Change Research is a research firm which conducts polls and forms digital strategies for the benefit of organizations and political campaigns. It only works with entities that share its “vision for a more humane, scientific, and just world”; in practice, these include left-of-center institutions and Democratic political committees. ^{1 2}

Background

Change Research was founded by data scientist Mike Greenfield and political communications professional Pat Reilly in 2017. ^{3 4} It is a research firm registered as a public-benefit corporation (B Corp/PBC) that conducts polls and forms digital strategies for the benefit of organizations and political campaigns. ^{5 6} It claims that its polling methodologies are innovative and more accurate than other polling systems. ⁷

Activities

Change Research purports that its online polling methods are innovative in that they recruit a unique set of respondents for every poll. It claims that this allows the polls to target specific populations and get honest feedback, as opposed to traditional polls. It only works with entities that share its “vision for a more humane, scientific, and just world.” ⁸

Change Research recruits new participants online for every individual poll and claims that this prevents it from being affected by alleged decreasing response rates of phone polling. It advertises that its services are cheap and cost-effective. It collects responses to surveys that it places in advertisement spots in places on social media platforms and around the internet. It claims that its respondents are from a diverse range of age groups, ethnic and religious backgrounds, political perspectives, and geographical locations. ⁹

The firm boasts that it was the only pollster to accurately predict that Andrew Gillum (D) would win the 2018 Florida Democratic gubernatorial primary and that Lori Lightfoot (D) would win the 2019 Chicago mayoral primary. ¹⁰

Change Research is the official pollster for Crooked Media’s Pod Save America and public radio station KQED. It has collaborated with South Carolina’s Post and Courier, the Nevada Independent, and Iowa Starting Line. ¹¹ It was listed as a vendor or “independent contractor” for New Georgia Project on its 2020 tax return, having received $131,000 for its research services. ¹²

Leadership

As of February 2023, Nicole Bare was the president and CEO of Change Research and had been since May 2022. Bare was previously the leader of Embold Research, the “nonpartisan unit” of Change Research that conducts polls and other research methodologies. ¹³ She has a background in strategic communications for government, for-profit tech and financial firms, and nonprofits. She became the chief of staff at Change Research before becoming president and CEO. ¹⁴

Stephen Clermont is the director of polling at Change Research. He has worked on Democratic campaigns since 1993, notably the Al Gore presidential campaign of 2000. He has worked for New Mexico House Democrats and ProgressNow Virginia’s Progressive Narrative project, as well as other data projects in Colorado and North Carolina. ¹⁵

Change Research’s board of directors was comprised of Nicole Bare, Mike Greenfield, Erika Rottenberg, and Raffi Krikorian. Mike Greenfield is the co-founder and chairman of Change Research. He was PayPal’s first data scientist and later led the data analytics team for LinkedIn. Greenfield founded maternal health information resource Circle of Moms and sports statistics website TeamRankings.com. He is the president of the Greenfield Foundation. ¹⁶

Raffi Krikorian is the chief technical officer of engineer at Emerson Collective, a left-of-center grantmaking enterprise that advocates for a wide variety of left-progressive causes. He is the former chief technology officer of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). ¹⁷

1. “Our Mission.” Change Research. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://changeresearch.com/mission/.
2. “Vendor/Recipient Profile: Change Research Public Benefit Corp.” OpenSecrets. Accessed March 13, 2023. https://www.opensecrets.org/campaign-expenditures/vendor?cycle=2020&vendor=Change%2BResearch%2BPublic%2BBenefit%2BCorp.
3. “Board of Directors.” Change Research. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://changeresearch.com/board-of-directors/.
4. “Our Story.” Change Research. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://changeresearch.com/our-story/.
5. ^[1] “Our Story.” Change Research. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://changeresearch.com/our-story/.
6. “Our Mission.” Change Research. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://changeresearch.com/mission/.
7. “Methodologies.” Change Research. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://changeresearch.com/methodology/.
8. “Our Mission.” Change Research. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://changeresearch.com/mission/.
9. “Methodology.” Change Research. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://changeresearch.com/methodology/.
10. “Methodology.” Change Research. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://changeresearch.com/methodology/.
11. “Our Story.” Change Research. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://changeresearch.com/our-story/.
12. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). New Georgia Project. 2020. Part VII. Section B – Independent Contractors.
13. “Home.” Embold Research. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://emboldresearch.com/.
14. “Our Team.” Change Research. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://changeresearch.com/our-team/.
15. “Our Team.” Change Research. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://changeresearch.com/our-team/.
16. “Board of Directors.” Change Research. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://changeresearch.com/board-of-directors/.
17. “Board of Directors.” Change Research. Accessed February 19, 2023. https://changeresearch.com/board-of-directors/.