La Alianza Domestic Worker Surveys - Methodology Report
LA ALIANZA SURVEY METHODOLOGY
Last updated: July 30, 2025
NDWA’s survey data is collected through a Facebook Messenger chatbot called La Alianza. This chatbot allows NDWA to communicate at scale with thousands of Spanish-speaking domestic workers. Approximately 177,000 domestic workers are subscribed to La Alianza Chatbot. These workers live across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
Starting in 2020, NDWA adapted the chatbot into a powerful survey tool that has since allowed the organization to keep a pulse on employment and economic trends among domestic workers. The chatbot is a programmed conversation with a series of multiple-choice questions and prompts that Spanish-speaking domestic worker subscribers navigate through on the Facebook Messenger app. It does not utilize artificial intelligence.
In addition to the chatbot, La Alianza is a news source that informs, inspires, and connects Spanish-speaking domestic workers. La Alianza’s original news articles are written by an NDWA staff journalist, and published on La Alianza news website. The articles are also published on a Facebook page associated with the chatbot and are shared as broadcast messages through Facebook Messenger.
Sharing news and resources relevant to house cleaners, homecare workers, and nannies – in their own language – is part of NDWA’s regular surveying process. Each survey broadcast starts with a timely news headline, before moving on to questions. This has been key to building trust with domestic workers subscribed to La Alianza’s contact list, as many of them have continued to respond to survey questions for several years.
The vast majority of subscribers to La Alianza chatbot joined NDWA’s list in 2018 before it was adapted into a survey tool. Recruitment happened via Spanish-language Facebook ads. The ads are no longer live and we do not actively recruit additional subscribers for the purposes of this research.
There are trade-offs to using this surveying approach. We are able to meet workers where they are, on a platform they are already familiar with. We believe this is a key reason for workers' ongoing engagement with La Alianza chatbot. On the other hand, the software that powers the chatbot, Chatfuel, is not designed primarily for research purposes, creating limitations in survey design. The main drawbacks include: 1) we are only able to send multiple choice questions with single selection options, 2) response options are limited to 20 characters, and 3) respondents cannot revise their answers once submitted.
Surveys are sent every other week to a subset of approximately 40,000 La Alianza subscribers on a rotating schedule. Surveys are usually fielded on Thursdays and Fridays, and data is collected the following Monday. Our sample includes house cleaners, nannies and homecare workers across the country. It predominantly consists of women house cleaners, who are largely located in California, New York, Texas, and Florida.
Survey topics rotate on a set schedule ranging from a bi-weekly to yearly cadence. Each quarter, survey responses are analyzed in R to generate key insights for La Alianza Domestic Worker Surveys Quarterly Reports. All reports are published on the NDWA Reports & Publications page.