As the pandemic slowly begins to subside, it’s worthwhile to take stock of how far the nonprofit industry has come. Supporters have by and large been eager to help the causes they love and drive important social missions forward. Despite fatigue and uncertainty, many organizations have been able to meet (and sometimes exceed) their fundraising and engagement goals.

Nonprofits’ missions change the world and improve their constituents’ lives with the generous support of their donors. Nonprofits can take these goals a step further by conducting advocacy campaigns that grow their networks and mobilize supporters to take action on key issues related to their mission. Of course, advocacy campaigns aren’t planned overnight, and you’ll need to develop a comprehensive nonprofit advocacy toolkit to help your campaign find success. 

Members join your association for all sorts of reasons. Many want to increase their impact in their industry or continue learning new skills, while others want to connect and network with the rest of your members. While joining reasons vary, it’s up to your association’s staff and leadership to keep members engaged long-term.

Advocacy campaigns have the potential to make a tangible difference in the lives of everyday people. But whether it’s targeting a specific piece of legislation or bringing attention to an under-addressed issue, a well-run advocacy campaign doesn’t happen overnight.

Everyone can create positive change by taking action, and coordinated advocacy campaigns help like-minded individuals gather together to make a bigger difference than they could have done alone. Advocacy campaigns have evolved in recent years. New grassroots advocacy groups need to educate themselves on the core principles of advocacy work to find a voice in the public arena.

February was a doozy! We saw incredible usage of our platform at the local, state, and federal levels. From products to data, we're making progress on all fronts. Read on to see how we're making progress.

Product Updates

Our team continues development work on "Muster 2.0," and we've carefully begun beta testing with select customers. This has provided valuable feedback to the development team and immediate business impact for these customers.

The CRM tool by itself has allowed one customer to build a nationwide, hyper-local advocacy campaign. They're segmenting advocates down to and across municipal districts in conjunction with custom business attributes. This means they know exactly who to activate for each step in their campaign and gives them the ability to identify super advocates within their network.

On top of great progress on our new CRM — our new advocacy and marketing platforms are coming together nicely, which you'll hear more about soon!

Data Updates

Our data team has been doing a fantastic job cultivating and expanding our local dataset to improve targeting and segmenting capabilities for customers. With this local-level data and the Muster CRM's subsequent release, users will have the hyper-local targeting for creating supporter lists and advocacy campaigns.

Wrapping Up

We're excited about rolling out Muster 2.0 in full. Thus far, the CRM beta has been a resounding success and is the first pivotal step to releasing our new platform, and we can't wait to get it to everyone.

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The Muster team headed into 2021 full-steam ahead — proud of everything we accomplished in 2020 amid a pandemic. We also understood there was a lot of work to be done in 2021 to serve our customers better, and one month in, we've hit the ground running. We're excited about what we have in store, from our team expanding to new product offerings, and that's the intention of this monthly addition to our blog. We'll be updating you regularly on product, data, and company news to keep you in tune with everything new at Muster. 

Defining it.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a practice in which corporations can hold themselves accountable to their stakeholders, employees, customers, and the general public. By not only being conscious of their corporation's direct impact on economics, society, and the environment but also indirectly. 

For over a decade now, nonprofits and grassroots organizations have relied on the social network giant to grow their network and spread their mission. Facebook has, over the years, continued to expand its suite of marketing tools available to businesses and organizations — from its ability to hyper-target ads to Facebook messenger allowing businesses and organizations to connect directly to their followers. Now though, Facebook is dipping its toes into the email marketing game. This past summer, a small number of Facebook business users were given access to the new tool for testing. 

(image via Virginia Nurses Association)

With the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, we here at Muster think it is incredibly important to cover the astounding work that our clients are putting forth. Many represent healthcare workers who are facing this pandemic head on. One such being the Virginia Nurses Association (VNA) based out of our hometown of Richmond, Virginia.

We are in unprecedented times. In the face of COVID-19, much of the world has come to a standstill. To maintain the health of our colleagues, friends, families, and loved ones we are forced to practice social distancing. It is, in fact, our duty. For many organizations, this has brought incredible disruption to operations not just for you but for your members as well.

(Updated 2/17/2020)

For nonprofits, fundraising is an essential action and another form of advocacy for your supporters to take part in. That's why we felt compelled to put together this list of tools that can truly power your donations.

There are plenty of software options that can simplify and enhance your nonprofit's fundraising operations. The amount of choices can be overwhelming — so we’ve compiled a small list of top fundraising software options, providing an overview, key features, and pricing.

