In their first-ever Speak4 campaign, a leading grassroots membership organization quickly mobilized 17,000+ advocates – generating so many calls that it swamped Congressional phone lines and helped stop harmful legislation.
The Situation
A leading grassroots membership organization focused on foreign affairs needed to rapidly mobilize supporters around an urgent U.S. Senate vote. The bill at hand posed serious consequences for a key ally of the organization, making it critical to show as many senators as possible that their constituents opposed the measure.
Given the high stakes, the organization needed an advocacy solution to:
- Quickly mobilize its base; and
- Ensure senators would hear directly from constituents in their states.
The Challenge
In addition to other forms of constituent communications (such as emails to lawmakers), Congressional offices emphasized to the organization that phone calls in particular would help elevate this issue with U.S. Senators.
The organization had recently switched to Speak4 and was in the process of setting up its first campaign when it got the call to mobilize on this issue. For this effort, speed was critical – the effort demanded an advocacy platform that was both easy to deploy and powerful enough to drive letters and calls in meaningful numbers.
The Partnership
Within hours, the organization successfully launched its first campaign. Working closely with Speak4’s Partner Success team, they experimented with a hybrid advocacy approach, combining Click-To-Call with an email letter-send campaign to maximize engagement.
They tested a multi-channel strategy:
- Advocates with phone numbers received a text message prompting them to call their lawmakers.
- Those with email addresses were encouraged to send a letter.
“With guidance from the Speak4 team, we tested whether placing a letter-send on the first page and a call-to-action on the second would hurt conversion rates. It didn’t. People were just as likely to send a letter and call as they were to simply sign up and call.”
With their first campaign live, the organization quickly witnessed Speak4’s advantages in action.
The Click-To-Call tool proved to be a game-changer, making it easy for advocates to contact lawmakers with a single click. The organization was also able to track valuable data on call volume, duration, call status, and names of the most vocal advocates.
Example of a Speak4 Click-To-Call page prompting advocates to contact their lawmakers.
Another key advantage was Speak4’s streamlined campaign setup. Previously, the organization had to manage up to 20 separate campaign pages manually—a tedious and time-consuming process. Speak4’s platform eliminated that inefficiency, allowing them to consolidate everything under one campaign.
“We were able to launch our first campaign before even integrating Speak4 into our CRM. We needed to move fast, and Speak4’s modularity gave us the ability to pull data out after the fact and let us start mobilizing immediately.”
The Results
The campaign’s impact was immediate – and overwhelming.
The Click-To-Call campaign saw participation from over 6,000 advocates. Meanwhile, over 11,000 advocates participated in the email advocacy campaign, resulting in over 31,000 messages sent to Congress.
Beyond the numbers, the campaign shifted the conversation on Capitol Hill.
“We were hearing that calls from our side were starting to even the tide of negative calls against us. We found out our Click-To-Call campaign generated such a high volume of calls that it temporarily shut down numerous Congressional office phone lines.”
Ultimately, an overwhelming majority of senators voted to defeat the legislation the organization was advocating against.
Turning Advocacy Into Action — Fast
By switching to Speak4, this grassroots organization was able to mobilize advocates at unprecedented speed and scale.
With easy-to-use tools, high-impact features and hands-on customer support, they transformed their advocacy strategy and achieved a major policy victory — all in record time.
Thinking about making the switch? Let’s talk. Schedule a call today.