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MomsRising

MomsRising is working to bring together millions of people who share a common concern about the need to build a more family-friendly America. Created in May of 2006, MomsRising now has over 1.2 million citizen members and is rapidly growing. Every day, MomsRising.org helps members create cultural and legislative change using creative strategies and 21st century advocacy and communications tools.

Growing Its Base, Unlocking the Power of Salsa CRM

Co-founder Joan Blades brought her experience from MoveOn.org to starting up MomsRising.org. She knew that flexibility and scalability were key to success.
MomsRising.org turned to DemocracyInAction for list growth and constituent contact tools. The young organization took advantage of DemocracyInAction's most comprehensive constituent relationship management (CRM), which includes supporter management, opt-in e-mail blasts, petitions, special campaigns, tell-a-friend, and events.

"We needed to be able to create custom forms and tools on the fly, to target emails to various segments of our list, and handle tens or hundreds of thousands of signups in a day, if a campaign took off. DemocracyInAction allowed us to have that infrastructure in place instantly, at a very affordable price." — MomsRising.org co-founder & MoveOn.org co-founder, Joan Blades

Right to Petition

Drawing on the functionality of Salsa's toolset, MomsRising.org used the campaign, petition, and questionnaire tools to help pass the Washington State Family Leave Act.  With a particularly creative use of the questionnaire tool, the organization called on its members to write and then vote for their favorite pro-family leave message.  These messages were then delivered to legislators in fortune cookies.  By pairing online tools with targeted and creative legislative actions, they were able to both move legislators and generate media attention.  The fortune cookie delivery was covered by both print and television media as a fun way to highlight an important issue.

"The Family Leave bill would not have passed without the great work of MomsRising. Being able to mobilize thousands of constituents to e-mail our Governor and individual lawmakers made all the difference... it's a great model for an authentic political movement made up of people who are unable to attend rallies or raise huge amounts of campaign donations. It's a way for real people to make a real difference." — Washington State Senator Karen Keiser.

One of MomsRising's most memorable campaigns came from their response to news that a ticket agent forced a mother off a Freedom Air flight (Delta Airlines) for breastfeeding on-board. The nonprofit used Salsa to quickly create an online petition in protest that generated over 19,000 signatures. As a result of MomsRising.org's fast response, Delta reversed its policy regarding breastfeeding.

Members Rising

During the first 2 years of MomsRising’s existence, they grew at a staggering pace, expanding from 10,000 to 140,000 members in just 24 months. In 2009, however, they simply blew off the roof.  By creating a witty Mothers Day video that went viral, MomsRising added over 1 million new subscribers to their email database in just one week. Thanks to rapid support from Wired For Change and consultant Fission Strategy, MomsRising was able to quickly upgrade their service to a dedicated “node” account so they wouldn’t lose any time in engaging these new supporters with advocacy opportunities.

Moms Vote

MomsRising has also made very successful use of Salsa’s innovative integration with Catalist, a huge national database of voter registration and demographic information. Catalist data on MomsRising members allowed the organization to pursue an aggressive phone based GOTV program in the final weeks before the 2008 election. Using a predictive dialing system called Activate, 690 member-volunteers made GOTV reminder calls to over 16,500 infrequent voters (those who had voted in only one of the last three general elections) on the MomsRising list. As a subset of that program, they also used the Catalist data to pull the phone numbers of  those 690 volunteers and call them to encourage them to make the calls they signed up to make -- an important extra step, given the high potential drop-off rate of call-from-home volunteers.

Sick-or-Treat in Milwaukee

MomsRising also used the Catalist-Salsa integration for a small, city-wide campaign in Milwaukee to support the paid sick days initiative on the ballot there.  That initiative subsequently won with 68% of the vote--a nationally significant win that struck a powerful blow to opponents of this family-friendly type of law.

MomsRising’s use of the Catalist-Salsa integration was two-tiered.  First, they matched their Milwaukee voter-file list from Salsa and called unregistered members to ask them to register to vote.  This proved especially powerful for the members who had been dropped from the voting rolls, many of whom had no idea that they weren't registered. Second, MomsRising ran a "Sick or Treat" campaign on-the-ground in Milwaukee.  They distributed 15,000 pieces of  "Sick or Treat" candy with "Vote YES on paid sick days" on the wrapper to families to hand out on Halloween.  To boost this effort, MomsRising pulled Catalist's phone data on Milwaukee members, and called them to ask them to vote YES on paid sick days, and to ask if they would like to distribute the candy.  The phone calls made using the Catalist data increased member participation in the Sick or Treat campaign by 50%.

Continuing the Innovation

As MomsRising has expanded in membership, they’ve also been able to grow in the size and sophistication of their staff. Thanks to their new dedicated support from Wired For Change, they are able to rapidly try out new online organizing techniques, such as capturing information on supporter location based on the supporter’s clicks on a map rather than their completion of a form, or adding single-click petition signing to an email blast.  In a rapidly changing online environment, this level of innovation is critical as they take on even bigger challenges, especially the fight for universal healthcare.

Technology can be a decisive force for social change. At DemocracyInAction, we exist to empower those who share our values to advance the progressive agenda. We're a progressive nonprofit whose core activity is providing e-advocacy tools to other progressive nonprofits and social change leaders—for pennies on the dollar relative to private sector fees.

DemocracyInAction created Salsa to support the most progressive movement with the most powerful, flexible, and affordable CRM + web application engine around. And we didn’t just build the most robust set of tools that we think you need. We built an infrastructure for all your unforeseen needs. That flexibility is our greatest advantage.

But no organization is an island. We built SalsaCommons.org as an online space for our entire user community to connect and collaborate. Here you’ll find documentation, videos, training opportunities, a library of custom packages, and partners to help you with all your online needs. At Salsa's core is the supporter database: a searchable, expandable listing that ties the platform together and gives you a complete view of your supporters. Salsa's top-of-the-line blast email system guarantees your message makes it to all of your supporters when and how you need it. Effortlessly target and send unlimited blasts to any size list, then track the results in real time to learn the effectiveness of each message.

At DemocracyInAction, we believe that digital communications is not just about sending mass emails or having a website, it's about using technology to achieve your mission. Whereas before, the prohibitive costs of the private sector meant that many nonprofits were forced to choose between an effective online presence and a staff position or a mission-critical operation, DIA now makes it possible for all to take advantage of the palpable strategic benefits of moving online.