E-mail
Requirements for Potential Action Alerts Functionality
Developed and submitted by Devin Burghart - Director, Building Democracy Initiative, Center for New Community (burghart at newcomm dot org)
As I see it, there are three keys to social/political/non-profit online
success: the ability to get people to the website, getting them involved
(and keeping them involved), and then getting them to support the work
(financially and otherwise).
As for the first 2 of the 3 keys, I think that "Action Alerts" are one of
the proven ways of increasing interest and involvement (see below). The 3rd
item could be handled through an online membership/donation payment and
tracking function of CiviCRM (see below also).
After having spent some time today exploring the CiviCRM demo more
thoroughly, I am even more excited about the possibilities. Our membership
coordinator and I are going to sit down tomorrow and discuss this issue.
She's become quite fond of and familiar with Ebase, so I'd like to get her
feedback on CiviCRM for you.
Among the "sexy" features I would like to see in CiviCRM:
1. ACTION ALERTS - linking individuals with Congressional Districts.
One of the things the BIG advocacy organizations use effectively is the
email/web-based Action Alert. This is what made MoveOn.org what it is today,
and has been at the heart of the successful growth of online activism.
It's a fantastic way for organizations to inform, engage, activate, and
expand their membership base.
You're probably well acquainted with the Action Alert, but just in case
allow me to break it down into components.
a. The organization uses their database/CRM to send out "Action
Alert" emails to members/supporters asking them to contact Congress about
problem X, Y, or Z.
b. The member/supporter reads the email, then clicks the link in the
email to "take action." The link directs them to the organization's website,
where they're provided with more specific details about the campaign, and
asked to contact their Representative/ Senator.
c. Connecting user to Congress.
After address information is entered (may already be in the database if
they're a member of the site and are logged in), that info is then linked to
a table with the Congressional District info.
The linking is generally done one of two ways, ZIP+4 or Census Tract Data.
Though ZIP+4 is not 100% accurate when it comes to matching Congressional
Districts (it's about 97-98% and getting better), it's much cheaper for
ZIP+4-Congressional District Tables than it is for Census
Tract-Congressional District tables ($450.00 vs $4000.00 from one Commercial
source - www.congressmerge.com) and the size of the table is smaller.
d. additional steps. The member/supporter is then given a form which
lists the appropriate Representatives/Senators and has a form space with a
sample letter. The sample letter can be personalized, then emailed to the
appropriate Congresspeople.
The form usually then directs users to a new page with additional
information, a join pitch of some kind, and a "tell-a-friend" about the
campaign option.
There's an example of how this works here - http://www.e-advocates.com/spotlight.html
In addition to being used to take action, the linking to Congressional
District table feature could be an essential part of GOTV functionality for
CiviCRM.
(The same basic process could be used for state/local elected official
targeting, as well. With different datasets, of course)
The most widely-used commercial service like this available for "grassroots
campaigns" is CapitolAdvantage (www.capitoladvantage.com). They charge
$5000.00 per year and up! to offer this fairly basic service. This means
that the service is limited to large national organizations with big
budgets. Online activism becomes out of reach of most but the largest
organizations at prices like that.
With a system like Capitoladvantage, it also isn't integrated into the CRM
so it's harder to track the success of the campaign in the CRM. Tracking and
email-relationship-management seems to be a pretty important part of any
really useful CRM.
If this could be integrated into CiviCRM, or created as a CiviCRM add-on
option, I predict it could start a revolution in online advocacy.
