Advocacy Software: 14 Top Platforms to Inspire Action
With all the provider and feature options out there, choosing the right online advocacy software platform for your organization can be overwhelming.
Whether you are hosting a peer-to-peer event or canvassing door-to-door, Grassroots Unwired’s mobile platform enables progressive political and non-profit organizations to gain supporters and donors through face-to-face conversations. We believe our mobile-first technology can be customized and utilized for the greater good. In our years of experience, we’ve also gotten to know the other software providers in the advocacy space.
We know how important it is to find a provider for each of your nonprofit’s needs that offers a suite of scalable features while also remaining within your budget. Luckily, there are a variety of unique advocacy software solutions out there that offer great features at affordable prices.
To get you started with your research to find the best solution, take a look at our personal favorite low-cost advocacy software platforms for nonprofits:
- What is advocacy software?
- Why use advocacy software?
- What features should you look for in a grassroots advocacy tool?
- Top advocacy software solutions to consider
What is advocacy software?
Advocacy allows nonprofits to bring awareness to the issues they care about. The issue at hand can relate to their core mission or not, but in many cases, the changes that advocates push for likely will affect the community that they serve. Along with simply bringing awareness, nonprofit advocacy involves encouraging supporters and other community members to take action. Your organization has a unique but fundamental role in organizing and educating your audience for civic action and engagement.
Advocacy software allows nonprofit organizations to mobilize supporters through the use of online campaigns, email, text and social media. Typically, nonprofits create advocacy campaigns to create awareness about a particular cause or mission and inspire change.
Why use advocacy software?
We have all experienced people on street corners in major metropolitan areas trying to catch our attention. Historically, it was clipboard-wielding college kids who were working hard to get names added to a donor or advocacy list. Then, at the end of the day, they would bring their clipboards back to headquarters and manually complete data entry. This typically took hours. There were often inaccuracies because of typing mistakes or illegible handwriting. But now, with innovative advocacy software, college kids are armed with mobile devices and tools, which effectively eliminate the barriers to building a solid donor or advocacy list. People can enter their information onto the devices, their email addresses will be instantly verified, and their information will be sent to a safe, comprehensive database.
Advocacy has become a mainstay in our Democracy and can take many different forms:
- Protesting at a rally
- Sending a letter to or calling your representative
- Signing a petition
- Posting a political perspective on social media
Yet, regardless of the various forms of advocacy, the best way to galvanize support for a cause continues to be talking to people face-to-face. Having a conversation with someone is the most effective means of building a relationship and getting someone to take action.
What features should you look for in a grassroots advocacy tool?
Top 5 features to look for in a grassroots advocacy tool include:
- Communication: In any outreach program, communication is key. The ability for your advocacy software to accurately collect contact information and build you a supporter list is going to go a long way. Even more important is the software’s ability to email or text your supporters after you have an interaction with them.
- Eliminate data entry: Eliminating data entry is going to be a huge time and money saver in any advocacy campaign. Look for a software that will mange the data you are collecting and seamlessly send it back to your head quarters or CRM in real-time.
- The ability to take secure donations: When you have a supporter ready to donate with their credit card ready to go, you need to be able to take their donation quickly and securely. Look for a advocacy software that has this ability to ensure you don’t miss a donation!
- Reliability: Your advocacy software needs to work at all times when you are out in the field. Look for a software solution that has offline capabilities in the instance you are canvassing in a low-connection area.
- Virtual and in-person solutions: In a post-Covid world, your software should be able to do both in-person and virtual canvassing to ensure nothing is slowing down your campaign.
Top Overall Advocacy Software
Grassroots Unwired
Grassroots Unwired offers dynamic advocacy and canvassing tools to nonprofits, progressive political campaigns, and labor unions. Their product is built on the philosophy that mobile-first technology can power the greater good.
With innovative in-person and virtual solutions, Grassroots Unwired has the features your organization needs to create a successful ground game for messaging or fundraising.
What are the best features of this grassroots advocacy tool?
The Grassroots and Legislative Advocacy App by Grassroots Unwired has made it possible to bring what has typically been viewed as web-based activity into a mobile environment. The platform enables your org to:
- Survey someone and just minutes later send an email about a specific policy initiative to a legislator
- Collect survey responses and instantly send them back to headquarters instead of having to wait for data entry to be completed
- Collect and track secure donations towards your cause
- Capture E-Signatures
- No connection? No problem. Our app continues to work even when offline.
- Collect cell phone numbers and immediately send them to the Upland Mobile Messaging for continuous outreach
- GOTV!
Why does this advocacy software stand out?
Grassroots Unwired is an end-to-end advocacy platform that can help you execute your entire campaign. Their tools can handle virtual and mobile canvassing, donation and data management, canvasser and turf management, and much more.
