November 2002 - Issue 16

Getting Your Message To The
Right Lawmakers, Other Influencers

Improve Targeting and Delivery
With Convio Advocacy™ 3.6

The Internet is fast becoming a vital tool for influencing public policy.  Nonprofit organizations that engage in advocacy are finding that success depends on delivering their message to the right decision makers and ensuring that it is read.   But getting through to the right people on a timely basis has become an increasing challenge.   

Because email is so easy and efficient, many advocacy groups have been blitzing Capitol Hill and state legislatures with email campaigns.  According to the Congress Online Project, since 1999, email to the U.S. House of Representatives had been increasing by 50 percent or more each year; in 2001, the House received 78 percent more email than in 2000.  Often messages do not get delivered or if they do, they go unread because staffers cannot keep up with the volume.  To manage the flood, more Congressional offices are only accepting constituents’ input through Web-based forms available on legislators’ Web sites.   Meanwhile, savvy advocacy groups have realized that “email blasts” are no longer effective and want alternatives to ensure their messages reach leaders.  

Convio Advocacy 3.6, the newest advocacy product in Convio’s comprehensive suite of Internet software for nonprofits, provides solutions.  Key features include: 

• New flexibility in targeting:
  Organizers can easily and quickly create target groups of the exact decision makers and influencers (such as legislators, cabinet secretaries and media) required for an effective campaign. Targets can also be organized by type (such as lawmakers or journalists) to build a rich database for future use. 
  
  
• Personalized calls to action for higher response:
  Convio Advocacy is designed to help increase response rates by automatically customizing email messages to activists. For instance, an email message might ask the recipient to take action on previous alerts to which he’s not yet responded. 
  
  
• More delivery options:
  Convio Advocacy lets advocates send messages that are routed through Congressional Web forms, ensuring that messages get through to lawmakers and other leaders.   If an email or a faxed message repeatedly fails to get through, Convio Advocacy will try a different delivery method.  For example, if a fax cannot get through, an email will also be sent.  Additionally, for today’s busy advocates, Convio Advocacy now provides an option that allows a person to take action by simply replying to an email sent by the organization.

Learn more about Convio Advocacy: