Expecting a Long Wait for rVotes? Consider NationBuilder.

It's not the comprehensive solution that rVotes is, but rVotes is early-early in the product life cycle and thus may seem expensive or distant in certain locales where the requisite fundraising or adoption cycle may be long and difficult... or just 'politically' difficult.

Victory should not be deferred due to a current lack of funds, so I want to tell you about a solution that may help your local party cause without breaking the bank while you wait for your state party to become convinced of the efficacy of acquiring rVotes, or wait for your local Tea Parties to raise the requisite funds for rVotes.

That solution is NationBuilder and the solution starts out at $19/month, so it's affordable for any party district, county or state.  You can see my own real-world implementation of NationBuilder at 49.nationbuilder.com (my own district is the 49th Assembly District in CA).

Where NationBuilder excels is in attracting and engaging voters, supporters, and volunteers online, then giving you the tools to communicate with your volunteers and put them to work in an organized fashion.

Where NationBuilder still needs development is in GOTV and certain areas of voter electoral engagement - for that, you will still need other tools such as PDI or PROCINCT.  

How does NationBuilder engage voters and volunteers?  A major part of of online engagement is expressing a willingness to listen, and providing a venue where people can publicly express their opinion and have it answered (respectfully).  

But other features really help with online engagement - features that NationBuilder has in abundance:  such as a resource where web visitors nationwide can register to vote.  Polls.  Surveys.  A volunteer page that allows you to recruit for the jobs you need done in your organization.  A public suggestion box where other site visitors can vote up (or down) the effectiveness of a contributed idea.  An events calendar that integrates with Meetup.com.  Resources that give task-specific teams (such as a writer's team or a voter registration team) an organizing and meeting place online to coordinate their efforts.  

In addition, NationBuilder puts all your voters online in your account for you at no extra charge.  

Garnish all of the above liberally with built-in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn controls so your users' activism publicizes their party efforts to their friends, bring your site even more new users.

This is all topped off by a 'Personal Impact' points system and leaderboards that let high achievers get credit for their work.  You can deliver credit where credit is due, effortlessly.  

Does NationBuilder allow for off-line volunteers with no internet access?  Certainly.  But the critical point is that nearly all your volunteer leaders, cadre, and supervisors will be somewhat internet savvy and you can all manage together as a team online.  

Import and export functions are plentiful so you can import data you already possess, or when finally ready, export data to your final rVotes implementation.

Feel free to visit my own implementation of NationBuilder at 49.nationbuilder.com - Join, volunteer, fill out the surveys and polls and otherwise see how we are going to manage our volunteers here in California's 49th Assembly District - you'll be very welcome among us '49ers' and we'll be glad to have your tips, suggestions and ideas, even if you can't come walk our precincts with us!