Other Top Advocacy Software Solutions:
1. SalsaLabs
Salsa will help you engage, educate and mobilize your supporters. While you use email marketing to inform your supporters, you can use registration forms to publicize your upcoming event.
You can build online petitions with Salsa. Create awareness for your cause with one click actions that will lead to thousands of digital signatures. You’ll be able to follow up with your new advocates through an email campaign you create.
Salsa combines best-in-class automation capabilities with advocacy best practices so you can empower communities and activists more effectively.
What are the best features of this grassroots advocacy tool?
- Build online petitions
- Store Supporter Data
- Send targeted actions and messages
- Power your grassroots fundraising efforts through online donation tools
How much does this advocacy software cost?
Contact Salsa to learn more about pricing for their products!
2. Mobilize
Mobilize is an event management and volunteer recruitment platform empowering mission-driven organizations to reach more supporters than ever before.
Nonprofits, advocacy groups, labor unions, and political campaigns of all sizes have raised awareness for their missions using the Mobilize platform.
What are the best features of this grassroots advocacy tool?
- Easy event creation
- Automated text and email communications
- Peer-to-peer recruiting
How much does this advocacy software cost?
Contact Mobilize to learn more about pricing for their products!
3. CharityEngine
CharityEngine’s built-in advocacy software makes it easy to establish a campaign that streamlines data from the field back into your CRM.
Channel your passion for your mission with advocacy tools for federal, state, and local levels of government in addition to media and custom targets.
What are the best features of this grassroots advocacy tool?
- All in one CRM
- Online fundraising
- Monthly gifts and billing
How much does this advocacy software cost?
Contact CharityEngine to learn more about the pricing for their all-in-one nonprofit software solution.
4. MobileAction from DNL OmniMedia
MobileAction! gives advocacy organizations and grassroots fundraising teams all of the tools they need to engage with supporters on the go. Think of this solution as full-service advocacy software delivered straight to your supporters whenever, wherever.
What are the best features of this grassroots advocacy tool?
- Send targeted action alerts
- House peer-to-peer fundraising pages
- Communicate with your supporters via surveys.
How much does this advocacy software cost?
Since each MobileAction! solution is custom-made, you’ll need to contact DNL OmniMedia to discuss project pricing.
5. NationBuilder
With NationBuilder, you can grow your advocacy efforts by developing data-driven outreach and engagement strategies. NationBuilder’s software helps you take a targeted approach to advocacy campaigns by providing you with the tools to segment and map your supporter list, create supporter cultivation plans, and set goals around all aspects of your campaign.
What are the best features of this grassroots advocacy tool?
- Tools to segment and map your supporter list
- Create supporter cultivation plans
- Set goals around all aspects of your campaign
How much does this advocacy software cost?
NationBuilder’s pricing plans start at $24 per month for an annual subscription.
6. RapIndex
RAP Index understands that legislators receive hundreds of batch emails a day. In order to stand out and put your cause at the front of their minds, you’ll need to take a more personal approach. Their software can empower you to engage officials in a more strategic way using the network you already have at your fingertips.
What are the best features of this grassroots advocacy tool?
- Engage officials in a more strategic way using the network you already have at your fingertips
- Identify existing personal relationships between your constituents and elected officials
- Mobilize the right individuals to leverage those connections using the most effective channel.
How much does this advocacy software cost?
Contact the RAP Index team to receive a quote.
7. Cision
Cision offers a government relations and PAC software that’s perfectly suited to political advocacy organizations.
With their supporter database and integrated marketing and advocacy tools, Cision helps you target the right supporters for your cause and then engage them in the most effective ways. Cision’s grassroots solutions feature outreach tools designed to keep your supporters informed on the most important elements of your mission.
What are the best features of this grassroots advocacy tool?
- Monitor your fundraising progress
- Centralize your communications
- Generate comprehensive reports in minutes
- Use their built-in mail merge features, email templates, and social media management tools to control your message on all fronts
How much does this advocacy software cost?
Cision offers a wide range of pricing packages. See their pricing page or contact their sales team for more information.
8. Bloomerang
Bloomerang is a nonprofit CRM with built-in advocacy features that can enhance your grassroots campaign.
Nonprofits can use Bloomerang to get to know their constituents and use supporter data to develop strategies that result in action. Whether you’re raising money for your cause, organizing an advocacy event, or delivering real-time updates to supporters via email and social media, Bloomerang can help you!
For being such a high-powered software, Bloomerang boasts a high level of user-friendliness. If you have multiple members of your team engaging with your advocacy strategies, you won’t have to worry about in-depth training or confusing documentation.
What are the best features of this grassroots advocacy tool?
- Nonprofit CRM
- Online giving forms
- Social media monitoring
How much does this advocacy software cost?
Bloomerang’s pricing begins at $99 per month and is based on the number of donor records you store.
