Advocacy: Syndication

Kevin Suer

Feature  Summary

Release: Winter  '10

Author: Myra  Friel

Overview

MultiCenter clients can now “syndicate” or copy the contents of an Action Alert to another Center.  This feature enables larger organizations to have tightly coordinated Action Alerts that have the benefit of branding from individual Centers.  Each Center can accept or decline the Action Alerts that have been syndicated.  Administrators who are recipients of the syndicated alert can preview the alert before accepting it.

Key Features

Syndication:  A Center in an organization can be configured to Send only, Receive only, or Send and Receive alerts to or from other Centers that are configured to Send and/or Receive. (In this context, Send means to “syndicate (make available) to other Centers.”)

Email Notification: Administrators who syndicate an alert to Centers can send an email message to notify the receiving Centers’ administrators who have permission to manage Advocacy Alerts.

New Concepts or Terms

Syndicate: To make Advocacy content available to another Center for use.

Use Scenario #1 Client Syndicates Action Alert

Client Damien works at the National office of a MultiCenter organization called Force For Nature.  Damien works closely with the local affiliates (or “Centers”) on Advocacy campaigns targeting Federal and State legislators.  His goal is to craft the content and message of each Action Alert himself, and then enable each Center to add its own wrapper and personal touches, publish the (Center-specific) alert, and send the email notification to its own constituents.

• Damien works with his organization’s site administrator to enable syndication on the Centers in their Convio site. 
  • He decides which Centers will receive the Action Alerts.
  • He decides not to enable the Centers to send out [syndicate] Alerts.
• Damien creates the Action Alert in “All Centers” mode.  He publishes the alert.
• On the Alert List page that displays, Damien clicks the new Syndicate link.
• On the screen that displays, Damien can pick the Centers to whom he wants to give access to the new Action Alert.
• He can also write a message that will be sent to the administrators who have permission to manage Advocacy.
• He clicks Finish to complete his step.

Use Scenario #2 Client Recieves Syndicated Action Alert

Client Annie is the administrator who manages Advocacy alerts for the Austin affiliate (Center) of the Force For Nature organization.

• Annie receives an email notice that there is a syndicated alert for her review.
• She clicks the link in the email and logs into Convio.
• She goes to Advocacy --> Action Alerts and clicks the Syndicated Alerts tab.
• Annie clicks the View option to preview the alert.
• After reviewing the alert, she clicks Accept.
• The first step in the alert editing process displays.
• Annie reviews the settings of the copied alerts.  She is satisfied for the most part, but updates the email address in Step 2-Advanced Options so that the copies of the messages are sent to her and not Damien.
• In Step 9-Design Alert, she selects a wrapper from her Center. 
• Annie is now happy with the alert and publishes it.
• Annie sends out an email to the Austin constituents that includes a link to the Center-specific alert.

Limitations and Out of Scope Features

Advocacy reports remain the same and will continue to provide the important statistics for all alerts. There are no changes to roll up the statistics of alerts that have been syndicated.

“All Centers” mode will display every Center’s version of the Alerts in the Alert List.  This is consistent with existing MultiCenter functionality, but Syndication will increase the number of similarly-named alerts. Make sure to review the Center information for an alert before editing it.

Client Impacts

Clients who do not wish to use Syndication can safely ignore the feature.  Clients who wish to use this feature will need to enable it within the Center settings on their Convio site. They will need to decide whether a given Center can Receive alerts only, or also Send or syndicate alerts out to other Centers.

Feature Configuration

This feature is enabled within the settings for a particular Center.  This can be done by a client with access to create/manage Centers (See Screenshots below.)

FAQs

Has this functionality been added for Email Campaigns? 

No.  Similar functionality is on the roadmap for Email but needs to be prioritized and included in a future release.

Is this Syndication feature the same as “Flow-Through” in GetActive?

Yes, this feature was added to Convio to address a known product gap for Advocacy clients.  However, it is expected to benefit all Advocacy clients who have MultiCenter enabled, not just migrated GetActive clients.

Can I syndicate alerts in draft form?

No.  By design, only published alerts can be syndicated.

Can I syndicate an alert more than once?

Yes, an alert can by syndicated multiple times.  If a Center has already Accepted the original syndicated alert, and the alert is syndicated again, the Center will receive a new version in the Syndicated Alerts tab.  If the Center has not yet Accepted the original syndicated alert, it will receive only  one (the most recent) syndicated version in the Syndicated Alerts tab. The syndicated alert is the same as the version from the originating Center until it is Accepted by the receiving Center.  Then it becomes a copy that can be edited by the receiving Center

Screenshots

Enabling Syndication on Center setting

Syndicate link in Alert list

Default Option (initial display includes white space)

Click on any Center to which you want to syndicate and add text for email notification:

Alerts display in the Syndicated Alerts tab:

View of Syndicated Alerts workspace before action is taken on received alerts:

View of Syndicated Alerts workspace after action is taken and there are no “pending” alerts:

Once a Center administrator Accepts a syndicated alert, she can edit the  new “Copy  of” the original alert: