Change Research is a company.
Key people at Change Research.
Change Research was founded by Mike Greenfield (Co-Founder and CEO).
Change Research was founded by Mike Greenfield (Co-Founder and CEO).
Key people at Change Research.
Change Research is a public-benefit corporation specializing in innovative public opinion polling, voter targeting, and digital strategies, primarily serving forward-thinking political campaigns, organizations, and causes aligned with a "more humane, scientific, and just world," often left-of-center or Democratic entities.[1][2] Founded in 2017, it disrupts traditional polling with Dynamic Online Sampling—recruiting fresh online respondents per poll for diverse, accurate insights at a fraction of legacy costs—alongside AI-powered tools like Magnify AI Targeting (launched 2023) and qualitative research via Voices Chat.[1][5] In 2021, it launched Embold Research for nonpartisan work with governments, businesses, and nonprofits, enabling rapid, affordable surveys that test messages, creatives, and trends while scaling to millions of responses.[1][3][6]
The company has shown strong growth, accurately predicting underdog wins like Andrew Gillum's Florida primary and Lori Lightfoot's Chicago mayoral race, and now offers integrated services from Spark Polls ($6,000 starting price) to AI-analyzed qualitative polls.[1][5]
Change Research emerged post-2016 U.S. election, when cofounders Mike Greenfield (first data scientist at PayPal and LinkedIn) and Pat Reilly (seasoned political communications expert) bonded over polling failures that missed Donald Trump's win and a drive to make high-quality research accessible.[1][2] Launching in 2017, they pioneered Dynamic Online Sampling to challenge industry norms, quickly gaining traction with accurate calls on races like Kendra Horn in Oklahoma and JD Scholten in Iowa, earning a "hipsters of polling" reputation.[1]
The firm evolved from political focus to broader offerings, launching Embold Research in 2021 for nonpartisan clients and Magnify AI Targeting in 2023, leveraging 250 million survey data points for affordable voter models.[1][3] Leadership shifted with Nicole Bare becoming president and CEO in May 2022, bringing expertise from strategic communications and prior roles at Embold.[2]
Change Research rides the wave of AI-driven data analytics and digital voter engagement, transforming sluggish, expensive polling amid rising online behaviors and ad tech precision.[1][5] Its timing capitalizes on post-2016 distrust in traditional polls, social media's dominance for sampling, and AI's maturation for targeting/models, enabling small campaigns to compete with big spenders.[1][2]
Market forces like declining phone response rates and demand for real-time insights favor its online, dynamic approach, influencing the ecosystem by democratizing data—powering frames like Future Majority's "Freedom Frame" and accurate underdog predictions that shape strategies.[1][5] As a B Corp, it pushes ethical tech use in politics, bridging partisan and nonpartisan worlds via Embold while challenging incumbents on cost and accuracy.[2][3]
Change Research is poised to expand its AI suite, integrating more tools from its 250M+ dataset to dominate voter targeting and qualitative insights amid 2024+ cycles and beyond.[1][5] Trends like generative AI for sentiment analysis, mobile-first sampling, and nonpartisan demand (via Embold) will fuel growth, potentially evolving it into a full-stack civic tech platform for global causes.[3][4]
Its influence may grow by setting accuracy benchmarks and affordability standards, empowering underdogs in an era of fragmented media—ultimately advancing its founding mission to make public opinion research a force for a more just world, just as its post-2016 origins disrupted a broken industry.[1]
