Facts Driven didn’t start as a business idea. It started as a frustration that kept showing up in almost every project I’ve worked on. Whether it’s helping campaigns sharpen their message, writing fundraising emails, launching ads, creating digital strategies for nonprofits, building social calendars, or running internal polling, the same issue popped up again and again: the data we had was not good enough.
Too often, people are forced to make big decisions with outdated polling, unreliable surveys, or research that completely misses what everyday people are actually thinking. And when you work with campaigns, organizations, and community groups that genuinely want to understand people, it is incredibly obvious when the data doesn’t match the real conversations happening in neighborhoods, workplaces, and family gatherings.
That is where Facts Driven came from. It was clear that Heartland Next needed a research arm that could actually match the quality of the strategy we were producing. We needed data that was trustworthy, modern, and rooted in how people communicate today, not how they communicated twenty years ago.
A long list of projects that pointed in the same direction
Over the past few years, I have worked with candidates and organizations across different states and issues. I’ve helped create messaging for local leaders, put together fundraising plans and digital communications plans, trained volunteer teams on web tools, worked with advocacy groups like the Illinois Environmental Council, and shaped digital campaigns. In every single one of those projects, the same gap showed up.
People wanted to know what their community was thinking, but the available data was guesswork at best.
When I started testing text-based polls and doing small opinion surveys, the difference was night and day. People responded quickly. They were honest. They were willing to talk about issues that traditional polling firms struggle to reach. It confirmed what I already sensed: polling methods have not kept up with how people actually communicate. And the people being left out of the conversation are the same people most campaigns and organizations need to hear from.
Polling needs a real disruptor
Traditional polling is in trouble. Response rates are tiny, voter screens are inconsistent, and a lot of the formulas used to “balance” polls create results that just don’t line up with reality. Meanwhile, campaigns and advocates keep relying on these numbers as if they are gospel.
We need a disruptor. Not someone trying to be controversial for the sake of it, but someone willing to use modern tools and real-world relationships to produce better results.
Facts Driven was built to do exactly that. We are committed to using methods that match how people live. Text-based outreach when appropriate. Community sentiment surveys that actually reach underrepresented groups. Data analysis that focuses on accuracy instead of assumptions. And clear, plain language reporting so people can understand what the numbers actually mean.
Why now? Because the Midwest deserves better data
Too many national polling firms swoop into the Midwest with a one-size-fits-all approach. They miss cultural context. They misunderstand rural voters. And they often lump completely different communities together simply because they share a ZIP code.
Heartland Next’s work has always been about understanding people where they are. Facts Driven builds on that by giving leaders and organizations research that is rooted in local reality, not national guesswork.
The real purpose behind Facts Driven
At its core, the purpose of Facts Driven is simple: give people better information so they can make better decisions. That includes campaigns, nonprofits, advocacy groups, and community coalitions. When data is accurate, messaging improves. When messaging improves, organizing improves. When organizing improves, outcomes improve. That ripple effect matters.
Facts Driven is here to make that possible. This is research that respects the people it surveys. It is an analysis built for the real world. It is a commitment to clarity instead of confusion.
And it is long overdue.