Our exclusive speed dial with voice recognition and revolutionary direct-dial QR Codes make advocacy frictionless and more accessible. Drive calls and letters to lawmakers and editors while capturing key mobile data, including actual call locations and stories.
Call #250 and say “Virtual Citizen” or scan the QR code to call “the Mayor!”
Why Choose The Virtual Citizen?
We asked clients and staffers to share thoughts about critical gaps in the industry and what works to move the policy needle. We learned that the advocacy marketplace is flooded with stale, legacy solutions relying on old methods that are losing effectiveness and not meeting evolving needs.
The advocacy industry was clear about their challenges:
We are Technocultural Integrators at the crossroads of technology and advocacy and public affairs. We listened and solved these challenges.
It’s important to get to know who you choose to entrust with your campaigns. What are their values? What motivates them? Do they care? Will they take the time to learn about your issues? Will they deliver?
The Virtual Citizen’s founder, Bryan Dawson, is the a son immigrants. His mother was a refugee Freedom Fighter wounded in Hungary’s fight against Soviet tyranny. Bryan learned early that freedom isn’t free and that democracy and human rights are taken and earned, not given – and must be zealously protected.
His 30-year career in Information Technology spans multiple sectors and industries. His passion for advocacy, people, technology, practical innovation, and desire to close critical gaps in the industry led him to establish The Virtual Citizen’s unique ecosystem. The “Technocultural Integrator” was born.
The Virtual Citizen’s fully-managed advocacy and public affairs ecosystem, featuring shareable campaign widgets, exclusive #250 speed dial technology with voice recognition keywords, and revolutionary direct-dial QR Codes, drives calls and letters to lawmakers and editors while capturing mobile data, including actual call locations.
| Feature | Legacy |  |
| Speed Dial |  |
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| Spoken Keywords | |
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| Voice Recognition | |
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| Direct Connection to Lawmaker | |
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| ZIP / State Prompts | |
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| Direct-dial QR Codes | |
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| Call Location Mapping | |
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| Letters to Lawmakers | |
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| FAX to Lawmakers | |
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| Letters to the Editor | |
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| Branded Microsites Included | |
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| Shareable Campaign Forms | |
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| Interactive Billboards | |
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| Radio / TV | |
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| PAC Fundraising Sites | |
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| Interactive Action Video | |
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| Record Stories / Testimonials | |
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| Text-to-Speech Accessibility | |
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| Lists / Custom Audiences | |
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| List Enhancement | |
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| Identity Resolution | |
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| Targeted Email and Text Campaigns | |
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| Direct Mail with Speed Dial and/or QR | |
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| Unlimited Contacts | |
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| Clickable Numbers for Text Campaigns | |
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| Full, turn-key support | |
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| Month-to-month / project-based billing | |
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| Local, State, Federal, Multinational Functionality* | |
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*US, CAN, UK, AUS, NZ, NED, FRA, GER, and EU!
What is Speed Dial?
“The 911 for Advocacy”Speed dial is a frictionless, easy-to-remember 3-digit phone number (#250) that works like 911, but for advocacy, directly connecting callers to lawmakers, sales, or other custom targets. We then follow up with a text for letters to lawmakers, editors, or custom targets.
Our platform features voice recognition; spoken keywords; ZIP, State, or other prompts; and direct-dial QR codes. We send texts to encourage your new advocate to follow up with a letter to a lawmaker, a letter to the editor (LTE), to donate, or take other action.
Unlike legacy automated patch-through calls that are absent of data, our exclusive #250 Speed Dial technology makes driving calls easier than ever and captures key mobile data such as mobile numbers, mobile carriers, call lengths, recorded stories and testimonials, and mapped call locations (regardless of the phone’s area code)!
Phone calls are an effective medium to influence policymakers, but have historically been hard to convert while legacy patch-through call technology is cumbersome. Speed dial makes calling easy.
Our platform helps you meet people where they are and incorporate more human-to-human engagement strategies and enables channels that have historically been underutilized in advocacy. Deploy a radio, TV, billboard, sign, direct mail, or social media campaign with a simple phone number (#250) and a spoken keyword or use our exclusive direct-dial QR codes with 100% attribution to gauge ROI.
Cumbersome, Low-Converting, No Data
Calls are more effective than emails but they are hard to convert. Every step or click is a barrier to conversion. Legacy patch-through call technology requires multiple steps, including texting and clicking links, completing cumbersome web forms with multiple fields, and answering callbacks from unknown numbers.
Worst of all, patch-through calls gather no data. Did the caller actually complete the call? How long did they engage? Where did they really call from? Legacy tech ensures you have no idea.
>>> Frictionless, No Forms, Full Data Capture
With direct speed dial, callers proactively dial #250 on their mobile phone. No texting required, no cumbersome web forms. A direct call. Like 911, our platform answers the call, plays a customized message, adds optional prompts for ZIP or state, and automatically connects the caller to the right lawmaker.
Unlike legacy technology, we acquire important data such as mobile numbers, carriers, call lengths, and, because the advocate dialed in, we map actual call locations by DMA, regardless of the phone’s area code. We can even record stories and testimonials.
| Feature | Legacy | |
| No Webform Required | |
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| Direct Call Connection | |
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| Direct-Dial QR Codes | |
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| Text-to-Speech Accessibility | |
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| Voice Keyword Recognition | |
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| Voice Prompts | |
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| ZIP or State Call Routing | |
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| Click-to-Call Numbers | |
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| Radio / TV / Billboards | |
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| Channel Attribution | |
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| Mobile Data Acquisition | |
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| Call Location Mapping | |
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| Call Lengths | |
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| Mobile Carriers | |
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| Call Recording | |
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Live Demos
Here are a few examples of how The Virtual Citizen drives real-world impact. Whether it’s calls to lawmakers; letters to local, state, and federal officials; Letters to the Editor (LTE); or all of the above, our workflows are fully customizable. Have an existing text platform? Integration is free!
Please note: The campaigns marked “live!” are currently active. The organizations would love your support, so please do take action!
Did you know 34 states exempt private gun sales from background checks? This live campaign uses an EXCLUSIVE Virtual Citizen feature to call district lawmakers without a spoken keyphrase and returns an SMS link to follow up with letters. Use these QR Codes to engage people where they are on social media, signs and presentations at conferences and live events, hand outs and business cards, T-Shirts and swag, add them to videos, TV ads, and more!
You can take action in multiple ways. In each option, you’ll be prompted for a ZIP code, hear the campaign message (choose from our human-like text-to-speech generator or an uploaded .mp3), call your district lawmaker, and receive a text with a link to follow up with a letter:
OPTION 1: Scan the QR Code, enter your ZIP code at the prompt.
OPTION 2: Dial #250 on your mobile phone, say “Background Checks” and enter ZIP code at the prompts.
OPTION 3: Visit the microsite directly at this link: [Background Checks]
Use our exclusive #250 speed dial to engage people where they are on signs and billboards, live events, webinars, videos, radio and television, and anywhere!
In this live campaign, the Maryland Transportation Builders & Materials Association (MTBMA) is expanding outreach by running billboards at key traffic congestion points, such as this example near the Maryland Bay Bridge. In this letter-writing-only workflow, the goal is to convince lawmakers to close a critical budget gap and fund Maryland’s Transportation Trust Fund (TTF).
You can take action in multiple ways. In each option, you’ll hear the campaign message (choose from our human-like text-to-speech generator or an uploaded .mp3) and receive a text with a link to send a letter to the Maryland Governor and local Maryland district lawmakers. Outside of Maryland? No problem! Your letter comes to an internal mailbox and we capture your data:
OPTION 1: Dial #250 on your mobile phone, and say “TTF” at the prompt. Speech-impaired? No problem, use your text-to-speech device!
OPTION 2: Visit the TTF site with our embedded form directly at this link: [Together For Transportation Funding]
Did you know ALS impacts those who serve in the military at a higher rate? In this campaign, now in demo mode, the ALS Association wanted to seed a conversation in the nation’s newspapers about the need to fund life-saving ALS research. Policymakers pay attention to media mentions! We make it easy to submit personalizable messages to editors across the United States, Canada, UK, Australia, the EU and more.
Take action in multiple ways. In each option, you’ll hear the campaign message (choose from our human-like text-to-speech generator or an uploaded .mp3) and receive a text with a link to send a letter to the editor of your local papers (we can include an optional search box to find publications outside your area):
OPTION 1: Scan the QR Code.
OPTION 2: Dial #250 on your mobile phone, say “ALS Association.”
OPTION 3: Visit the microsite directly at this link:
[ALS Association]
Instantly upgrade any social media, text, or email campaign with a See2Do-enabled Live Action Video. We provide add in-video capability to send letters to Congress and Letters to Editors (LTE) – or virtually any other action your campaign desires. Advocates never leave the video to take action.
See2Do Enabled videos play natively on Facebook, Twitter and in email and text campaigns. Importantly, See2Do-enabled videos provide a never before available source of user metrics.
In this live campaign, the music group Gooding is promoting a Get Out the Vote (GOTV) Campaign using Rock the Vote.
STEP 1: Click the link to watch the video.
STEP 2: Note the links that appear on the top right.
STEP 3: Select an option to check your voter registration and register if you haven’t! [Gooding: Rock the Vote]
Shareable Letters to Lawmakers!Additional Services
We help organizations take advantage of advances in technology and navigate change to win on policy issues. We help frame the issues and drive cross-platform campaigns that inform, persuade, and inspire action while delivering experienced, best-in-class services to acquire and mobilize more advocates and expand your reach to shape public policy, meet fundraising goals, and understand media spend with Artificial Intelligence.
We provide custom audiences from consumer and business data hundreds of millions of records and 900+ segments. Postal addresses, opted-in emails, mobile numbers plus geographic, demographic, and behavioral profiles.
Append social media handles from Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and more to your records so your campaigns can reach them across all of the social channels where they’re active. We provide state-of-the-art record linkage and data processing techniques to power our data services ensuring that your data is cleaned, standardized and easy-to-use.
With segmented advocate list in hand, we’ll deliver your message via text, email, social media, and direct mail campaigns. Add speed dial or direct-dial QR codes anywhere.
Once an advocate dials #250, scans our QR codes, or clicks a call link, our platform instantly captures their data. That includes mobile numbers and actual call locations regardless of the phone’s area code. Use our list enhancement services to expand your data intelligence.
Add our direct dial and QR codes to direct mail and engage advocates and acquire data.
Do you need extra bandwidth, strategic guidance, or tactical support? The Virtual Citizen’s agency-friendly Professional Services Model means you have access to decades of experience to enhance your current efforts while lowering costs.
From strategy and messaging, copy, collateral, swag, branding, and graphic design to digital campaigns, social media management, and onsite support, we help craft your story and manage your campaigns to maximize impact.
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© 2025. The Virtual Citizen, LLC
