Today we had a great opportunity to hear from Jeanette Russell of DemocracyInAction.org for our monthly brown bag event. Here are some of the take-aways I quickly jotted down about online advocacy.
– DIA is a one stop shop for communication needs with a 360 view of donors, volunteers, etc. (salesforce-esque)
– You can sign up for a webinar to learn more, sign up on the website
– Tools are only as good as your strategy
1. know the goals: influence decision makers, grow the base or engage supporters, fundraising – “what ARE your objectives?”
2. be timely and relevant TO SUPPORTERS whenever possible. combine things with the news or on everyone’s minds
3. integrate with offline activities
– online petitions are also about growing your list and not only about influencing legislation
– momsrising.org is a star member group, in 18 months they grew their list to 140,000 members but have smart strategies. have an appealing message to a large audience. considering engagement of members (strangers, friends, donors), working mothers so they don’t have time so MR had to figure out alternative ways to get involved.
– decision makers are getting more emails but groups are getting better with their strategies (integrating on and offline).
– keep emails simple because people forward more often than use the tell a friend link
– action alerts should stay simple – give only one thing to do and multiple references to the same thing and how to do it
– leadership ladder
turn strangers into friends->
friends into activists->
activisits into donors!
– fundraising – keep it personal. give specific ask amount and time deadline, espeically tied to a project
– tie fundraising to an event (can’t come? give money!)
– tracking=listening; send out test messages to small groups and adapting to successes/failures from the test
The DIA folks are great!
I also don’t think you can overemphasize the importance of the fact they the whole DIA team is passionate about making the world a better place.
They are also currently working to integrate with SalesForce which will be a big deal for organizations with more customized business processes or engagement strategies.