usable visualizations. While NGP doesn’t always publish release notes, these types of enhancements are consistent with their stated product roadmap (e.g. Digital 8 improvements)
There is also increased emphasis on improved contact management, merging duplicate records, richer data fields, and more flexible reporting across online and offline actions.
ActBlue has expanded its support of QR codes in contribution forms, you can now generate a QR code for any ActBlue donation form and embed it in print, event materials, or digital assets.
Because Mobilize and ActBlue can be integrated, that allows seamless transitions between volunteering, event participation, and donation flows.
Also, third-party tools (like Daisychain) are building features for MMS messaging and optimized outreach that plug into ActBlue/Mobilize APIs, helping campaigns run richer SMS + donation workflows.
How These Features Translate To Campaign Advantage
Cleaner Data: QR check-ins reduce errors, duplicates, and attendance mismatches.
Faster Actions: Generating QR-based donation links or check-ins accelerates field operations and lowers friction for supporters.
Better Integration: As platforms deepen syncs, campaign teams spend less time reconciling data and more time strategizing.
Accessibility & Trust: Multilingual support and transparent event flows build goodwill and inclusion.
Strategic Insights: Improved dashboards mean you can spot trends in support, conversion, volunteer engagement more quickly.
In our earlier blog articles, we discussed how Artificial Intelligence and compliance are reshaping campaign operations. These platform upgrades underscore that digital tools are not static, they evolve alongside voter behaviors and regulatory environments.
Looking ahead, expect even deeper AI-driven features: predictive volunteer activation, adaptive donation forms, or dynamic event segmentation based on supporter data.
At Princeton Strategies, we stay ahead of tech shifts so your campaign isn’t scrambling. We can help your team adopt these updates, ensure your systems talk to each other, and build workflows that leverage the full strength of your campaign stack.
Ready to upgrade your tech stack and streamline operations? Let’s talk.
