Comparison
An NGP VAN alternative for the part NGP VAN was never built to do
To be clear about what this page is: NGP VAN and the party stack are voter-contact and fundraising tools, and they are good at that. This page is about the job they leave open, which is scheduling the volunteers who staff your field program.
The job the party stack leaves open
The party stack costs five figures a year for access that runs through your state party, and its volunteer features center on recruiting for voter-contact events. It has no shift grid for vote centers and early-voting sites, no conflict detection when one volunteer lands at two centers, no gap panel the night before election day, and no coverage report in the morning. Campaigns that run on it still run their field schedule on a spreadsheet next to it.
| Field scheduling job | Capstone Volunteer | Party stack |
|---|---|---|
| Shift grid across vote centers and early-voting sites | Yes, live and multi-seat | No |
| Conflict detection on double-bookings and travel | Yes, flagged in place | No |
| Coverage gap panel with ranked fill candidates | Yes, area-matched | No |
| Daily coverage report to the field director | Yes, emailed at 7am | No |
| Voter file and voter contact | No, and not the goal | Yes |
| Cost for a downballot race | $0 to $149/month | Five figures a year, via the party |
They work side by side
Most campaigns that use Capstone Volunteer keep their party-stack access for the voter file and use Capstone Volunteer for the field schedule. The import pipeline reads spreadsheet exports directly, with column auto-mapping and deduplication, so your existing volunteer list moves over in one upload. Nothing needs to be retired and nothing syncs back, because the two tools hold different jobs.
And if your race never had party-stack access at all, Capstone Volunteer runs standalone. It needs no voter file, works from your own import or the QR signup pool, and the 7-day free trial runs the full product against your real list.