Open Answer

What Open Answer does

Open Answer is a Denver-based nonprofit enterprise that provides professional grassroots canvassing, voter mobilization, and civic research services to political campaigns, ballot measure committees, nonprofits, and local government clients. Created by Healthier Colorado, the organization operates through two complementary programmatic arms: Open Answer (501c4) delivers electoral services including voter identification, ballot-measure and candidate persuasion, get-out-the-vote canvassing, Small Donor Committee fundraising, re-solicitation phone banking, and full-service field organization; and Open Answer Mobilize (501c3) delivers non-electoral civic engagement including community surveys, petition circulation, voter registration, education and list-building, and training. Its published customers and engagements span state-legislative campaigns in Colorado, Montezuma County solar-policy work, and healthcare and voting-rights nonprofit partnerships.

The firm's technology stack is operationally focused rather than platform-native. It combines a proprietary door-to-door canvassing system with rigorous quality-control and validation protocols, an autodialer capable of exceeding 16,000 dials over a two-week window with time-of-day engagement tracking, and the OA Know civic research and action hub that publishes field-derived insights across Colorado and North Carolina. Validated canvassing accuracy (within ±1.3% and ±1.8% margin of error in recent Colorado legislative primaries) and behavioral insights such as post-1:15pm respondents being 11% more likely to complete surveys function as the firm's primary data assets.

Open Answer's go-to-market is community-led and event-driven, relying on direct partnership inquiries, word-of-mouth referrals among mission-driven organizations, organic social media, and OA Know content marketing to attract campaigns and nonprofits. Revenue is generated through professional-services project fees for electoral field work, nonprofit civic engagement, and grassroots fundraising; no public pricing or contract values are disclosed. The organization is led by Executive Director Sylvie Lerner and Managing Director Trish Hyde, supported by a core team of approximately eight to ten staff across field management, supplies, training, and marketing, with additional field canvassers deployed on a project basis.

Name

Open Answer

Legal name

Open Answer

Website

https://openanswer.us

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Open Answer is a Denver-based nonprofit that provides professional door-to-door canvassing, phone banking, voter mobilization, and civic-research services to political campaigns, ballot measure committees, and nonprofit clients across Colorado and North Carolina.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Political Field Services & Grassroots Canvassing

NAICS

Political Organizations (813940), Other Social Advocacy Organizations (813319), Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (54191)

akta.pro primary industry

Political/GOTV & Advocacy Calling (Campaigns) (BPAAADAK)

akta.pro secondary industry

Electoral Support & Election Observation (BPADAGAA)

Keywords

• Grassroots canvassing services
• Voter mobilization outreach
• Political field strategy
• Community survey research
• Grassroots fundraising canvassing

Headquarters

HQ city

Denver

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Campaign Field Services: Provides voter mobilization, ballot measure ID and persuasion, candidate persuasion, and GOTV services to political campaigns. Operates under 501c4 programmatic work for electoral activities.
2. Nonprofit Client Services: Services for nonprofit organizations including community surveys, education and list-building, petition circulation, voter registration, and training. Open Answer Mobilize operates as 501c3 non-electoral programmatic work.
3. Grassroots Fundraising: Street and door canvassing for 501c4 organizations and Small Donor Committees (SDCs), re-solicitation phone banking, decline to sign campaigns, and full-service field organization for candidates or ballot measures.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Open Answer provides professional grassroots canvassing, voter identification and persuasion, get-out-the-vote efforts, grassroots fundraising, petition circulation, and community survey research to political campaigns, ballot measure committees, and nonprofit organizations. The organization operates two programmatic arms—Open Answer (501c4 electoral) and Open Answer Mobilize (501c3 non-electoral)—and publishes fieldwork insights through its OA Know research hub.

Product overview

Open Answer is a nonprofit organization offering a portfolio of community outreach, canvassing, and research services through two main programmatic arms: Open Answer (electoral-based 501c4 work providing voter mobilization and fundraising) and Open Answer Mobilize (non-electoral 501c3 civic engagement work including surveys and training). The company also operates OA Know, a civic research and action hub that compiles fieldwork insights to inform policy advocacy and community change initiatives.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Open Answer Mobilize: Non-electoral 501c3 programmatic work including civic engagement surveys, community outreach, and research activities

Products and services

• Open Answer (Electoral Field Services)

Quantifiable outcome

• Canvassing data predicted election results within ±1.3% margin of error for State Senate District 34 and within ±1.8% for State House District 6
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Healthier ColoradocoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHealthier Colorado is the nonprofit organization that created Open Answer. It is a nonprofit with deep experience in grassroots outreach that established Open Answer to provide field services and strategy for mission-driven efforts in Colorado communities.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Emerging players

• Impactive: Field-organizing software and services platform for campaigns and nonprofits; overlaps with Open Answer's canvassing and outreach offerings while providing the tech stack that larger competitors leverage.

Direct peers

• Movement Voter Project: Funds and supports progressive field programs across states; a major ecosystem player that both funds and competes for the same field-organizing capacity Open Answer delivers to campaigns and ballot committees.
• State Voices: National network of state-based civic engagement coalitions coordinating field, voter registration, and GOTV programs; comparable mission and overlapping voter-contact services in shared geographies.
• Mission Control: Democratic political consulting and field-services firm providing canvassing, phone banking, and direct voter contact; comparable in scale, services, and target customers to Open Answer's GOTV and persuasion work.
• Grassroots Analytics: Progressive field vendor offering voter ID, persuasion canvassing, and data services to campaigns and nonprofits; competes directly with Open Answer for the same political and nonprofit field-services contracts across multiple states.
• New Era Colorado: Colorado-based youth civic engagement nonprofit running voter outreach and registration programs; shares target demographic, geography, and field methodology with Open Answer, and is also a former employer of its Managing Director.

Broad incumbents

• Planned Parenthood Federation of America: Large national advocacy organization that runs electoral and ballot-measure field campaigns at scale; comparable as a large-scale field buyer in the progressive ecosystem and a former employer of Open Answer's Managing Director.
• Center for Popular Democracy: National progressive organizing network with state-level field programs; broader footprint and capabilities but overlapping mission and field-organizing model that has historically supplied Open Answer's leadership pipeline.

Others

• Healthier Colorado: Parent nonprofit of Open Answer; runs healthcare-advocacy field campaigns in Colorado and provides institutional backing, shared mission, and a recurring client/partner relationship.
• Catalist: Progressive voter-data and targeting platform that many of Open Answer's campaign and nonprofit clients use; an enabling ecosystem partner rather than a direct field-services competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/open-answer

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Open Answer