Our Recommended Advocacy Software
Muster
What is Muster?
Muster is a leading advocacy software provider for nonprofits, associations, agencies, and chambers of commerce. Their flexible platform allows organizations to mobilize their supporters and impact public policy at all levels.
Muster’s advocacy software comes equipped with:
- Geocoded contacts
- The ability to create campaigns that target elected officials at all levels of government
- Segmented list building tools
- Real-time engagement tracking
- Support for multiple communication platforms
- Social sharing capabilities
Use Muster to reach officials, engage supporters, and grow your advocacy base.
Why Do We Recommend This Advocacy Software?
Muster powers grassroots advocacy groups of all sizes, meaning no cause is too small or too unwieldy for Muster to tackle.
Nonprofits aren’t on their own after purchasing Muster’s software, either. Their team takes a hands-on approach to teach organizations how to use their system to start building effective campaigns from the get-go.
Their dedication to client success, combined with advocacy software that uses some of the most accurate location intelligence technology and up-to-date information databases in the industry, has rightfully earned the respect of many leading organizations.
Salsa Labs
What is Salsa Labs?
Salsa Labs has created a functional and intuitive donation page that is built with their CRM and advocacy software in mind, so your nonprofit can have one cohesive technology strategy.
Some of their top features include:
- Easy-to-customize, mobile-friendly donation pages
- Targeted action to decision-makers
- Online petition building
- Social advocacy enablement
- Click to Call advocacy
- Grassroots advocacy dashboard
With Salsa Labs, you can organize communities, mobilize activists, and win legislative fights.
Why Do We Recommend This Advocacy Software?
Salsa Labs is trusted by a wide variety of nonprofits, labor unions, advocacy groups, and political campaigns alike—and it’s easy to see why.
This platform helps you stay connected with your existing supporter base and tap into a growing community of passionate individuals looking for ways to get involved.
This network of supporters, paired with essential integrations with popular CRM solutions, has led organizations to see significant increases in event signups, engagement, and donation revenue. Educate, organize, and activate engaged supporters using Salsa Labs’ advocacy software.
Understanding Advocacy
Forms of Advocacy
Peer Advocacy
Peer advocacy involves individuals advocating for someone else in a one-on-one setting. Typically, these advocates and beneficiaries have shared experiences, making it easier for advocates to empathize and communicate the needs of the benefiting community.
Cause Advocacy
Cause advocacy is the championing of a particular issue or cause that supporters feel strongly about. This type of advocacy can be led by organizations, groups of people, or individuals, with the goal of raising awareness for a problem and finding or promoting a solution.
Systems Advocacy
Essentially cause advocacy on a larger scale, systems advocacy is a form of advocacy that seeks to effect change within social, economic, or political institutions. Systems advocacy can involve fundraising, awareness campaigns, and lobbying.
Goals of an Advocacy Campaign
While the primary goal of any advocacy campaign is, of course, to make a change in your community (whether local, regional, or global), the ways that advocates go about effecting that change can vary greatly.
Advocacy campaigns can have a myriad of objectives, most of which will fall somewhere along the spectrum in one of the following four categories.
Education
A common goal of an advocacy campaign is to bring a previously unknown issue to light on a large scale. Advocates may create educational materials (such as a film or case study) and use their campaign to promote them to the public.
Fundraising
Many times, what stands between a problem and its solution is a lack of resources. Fundraising can fill that gap by providing an advocacy group with the money they need to supply a community’s needs or power a charitable mission.
Policy Change
One of the most visible results of advocacy is a tangible change in the way our systems operate. Advocates may lobby for legislation or work to elect government officials. Policy change can also take place within other systems, such as an institution or corporation.
Litigation
Litigation is a specific aspect of advocacy that takes place within the court system. Through litigation, advocates can enact changes within the law that can directly impact communities on a small or large scale.
Types of Advocacy Groups
Nonprofit Organizations
Nonprofits regularly advocate on behalf of their cause using a variety of advocacy tactics. Primarily, nonprofits will launch awareness or educational campaigns backed by fundraising initiatives. They may also work with other advocacy groups or key individuals (such as politicians or influencers) in order to promote their efforts.
Political Action Committees (PACs) and Super PACs
Though both of these groups advocate for political change, there are key differences in how they can do it. PACs donate a limited amount of funds to a specific candidate. Super PACs have no cap on the amount they can raise to benefit a candidate, but the caveat is that they can’t directly donate to that candidate.
527 Organizations
An umbrella term for PACs, Super Pacs, and other types of political advocacy groups, 527 organizations are tax-exempt and not regulated under campaign finance laws. This term usually refers to any group that advocates for issue-based political change — but not a specific political candidate.
Using Advocacy Software
Automate Outreach
A major part of advocacy is getting the word out to supporters, and your software can help you do just that in the most effective way possible.
You can use your advocacy software to create and manage email streams (such as the welcome series pictured here), schedule social media posts, and more.
By centralizing your communications in one place, you’ll gain deeper insight into how your supporters are engaging with your organization.
And by adding automation to the mix, you’ll all but guarantee that none of your communication channels get overlooked and no important message gets missed.
