Salsa Scoop

Ideas for Change in America

Think not enough has changed?

Change.org is publicly launching its second annual "Ideas for Change in America" this coming Monday, January 25. But why wait for the public? Partners like you, me, and the Salsa-using nonprofit community can get a head start posting ideas at www.change.org/ideas.

You might want to get in at the front of the line in your issue area. Change.org says it will be giving nonprofits the email addresses of everyone who votes for their idea, so long as those users are not already signed into Change.org and do not opt out ... so there's list-building potential for everyone: the first Ideas for Change in America last year drew more than 7,500 ideas and 650,000 votes.

To participate, all a nonprofit has to do is submit an idea for a policy or program they want to see changed or implemented, and encourage supporters to vote for their idea.

Gets even better if you win. After the last round of public voting in February, Change.org will host an event in Washington, DC announcing the 10 winning ideas and presenting them to Obama Administration officials ... then promote said winners and their sponsoring organizations to more than 1 million members and 15,000 bloggers in Change.org's universe.

Question? Here's the FAQ.

 

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12:17 PM Jan 22, 2010 - 0 comments permalink

Salsa Weekly Highlight: Smoother Workflow to Demystify Email Auto-Responses

(From this week's Weekly Highlight email. Click here to sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday!)

It's the "Weekly Salsa Highlight," your quick hit on what's new in Salsa to help get the most out of your online program.

We're always making improvements to the Salsa headquarters that you use as a campaign manager, any time we find things that could work a bit smoother.

This week, I wanted to share a couple of recent enhancements to your Email Auto-Responses/Triggers section.

Easy-to-Understand List

We've pared down and clarified the display you get when you choose "List Auto-Responses" under the Email tab.

This simplified table of saved Auto-Responses should make finding and managing them a snap.

Enhanced Workflow

In response requests from you, our users, to clarify the process of building an Auto-Response, we've added tooltips (highlighted below), and even incorporated the popular "Auto-Generate Text from HTML" feature from our email blaster.

I hope these changes help your organization use the powerful Auto-Responses feature!

As always, you can find plenty more news, updates, and conversation throughout the week on SalsaCommons.org.

 

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03:25 PM Jan 20, 2010 - 0 comments permalink

All hands on deck for Coakley

As a Massachusetts Democrat, I grew up with my parents pointing to Teddy as the example of what it meant to stand up for your principles, even when it might be not be popular, even when everyone else shouted you down. This is not just a race for a Massachusetts Senate seat. This is a race to select someone to carry on the legacy of Teddy Kennedy. This is a race to ensure that national healthcare, the promise of 40 years of progressive politics, becomes law. Martha Coakley is the 60th vote for cloture and Scott Brown has vowed to be the 41st to block it. It's that simple.

 

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04:23 PM Jan 15, 2010 - 0 comments permalink

Salsa Weekly Highlight: Developers, Take Salsascript for a Spin

Salsa Developer icon

(From this week's Weekly Highlight email. Click here to sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday!)

It's the "Weekly Salsa Highlight," your quick hit on what's new in Salsa to help get the most out of your online program. And this week's highlight is geared to the tech geeks out there.

As always, you can find plenty of news, updates, and conversation on Salsa Commons. You'll find something else there that's the focus of this week's highlight: the Salsa Developer Zone.

Did you know that with minimal (HTML + Javascript) technical knowledge, you can create your own custom Salsa apps? We call our standards-driven programming language "Salsascript", and you can get a free developer account today to start creating and sharing custom Salsa "packages".

For instance, in an intro to SalsaScript given at a Developers' Bootcamp this week, Salsa engineer Jesse built an SMS text messaging application completely in SalsaScript from start to finish, and concluded the session by texting all the participants. (Super cool, huh?) But engineering expertise is not required: with a bit of Javascript knowledge, you too can cook Salsa to taste.

Want to find out how to customize Salsa apps? We're turning our Developers' Bootcamp into a recurring series, with the next sessions slated for early March. If you'd like to be sure you're in the loop or have some topics you'd like us to cover, drop a line to geoff at salsalabs dot com.

Does this seem exciting, but a bit above your skill level? Our API, which requires nothing more than HTML to start customizing Salsa forms, will ease you into the wonderful world of development. Contact members of our engineering team at developers at salsalabs dot com to learn more.

 

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02:44 PM Jan 14, 2010 - 0 comments permalink

Salsa Weekly Highlight: Auto-Generate Text Email from HTML

Auto-generate text button

(From this week's Weekly Highlight email. Click here to sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday!)

It's the "Weekly Salsa Highlight," your quick hit on what's new in Salsa to help get the most out of your online program -- in fact, your first Weekly Salsa Highlight of 2010. As always, check out Salsa Commons for news, updates, and conversation every day.

We've got many exciting upgrades on the way, but I thought we'd start the year off highlighting an existing feature that's not as well-known as it should be.

Auto-Generate Text Email from HTML Content

It's always important to take advantage of Salsa's ability to send both marked-up HTML versions and plain-text versions of email blasts, or the minority of your subscribers whose email inboxes only allow plain text might end up with an empty email.

But does that mean writing two emails every single time you send?

Actually, it just means pressing a button.

In the "Content" step of your email blast builder, just tab over to "Text Content" and click "Auto-generate Text from HTML." You'll instantly have a plain-text version of your current HTML content, complete with bracketed hyperlinks. Tweak it from there to your liking (for many emails, further editing won't even be necessary), and voila!

 

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12:00 AM Jan 06, 2010 - 2 comments permalink

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