Sandbox

We are an established community human rights organization in southern Arizona looking for some ideas on ways to allow people to e-mail their representatives through our website. We have just put in place a new Joomla website, MUCH more advanced than what we had previously, but are having some trouble finding a really smooth way, or already existing component, to let people take action and e-mail their representatives directly from our website. The current system we have is kind of clunky and doesn't incorporate into our CMS (its some custom php code that is wrappered into the site)

Any help or previous experience with this would be incredibly beneficial. Check out the site at http://www.borderaction.org

I help two nonprofits that use Democracy In Action (DIA) - right now I am trying to figure out how to bridge user info between DIA and Joomla. Using tools from a provider like DIA means they keep the database of contacts (who is currently in office and who didn't get reelected, etc.) and we can track how many supporters participate in an on-line action. DIA is not as expensive as some but isn't free either.

http://www2.democracyinaction.org/

There are a number of other organizations that provide similar services as DIA.

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For free, if you don't need/want to know how many folks participate, you might look at adding a websticker from Congress.org/Capwiz - an excellent organization - though their paid for/integrated tools are expensive, the service provided is hard, if not impossible to beat. Still you can use their webstickers for free.



It takes the user back to the Congress.org site, but I still consider it a great service.

They have media contact stickers you can embed as well.



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Other places to look for suggestions:
TechSoup
ePolitics - good info and they might have some tools recommended - I don't remember.
Might be something in the winners of the Sunlight Foundations mashup contest.

Hope that helps a little.

Here is a good list w/ more in the comments:
http://www.backspace.com/action/advocacy_tools.php