
Reveal what your audience won’t say out loud, and craft messages that persuade.
We help advocacy organizations design, test, and refine their strategies by uncovering what people really believe, how they respond to competing narratives, and where your campaign can gain ground.






THE QUESTIONS WE ANSWER
Answer the questions that shape your advocacy strategy
At Gradient, we partner with advocacy leaders to replace assumptions with evidence. Whether you’re launching a ballot initiative, managing a national narrative, or preparing for opposition attacks, our research helps you clarify your audience, sharpen your message, and allocate resources where they’ll have the greatest impact.
Public Engagement Risk Analysis
Surface hidden risks in public opinion and anticipate how your message will land under real-world conditions.
- What private beliefs might not show up in traditional polling?
- How could our message activate opposition we aren’t seeing yet?
- Which audiences are quietly supportive, conflicted, or at risk of mobilizing against us?
Break your message into its components and test what persuades, and what protects you from attacks.
- Which values, messengers, and emotional appeals shift attitudes?
- How can we refine framing without weakening our position?
- How will our message perform if challenged by opposition narratives?
Segment audiences by their deeply held values (rather than just demographics) to ensure you’re focusing where change is possible.
- Which mindsets are most persuadable or mobilizable?
- Where should we focus limited resources to maximize growth?
- How do we avoid wasting energy on hardened opposition?
CASE STUDIES
Success stories at a glance
See how leading foundations are using audience research and message testing to strengthen alignment, inform grantmaking, and support coalition-wide storytelling.

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The Sentences That Can Reduce SentencesWe partnered with The Just Trust to develop an evidence-based, reusable playbook that criminal justice advocacy organizations can use to mobilize Americans from all walks of life to do something about the urgent problems facing the criminal justice system today.Read more

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Harmful Narrative Response ResearchGradient partnered with The Just Trust to identify which counter-messages are most effective in response to recurring “tough on crime” narratives, and how to avoid responses that unintentionally backfire.Read more

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Criminal Legal System Messaging ResearchHow Gradient helped a client challenge its communications assumptions by testing messages against oppositional and middle-of-the-road narratives.Read more
What our partners say about us
"Gradient is a great firm to work with. We collaborate with them for all of our analytic work, and even use them to re-run analyses that other firms have done for us because they have earned our complete trust. We think of the Gradient team as an extension of our own—they are knowledgeable, thoughtful, flexible, honest, and an overall pleasure to work with."
Parisa RouhaniCo-founder & Sr. Vice President at Populace
"Gradient lives at the bleeding edge of market research, data science, and technology. They are not afraid to push the envelope of data collection and analysis methods. It’s a thrill to see the Gradient team roll up their sleeves to craft a sharp analysis for a rapidly approaching press deadline. If you need a no nonsense research partner, Gradient is exactly that."
Nate LubinFormer Director of the Office of Digital Strategy at the Obama Administration
"Joining a project in progress can be a challenge, but we learned quickly that we could trust and rely on the Gradient team. That’s a testament to their patience and professionalism."
Ali NooraniExecutive Director at the National Immigration Forum
"We’re enormously grateful for our partnership with Element Labs on safety and justice message testing. Our findings challenge the conventional political wisdom that when Americans are concerned about crime, their elected leaders must lean into punishment and retribution, with calls for more police, jails, and prisons. The truth is that people across the political spectrum overwhelmingly favor proven solutions that address the root causes of crime, rather than punitive approaches. There’s real power in these insights; we’ve incorporated them into further testing and we’re now working with ACLU affiliates, allies, and civil liberties-aligned candidates to uplift messaging that focuses on preventing crime, strengthening communities, and leading with justice."
Ellen FlennikenDeputy Director at the ACLU
Insights from the blog
Explore our latest research on public opinion risk, private beliefs, and narrative resilience for advocacy campaigns. From methodology deep-dives to real-world campaign applications, our blog gives you the tools to stay ahead of the opposition.
