MiniVAN

NGP VAN

About this app

miniVAN is a mobile canvassing application that integrates with websites provided by NGP VAN. The miniVAN system allows users to export canvassing lists from VAN onto an iOS or Android device. Canvassers can then enter data into their device as they talk to people on their list. When the canvassers connect their device to the Internet over a wireless or cellular network, they can upload their data back to the VAN with the touch of a button.

Canvassing with miniVAN allows NGP VAN clients to spend more time and resources on actually contacting people instead of on data entry. What’s more, it virtually eliminates the lag time between collecting canvass results and putting that data to work.

MiniVAN Touch is developed and maintained by NGP VAN and is not affiliated with any government agency.

Ratings and reviews

It works, at least. The Android version is inferior to the iOS version. Things like swiping to record as 'not home '. It could also do with the option for buttons for zoom level, rather than solely relying on pinch to zoom. Pins quite often stack on top of each other. Further, the website to set up turfs is old, outdated, and needlessly confusing. It also doesn't keep a persistent record of what's been canvassed in a list.

Working as part of a pair of canvassers, app quickly drained partner's phone battery so we had to switch to my phone. First phone indicated a sync, but second phone showed all of the initial houses unvisited. Then the app locked up 4 times and had to be reopened. Geographic locations of the houses on the map were off by as much as half a city block when using the map view. Would be nice to organize the houses by numerical order odd/even as most streets have houses arranged that way.

I really wish this were better. Location detection misses my actual location by blocks, so it's useless. App regularly fails to initially locate me, and so refuses to allow me to enter a list number until I try multiple times. There is no way to mark an entire household is not home, which is far and away the most common thing to have happen when canvassing. there's also no simple way to mark that I was unable to locate a given address. It's better than a pen and paper, but with some bug fixes and interface improvements, it could be so much more useful.

What’s new

Bug fixes and performance improvements