Movement Labs is an incubator and consulting firm that uses technology and experimentation to stop fascism and build progressive power. We run randomized controlled trials to generate the most affordable and scalable methods to register, mobilize, and persuade voters.

Movement Labs is currently running the “Prove It” Prize program for those organizations with approved programs. The grants for this program are funded by our funder partners.

The “Prove It” Prize is a grant competition administered by Movement Labs and a panel of independent “referees” to reward organizing programs that deliver real, measurable impact. Organizations running voter turnout or persuasion programs in 2025 can apply to participate and receive support to rigorously evaluate their efforts through a randomized controlled trial. Programs that demonstrate significant impact — as verified by an independent referee — will be connected with grants from a pool of up to $500,000 from our funding partners. One lump sum amount from the prize pool of up to $300,000 will be granted to the most effective program, as measured by the randomized controlled trial.  Additional grants from the rest of the prize pool of up to $150,000 will be split proportionally to participating organizations who netted votes based on the number of votes generated and achieved statistically significant results. 

In a time of uncertainty, we want to align the incentives that drive political programs and power stronger evidence for our entire community. This grant, provided by our funder partners, will help organizations scale programs that undergo rigorous, independently verified evaluation - and make a difference. It will also help organizations share more of what they publicly (even if anonymized), rather than putting it in the “file drawer.” With the “Prove It” Prize, organizations that are making measurable impacts in our movement can be awarded while giving donors the confidence that their investments are making an impact.

Eligible applicants must be organizations running partisan voter turnout or persuasion programs in the November 2025 general election in Virginia or New Jersey. Programs must use a tactic that has not been sufficiently tested in prior randomized controlled trials and shows meaningful uncertainty about its effectiveness.

Applicants must submit information about their experiment to the referees - or “pre-register” well in advance of election day with clear methodology, audience, and timing, and must agree to share data for meta-analysis. Final eligibility is determined at Movement Labs’ discretion.

After an eligible organization applies, Movement Labs will provide support as needed on research and experiment design. Then, an independent referee team will review the applications to ensure programs are properly powered to show the level of impact that is likely, given the electoral context and the intensity of the treatment.

Once accepted, the organization will run its voter turnout or persuasion program and provide all data necessary for program analysis. Independent evaluators will analyze and verify program results. If the program proves to turn out or persuade voters, the organization will receive funding to scale the work in key 2026 Congressional and Senate races.

•July 16 - Applications open and are accepted on a rolling basis
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•September 15 - Final day to submit applications
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•September 15–September 30 - Our third-party referees review applications and make decisions on which organizations and programs will be accepted for the “Prove It” Prize program
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•October 24 - Deadline to “pre-register” your programs - finalize experiments and share the target universe and voter contact tactics/scripts/creative with the 3rd-party evaluator 
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•November 10–21 - Debriefs with participating organizations & post-interviews
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•Winter and Spring 2026 - Program evaluation
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•Summer 2026 - Final prizes awarded

An independent referee team of political scientists will audit the research design and approve it, ensuring that programs have enough statistical power to tell whether a likely outcome is statistically significant. Independent evaluators will review the pre-registered analysis from participating organizations to verify program results.

Movement Labs has piloted a new approach to social media matching that would allow for much higher power for social experiments, such as influencer-level randomization. We've also done household-level or geographic randomizations at the precinct or county level that can help measure long-term organizing. It is possible that linear television programs will be impractical to measure in 2025 and costly to measure in 2026, but geographic randomization remains an option.

For the purposes of this program, a tactic is not sufficiently tested if there are fewer than three Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) in the last four years available to the progressive community (ex: via Analyst Institute) to evaluate the specific tactic being tested prior to November 2025. Final eligibility is determined at Movement Labs’ discretion.

If the organization has a dedicated person or team that handles randomizations, then the organization can handle the randomization. If the organization does not have a dedicated individual or team for randomization purposes, it may contract a 3rd party or Movement Labs to conduct the randomization. 

The beauty of an RCT is that by randomly sorting who does or doesn't get your program, we isolate its marginal impact on the voters targeted, even in a "noisy” environment where those  voters get many calls, texts, knocks, and mailers.

Even when a program doesn’t yield the desired results, it provides valuable insight. Understanding what doesn’t work is just as essential to progress as knowing what does. Sharing null results—while anonymization can be requested—helps the broader movement avoid repeating ineffective strategies and encourages innovation grounded in evidence. Normalizing this kind of transparency strengthens our collective ability to build smarter, more impactful programs in the future.