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With about 15 years of experience in social justice non-profits, 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, it's what made the Dean campaign 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.
2. ONLINE MEMBERSHIP /DONATION PAYMENT (and TRACKING)
When thinking about the future, I think one of the key things needed will be the ability to securely integrate the handling of online donations / memberships (and renewals) into CiviCRM (It may already be part of the larger picture. If so, then just let me re-enforce the idea).
Membership billing / tracking is one of the features that attracted us initially to ebase. Though our reliance on ebase has also meant that we've been slow to make the jump to online processing. Your project has gotten us excited about the possibilities for the future.
3. INTEGRATION WITH MAMBO
You've may have already read my posts advocating for this, and I'm very pleased to hear that you're looking at Mambo in the future. From a non-coder's perspective, Mambo is by far the easiest and most intuitive and flexible for most novices to use - something important for non-profits, as tech skills are in extremely short supply in most organizations.
Again, thanks for all that you're doing!
Devin Burghart
Director, Building Democracy Initiative
Center for New Community
www.buildingdemocracy.org
