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Codepink

CODEPINK is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to wage peace by redirecting America's resources away from war and into healthcare, education, green jobs, and other life-affirming activities. DemocracyInAction (DIA) has helped CODEPINK mobilize supporters to influence their local government's decision-making.

Background

Since 2002, CODEPINK has worked tirelessly to redirect our nation's resources away from war and towards other domestic priorities. So when a resolution preventing military recruiters from operating in the City of Berkeley, CA was being considered for repeal, CODEPINK turned to DIA to help them mobilize their supporters against the repeal. Ultimately, CODEPINK used Salsa to effectively influence the City Council of Berkeley to keep the resolution in place, discouraging the military from recruiting in Berkeley.

Salsa Helps Codepink Target City Council Members.

Using Salsa's "Advocacy" package in combination with our custom target recipient feature, CODEPINK's supporters sent targeted emails to Berkeley's City Council. In Salsa, custom recipients can be created one by one, or imported as a group, using the same friendly import interface used to import your supporters. Once in the system, you can easily then personalized and print your recipient list. As they targeted the City Council, CODEPINK effectively utilized this tool to sort by council member and choose which letters were personalized — a detail that saved them time and helped make their campaign successful.

CODEPINK created a Thank You Campaign to keep their Victory in Place

Soon after CODEPINK's success retaining the resolution, their opposition began to regroup. To remind the City Council of their constituents' wishes and to avoid losing ground to a new repeal campaign, CODEPINK launched a thank you campaign. Using Salsa, CODEPINK sent 3,200 thank-you emails to certain members of the Berkeley City Council, thanking them for passing a resolution that explicitly told military recruiters they are not welcome in Berkeley. CODEPINK used the custom recipient tool to target the 11 council members who voted in favor of the resolution in order to reinforce their vote. Furthermore, CODEPINK volunteers supported this online strategy with offline action by reading aloud the most moving or personal letters at the city council meeting. They also included letters of support from individuals around the country, illustrating strong national support for such a resolution despite nationwide efforts by opponents.

Learn from Codepink's Success

Think Globally, Act Locally. Lobbying your local elected officials on national issues can make a big impact. Since local leaders often have a smaller number of constituents than federally elected leaders, constituents have greater influence on their decision-making.

Technology can be a decisive force for social change. At DemocracyInAction, we exist to empower those who share our values to advance the progressive agenda. We're a progressive nonprofit whose core activity is providing e-advocacy tools to other progressive nonprofits and social change leaders—for pennies on the dollar relative to private sector fees.

DemocracyInAction created Salsa to support the most progressive movement with the most powerful, flexible, and affordable CRM + web application engine around. And we didn’t just build the most robust set of tools that we think you need. We built an infrastructure for all your unforeseen needs. That flexibility is our greatest advantage.

But no organization is an island. We built SalsaCommons.org as an online space for our entire user community to connect and collaborate. Here you’ll find documentation, videos, training opportunities, a library of custom packages, and partners to help you with all your online needs. At Salsa's core is the supporter database: a searchable, expandable listing that ties the platform together and gives you a complete view of your supporters. Salsa's top-of-the-line blast email system guarantees your message makes it to all of your supporters when and how you need it. Effortlessly target and send unlimited blasts to any size list, then track the results in real time to learn the effectiveness of each message.

At DemocracyInAction, we believe that digital communications is not just about sending mass emails or having a website, it's about using technology to achieve your mission. Whereas before, the prohibitive costs of the private sector meant that many nonprofits were forced to choose between an effective online presence and a staff position or a mission-critical operation, DIA now makes it possible for all to take advantage of the palpable strategic benefits of moving online.