 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Newsletter, January 2008By Karen Graham, Director of Business Development Nonprofit NeighborhoodNew: Blast Text Messaging within the Databank Starting today, blast text messaging capability is a standard feature in The Databank. We are the first company to offer this services as part of an integrated nonprofit CRM. A 160-character message can be sent to any selection of people in your Databank, as long as they have opted in and indicated their mobile service provider. When they reply, their messages are forwarded to an email address you designate. To get started with blast text messaging, you'll need to ask people to opt in to your text messaging list. There is a small cost to setting up the online opt-in form, and thedatabank will waive setup fees for the first three clients who do it . (The capability to send messages already exists, and there is no additional charge to use it.) The online opt-in form collects the mobile phone number and provider, explains how to unsubscribe if desired, and reminds participants that they are responsible for any charges from their mobile service provider. We have an opt-in form on our own web site, so you can see how it works . Try it for yourself, and you'll get an automatic confirmation on your mobile phone. Reflecting on a decade As we celebrate thedatabank's 10th year in business, our founders are offering their reflections on the first nine. Here's Chris Hanson, explaining how he got the idea to start thedatabank: In 1997, I was a managing director at Direct Expression, a full-service direct marketing company working with a number of national nonprofits. We had a hosted database system that was used by several of our clients. When we decided to close down Direct Expression, I took the database part of the business and started a company called Response Group. In early 1998, I decided we needed to build an entirely new version of our database tool. I thought the web would be an ideal way to access the system as it was rapidly becoming common place. I called Mark Paquette and began talking about this idea. A few months later we had the concept worked out and started development.
All of these are still true today. Advocacy Summary Report aggregates the year's results A new Advocacy report, released on 12/28/07, gives users of our Advocacy Module a summary of activity for any calendar year. It includes many of the items that can be seen in the Results page for individual alerts: actions taken, open and bounce rates for the activist messages, new signups, etc - and this report pulls all alerts together into a format that can be easily printed or copied to a spreadsheet. One caveat: bounce and open stats have only been counted for alerts since 12/18/07 (see below), so any alerts sent prior to that date will not show a result in those columns of the report. See a quick slide show introducing you to the Advocacy Summary Report
The Results pages for emails sent via PowerMail and Action Alerts now provide soft bounce, hard bounce, and total bounce counts and percentages, with links to select the members who had the bounces. Clients can find this at the bottom of the report, below the number of opens, clicks etc. This upgrade was released on 12/18/07. Grassroots Organizers and Policy Directors: Has it been a while since you sent the last action alert? We are offering a free, one-hour training on the Advocacy Module on January 23, from 2:00-3:00 PM Central time. Topics will include:
Please register in advance on our web site. New Clients Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota - The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota provides legal services to low-income immigrants in Minnesota, educates immigrant and nonimmigrant communities about immigration matters, and is a leader in legislative advocacy. When Operations Director Melissa Pfeiffer came to ILCM from Centro Legal, another client of ours, she wanted to take thedatabank with her. ILCM will use thedatabank for fundraising and donor management. Montana Women Vote - Montana Women Vote is committed to increasing the role of women's participation in all aspects of our democracy - through increasing voter turnout, providing information about candidates' stands on issues important to women and their families, and helping women become advocates for changes in public policy. Montana Women Vote will be using thedatabank's Voter Management and eMarketing Modules to help further their mission. Environmental Health Strategy Center - The center protects human health from exposure to toxic chemicals and promotes safer alternatives and clean industry. They build partnerships that focus on environmental solutions as a public health priority. The main reason why they chose thedatabank was the need for online accessibility - with 5 staff members located all over the state. Another attraction was the desire to move toward more e-communications. Featured ResourceMobile Active is a nonprofit that focuses on the use of mobile phones in civil society. Their web site features a blog, directory, case studies and strategy guides, among other great resources for folks who want to delve into the exciting world of mobile engagement. P.S. Ask Mobile Active to include thedatabank's brand new Bulk Text Messaging in their directory of tools and vendors!
|
|
|
|
|