Having well built, updated advocacy content on your nonprofit's website is essential to ensuring your members are knowledgeable and equipped to engage in grassroots advocacy for your organization. It not only reinforces your value to members but also positions you as a leader in your space.

“Stories constitute the single most powerful weapon in a leader’s arsenal.”

In 2019 it seems as though there are endless ways for constituents to engage with elected officials — some representatives going as far as having live Facebook and Instagram streams where they can chat, take questions, and learn more from their constituents. For nonprofit professionals or organizations, who have to engage supporters in grassroots advocacy the de facto choice is often emailing legislators. Which makes sense, it’s an easy ask from supporters and with advocacy software you can have a form message locked and ready to go while capturing great analytics. I ask you this though, when was the last time you ran a patch-through call campaign? Find out below why using more patch-through call advocacy campaigns may improve your efforts and yield better results for your organization. 

It’s no secret how pivotal social media, especially Facebook, is to a successful grassroots advocacy campaign and more often than not it's going to be how someone who isn't a member of your organization finds your advocacy campaign. And while tracking pixels, targeted audiences, ads, and boosted content are important — there are fundamental practices that get overlooked that can up engagement rates and the efficacy of your advocacy.

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Water is wet. Social media trends come and go. These are three undeniable truths. So, in 2020, how does one use social media to support their advocacy campaigns? Is it feasible? While trends change, we have five sound strategies that you can use today, and beyond to ensure your advocacy thrives on social media channels.

A Chamber of Commerce offers many substantial benefits to its membership. Scroll down to learn about four value propositions offered by Chambers of Commerce to its members, and how these member-focused opportunities often result in positive outcomes for the organization as well. 

It's undeniable that digital tools are more and more having an incredible impact on influencing public policy and on the government relations profession. From nonprofit staffs to lobbyists and everyone in between, the adoption of digital tools and strategies has proved valuable in shaping legislation and regulations. They have also applied data and analytics to a field once left up to hoping a meeting went well. Now nonprofits, associations, and government relations professionals can understand where their supporters lie, how many messages are going to legislators, and use that as proof of efficacy.

Facebook in 2020 is still at the heart of social interactions online. With the continued evolution of the social network, there remain many reasons for your organization to engage with people. Nonprofits have seen great success leveraging Facebook for donation campaigns, and the same is true for advocacy campaigns. We're going to talk about ways to leverage the largest social network on earth to drive results for your advocacy campaigns.

Chambers of Commerce represent the many business owning voices of a community (or state), and with such economic responsibility, it is important that chambers have the ability to advocate on behalf of their members. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce designates an entire section of their website to advocacy, including examples of regional chambers and their experience with public policy initiatives- take a look here. Digital advocacy tools give a Chamber of Commerce the ability to do just that. Below are just a few of the key reasons why a Chamber’s should design and implement a digital advocacy strategy:   

How do grassroots advocacy software and community advocacy intersect? As a leader or member of an organization you know that, more important than anything, are the community members that care about your cause. They’re the ones who help put in the footwork to make a positive change happen, especially in grassroots advocacy. It can be difficult to get your community engaged especially when you need them the most. That’s where the wonders of grassroots advocacy software come in:

Broadly defined as any organized effort to influence public perception/the policymaking process/particular legislators, political advocacy is evolving. New media platforms, social media channels, and smart mobile devices have together transformed the way that citizens connect with their representatives, reinventing how constituents can participate meaningfully in the legislative process. 

For more resources on advocacy and outreach strategy, visit our Political Advocacy Resources Center. 

There is a growing trend among advocacy organizations and Government Relations Professionals to incorporate social media as part of their digital strategy. In fact, a strong digital advocacy strategy often includes social media as a cornerstone of engagement. Social media can support
your advocacy campaign by extending the reach and influence of your mission-critical
agenda. Pushing your messaging out efficiently online will work to amplify public exposure
around your grassroots campaign. Take a look at these social media advocacy trends the Muster team has curated. 

Among nonprofits and organizations that practice government relations, grassroots advocacy is a ubiquitous term. While aware of the term, the average person on the street may not understand the complexities of grassroots advocacy. Developing campaigns that build awareness, capture supporters, and create political change is no easy task. Nonprofits, civic groups, and more work tirelessly to empower their supporters to make their voices heard.

Selecting the right grassroots advocacy software for your organization is an investment that pays big dividends for your influence on public policy. There are plenty of things to account for when choosing an advocacy software vendor. These are 5 most important factors to consider before choosing the software platform that will help you accomplish your legislative and engagement goals.