Client Viewpoint: Using Springboard for Advocacy
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Advocacy is central to the Drug Policy Alliance’s mission, and particularly critical as we enter the 2016 election cycle. In April 2015, the Drug Policy Alliance chose Jackson River’s Springboard as a full-service digital marketing, fundraising, and advocacy platform. Since DPA began using Springboard to target its supporters in September, they’ve seen an impressive 15% response rate on calls-to-action and 95% deliverability rate of their messages to decision-makers.
We asked Megan Farrington, Digital Director at DPA, to tell us more about her experience selecting and implementing a new technology for digital engagement. Here’s what she had to say:
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"Previously, we were on a platform that nominally supported advocacy but focused much more on fundraising. We weren’t seeing much innovation or support for the tools we used most heavily. We looked at Engaging Networks, Salsa, EveryAction and Jackson River’s Springboard. Our desire for flexible, extensible tools made Springboard stand out.
Today, DPA has Springboard integrated with Silverpop for email and uses Salesforce as the database of record for the whole organization. When we first looked at Springboard back in 2012, there was no advocacy functionality, so it wasn’t an option for us at that time. Advocacy is a really important part of our program.
Now, not only are there advocacy tools, but Jackson River actually cares about whether the messages get delivered, and they’re thinking about the ultimate goal of the advocacy. It is great that our supporters’ messages are getting where they’re going! I like that we have more control over the look of our forms. I also enjoy how the built-in analytics and tracking give me greater visibility into how our supporters are interacting with us, like seeing the source codes from people’s submissions to our contact form - that context is more helpful than I would have expected!
Jackson River has consistently been a great company to work with. We have much more access to knowledgeable people who can advise us than we ever did on our old toolset. Support services have been great.
My advice to other nonprofits is to start with your organizational goals. What do the tools need to do in order to help you meet your mission? Once you know what your top priorities are, it’s much easier to figure out what tools you need."
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The Drug Policy Alliance’s mission is to counter the global impact of America’s war on drugs by developing new drug policies grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights. Learn more about the Drug Policy Alliance at their Website: www.drugpolicy.org
