The flexibility of Drupal plus Advomatic’s expertise in implementing custom politech solutions for important progressive fights results in the next generation of online advocacy.
Last year, one of our clients, Senator Dodd, filibustered AT&T’s amnesty bill. For this fight, Advomatic was able to do what we do best – fit the optimum advocacy tool to the specific political fight and connect the campaign with the right audience.
By building a portable click-to-call widget we got the most effective advocacy tool into the communities of action who were most primed for the fight. And we did it fighting fire with fire: phone spying versus phone advocacy.
Users submitted their phone number and selected the Senators that they wished to call. They were then presented with a reporting form to record the response from the call. Moments later their phone would ring, users would hear a recorded message from the Dodd campaign providing additional instructions. Then the call was transferred to the correct Senate office. Because the system utilized Voice-over-IP, it was provided at no cost to user and low cost to the campaign.
Thanks to citizens whipping their own Senators through his website, Senator Dodd became a leader in the Senate, turned us into the Majority Whip and stopped the FISA capitulation last year.
Sadly, it’s back.
Both the Democratic Party’s itch to capitulate, and therefore, the Click-to-Call tool. This time the FISA click-to-call is being offered through Blue America PAC as a stand-alone service.
But here is the innovation: Click-to-Call is now available as a flexible service. Now anyone can can whip any elected on any bill.
It seems that it’s harder for electeds to ignore constituents when we’re well informed and we flood their switchboards.
Raise Your Voice! is in beta with a few partner organizations. Advomatic couldn’t be more proud to launch this new tool on this particular fight with Blue America PAC and our friends behind the blogs who feed the PAC, Digby’s Hullabaloo, FireDogLake, Crooks & Liars, Down With Tyranny, Glen Greenwald and many other blog communities in the progressive netroots of which we are proud movementarians.
As Nancy Scola described it at Personal Democracy Forum:
Then, through a combination of black magic and fairy dust, the tool establishes a connection to your phone, plays you a short introductory message, and rings up your Senator’s office — all at no cost to you. Once your lobbying call is complete, it pops up a form that allows it to track your feedback. All in all, a pretty snazzy demonstration of how to use gadgets and gizmos to facilitate — not replace — human-to-human political interaction.
It’s really accountability advocacy. We foresee an increased need for it after this November’s elections. If it sounds right for your campaign, check us out.