Manage Fundraising Campaigns
For advocacy groups who rely on fundraising, it’s inefficient and cumbersome to work in two separate platforms to stay on top of both sides of your efforts.
Your advocacy software solution should also enable you to track your fundraising progress.
Gain insight into your donor data by building custom supporter profiles, and then analyze trends using actionable dashboards and reports.
When you can manage your advocacy plans alongside your fundraising tactics, you can see where the two overlap and develop a more holistic approach to your organization’s strategy.
Set Action Alerts
Action alerts can help keep supporters up to date with the latest news in your community and inspire them to take action when it counts.
Using your software, program action alerts that integrate with your website so that they display as soon as a visitor lands on your homepage.
When a user clicks on the alert, they should be instantly taken to the appropriate place, be that an online petition, an email template pre-filled their representative’s information, or a donation form.
If possible, make sure to target your action alerts based on geographic location so each supporter sees the most relevant, accurate information on your website.
Create Advocacy Events
Whether you’re throwing a fundraising gala or organizing a rally, you’ll need a way to manage event registration, collect guest data, and communicate with attendees.
Advocacy software with integrated event management features can ensure your event data is accurately filed in your supporter database.
Since there are so many different types of advocacy events you might plan, the most robust software solutions will give you plenty of options.
Create a custom event registration page, set supporters up with a peer-to-peer fundraising page for P2P events, and add surveys to gather all of the data you need before event doors open.
Digital Advocacy
Advocacy and Email Marketing
It’s been shown that people who take action via advocacy emails are seven times more likely to donate. With numbers like that, your advocacy campaign can’t afford to ignore the power of emails as part of your promotion.
Top Tips for Strong Advocacy Emails
Social Media Advocacy
Social media has quickly become a staple for nonprofit outreach. Because of its wide appeal, convenience, and shareability, social media is the perfect avenue for creating and promoting digital advocacy content.
Top Social Media Platforms for Digital Advocacy
Online Advocacy Petitions
Sharing petitions has been a tried-and-true strategy among advocacy organizations for decades. However, did you know that you can breathe new life into your nonprofit’s petition strategy by adopting online petition form software?
Digital Advocacy and Online Fundraising
Matching Gifts
Matching gift programs are corporate giving initiatives that reward employees’ charitable contributions. Your advocacy campaign can benefit from these programs by marketing matching gifts to your supporters.
While not every supporter will work for a company that will match their gift, you might be able to bring in twice as many donations if supporters know that such programs exist.
Corporate Donations
Asking businesses and corporations for donations is an often overlooked way to raise money for an advocacy campaign, but if the issue affects a local business or company, they will be more likely to contribute to your cause.
Make sure that you’re making your case to businesses and clearly communicate why you need their donations. Vague requests for contributions will likely be turned down.
Mobile Giving
Your advocates are on the go, supporting your cause in their communities and getting the word out wherever they are. It doesn’t make sense to use an online donation form that can only be accessed on their desktops.
Set up an online giving form that’s mobile responsive and consider other forms of mobile giving, like text-to-give or a mobile app. The more options you have, the more gifts your advocacy campaign will get!
Advocacy Campaign Best Practices
Set Attainable Goals
Use the data stored in your CRM or advocacy software to create realistic (yet ambitious) goals for your advocacy campaign. Make sure you know how you’ll measure each objective; then use your software to track each metric during and after your campaign.
Define the Issue
Communicating clearly and effectively to your supporters and the general public is key when launching an advocacy campaign. You need your mission statement to be concise and powerful so anyone can quickly see why your campaign is so important.
Determine Your Audience
Not everyone will identify with your cause. You can find the people who do by searching your donor database for those with demonstrated interest in your goals, or by performing prospect research to identify potential new supporters.
Build Networks
Capitalize on the connections you have and encourage your supporters to reach out to their friends and family members. The invitation to join your campaign will mean more coming from someone they know rather than an organization they may not have heard of.
Provide Updates
Whether you’re posting on Facebook or sending a weekly newsletter, it’s your responsibility to keep your supporters updated on your advocacy campaign. That way, they’ll know where their efforts have gone and what they need to do to get your campaign to the finish line.
Thank Your Supporters
Use your advocacy campaign to deepen your supporter connections by acknowledging your advocates’ hard work frequently and genuinely. A thank-you note or email is a fine start, but don’t be afraid to pick up the phone every now and then too!
Additional Advocacy Resources
Top Digital Advocacy Strategies
Now that you know why digital advocacy is so important, learn how to make the most of it at your organization!
Check out DNL OmniMedia’s top digital advocacy strategies to see how you can push your campaign to the next level in no time.
Planning an Advocacy Campaign
Advocacy campaigns can take a lot of time and effort to plan correctly, but that doesn’t mean you’re not capable of pulling them off!
Check out this article from Salsa to learn the steps you need to take to plan and execute your next advocacy campaign.
Mobile Fundraising and Advocacy
You already know how effective mobile fundraising can be, especially when paired with your advocacy campaign.
Now, learn how to maximize your fundraising and engagement efforts with mobile giving software by reading this article from Salsa!