9. Votility from DonorPerfect
DonorPerfect’s advocacy software, Votility, equips nonprofits and membership organizations with the tools to mobilize supporters and enact change on a small or large scale.
Votility is only one aspect of DonorPerfect’s fundraising and constituent engagement solution. All of their advocacy features integrate seamlessly with a scalable donor management system that connects you to your supporters in the most comprehensive way.
What are the best features of this grassroots advocacy tool?
- Run grassroots campaigns with any goal in mind.
- Promote policies, gather supporter feedback, and post bills on social media
- Create dashboard reports to share with elected officials
How much does this advocacy software cost?
Votility encourages nonprofits to schedule a demo in order to determine a price.
10. Soapbox Engage
Soapbox Engage’s advocacy software can help you streamline your campaign from start to finish. With a suite of apps designed to work perfectly together, their tools can take your advocacy work to the next level. Their advocacy app, in particular, will help you generate beautiful letters and emails while creating contact lists to organize message blasts.
Soapbox Engage apps integrate with Salesforce! Save all of your transactions to Salesforce so you can spend less time on data entry and ensure all your donor and advocate profiles are completely up-to-date.
What are the best features of this grassroots advocacy tool?
- Mobile-friendly website templates reassure you that your cause will look great on any device!
- Use their Donations app to collect support for your grassroots campaign, or try their Petitions app to create and manage online petitions.
- They integrate seamlessly with Salesforce, making it easy to automatically report all the data your campaigns generate and make use of your existing mailing lists and donor profiles within the apps themselves.
How much does this advocacy software cost?
With a discount for nonprofits, Soapbox Engage apps are only $49/month. Check out their unlimited plan for even more access.
11. Action Network
Mobilize your supporters with Action Network’s online advocacy software and make your forms mobile-friendly! Action Network was made for organizers by organizers. They understand all that goes into rallying advocacy for a good cause so they’ll help you do so with their intuitive online toolkit.
What are the best features of this grassroots advocacy tool?
- Built-in mass email equipped with targeting and deliverability
- One-click email donations
- Federated tools for chaptered organizing
How much does this advocacy software cost?
Action Network starts at just $10 a month!
12. EveryAction
With EveryAction’s one-step advocacy tools, you can easily convert supporters into donors and grow your donor base by simplifying the process.
They’ll even help you deliver the right messages to the right addresses. EveryAction will draw supporters’ information from your online advocacy forms so you don’t waste time creating yet another email list. Their experts make sure your messages don’t end up in anyone’s spam or junk folders with automatic retry mechanisms.
What are the best features of this grassroots advocacy tool?
- Push your supporters to email elected officials or submit comments to government agency forms
- Mobilize thousands of supporters to tweet at elected officials using a simple, customizable online form
- Embed a form into your website and drive thousands of calls to elected officials with the click of a button
How much does this advocacy software cost?
While some of their resources are free, their services are priced contractually and are personalized for each organization.
13. Ujoin
Ujoin creates branded, mobile-optimized action pages for targeted email, Twitter, and click to phone call actions. It integrates with social media and has a legislation tracking dashboard that can be displayed on any website.
What are the best features of this grassroots advocacy tool?
- Influence city and county councilors, department chairs, state or federal legislators, or any decision-maker
- Brand your own action pages, influence decision-makers, get policy wins
- Ujoin integrates with other apps, is mobile-optimized, and integrates with social media
How much does this advocacy software cost?
Plans start at $99 per month and go up to $249
Conclusion
Choosing the right online advocacy software platform can be overwhelming, but doesn’t have to be. Advocacy software allows you to focus on your mission while eliminating points of frustration for staff members like data entry, low fundraising numbers, or disorderly event planning.
Grassroots Unwired is built on the philosophy that mobile-first technology can be customized and utilized for the greater good. From helping progressive candidates win elections to empowering nonprofit organizations working to save our environment, balance inequality and improve our communities, our goal is to bridge historical canvassing with groundbreaking technology. We are transforming the way our clients galvanize support for their candidates and their causes.
To learn more about online advocacy best practices and tools, explore the following additional resources:
- Make Your Nonprofit Website a Tool for Advocacy. No matter the cause and the actions you plan to take, your website will play a pivotal role. Not only is it the virtual face of your organization and its priorities, but it can serve as a resource for those who want to learn more about what you’re advocating for.
- Canvassing Software by Grassroots Unwired. After years of in-house experience, from our campaign warriors to our professional canvassers and our outstanding community volunteers, we know that information needs to be accurately collected so you can use it to empower your campaign or cause.
- I C Voters | Virtual Canvassing Software. As part of a seamless workflow in our best-in-class digital canvassing platform, this solution can substitute for traditional door-knocking in a way that facilitates a faster, broader, and more convenient experience for both the canvassing team and the voter.