Salsa Scoop

Blog Day 2007

Earlier this month, the DIA blog quietly turned two, making this this our third Blog Day.

I find I'm not able to write this with quite the gusto of years past, and indeed I'm in an overall bit of a blogging -- well, let's say "fallow" rather than "lull", shall we? Look, the Internet doesn't exactly need another post bemoaning overall powerlessness in the face of some truly awful stuff, so I won't write that post.* But without wallowing in the awful particulars, it's kind of a drag to muster true enthusiasm for the art of building Facebook groups for interchangeable office-seekers in the current climate. No? Well, I never claimed to have the strongest stomach. In such times, though, everyone needs a few gin joints full of amity and sorrows, still hanging out on some fringe of suddenly-choice real estate where the margins would be better if they just sold to Hooters like the joint across the way. Here's the company with whom I'm drowning my troubles these days:

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09:27 AM Aug 31, 2007 - 2 comments permalink

Micro Fundraising Tips

The name of the mirco-fundraising game is this: Turn strangers into friends, friends into donors, and donors into fundraisers. I got this sage advise from Peter Dietiz of foik, who offered an insightful webinar on microfundraising through NTEN’s webinar series. Finally, there are a variety of tools that make this easier said than done recipe for success achievable. Mirco-fundraising is also referred to as group, peer, or person-to-person fundraising. This strategy essentially gives someone the tools they need to collect money on behalf of the cause of their choice.

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06:07 PM Aug 29, 2007 - 2 comments permalink

The pre-Salsa DIA Platform: Not Long for Support

As Christian hinted in the latest of his Salsa status reports, the pre-Salsa DIA tool won't be available much longer.

Since Salsa's public release in March, we've been supporting two different user platforms in parallel -- setting up new users on Salsa only while gradually transitioning long-timers. That was always an interim solution, and with Salsa now by far the more robust platform and all new development happening on that side, it's approaching time to fully transition everyone and everything. We know that's a daunting prospect for many -- the need to acquaint oneself with a different software interface is nothing to be taken lightly. Longer-standing DIA users who haven't moved will have a DIA contact to help them navigate the shoals, and should expect to hear from someone in our shop over the next few weeks to get things underway. It can be done. Hundreds of campaign managers are using Salsa already. In the meantime, if you haven't been in Salsa lately -- or even if you have -- it's not a bad time to (re)acquaint yourself. Questions? Concerns? Abject terror? Can't stand the wait and want to move now? Drop us a note.

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07:55 AM Aug 29, 2007 - 5 comments permalink

Salsa Status Report: II

Welcome to the second of our weekly Salsa Status Reports. Our old platform is quickly approaching its EOL (End of Life). In preparation we want to keep you up to date with all the improvements we are making to the system. Each report will contain information about major updates, bug fixes, enhancements and links to documentation as it develops. If there is a particular thing you'd like to see in these reports please comment below.

BUG: Endless loop fixed, improving performance (medium)
BUG: Exempted the supporter table from linked cloning to reduce the possibility of long copy times (minor)
BUG: Fixed major cause of random logout (major) ¹
BUG: Moved the "results per page" selection box on list pages down so that wouldn't be obscured by the Logout button. (minor)
BUG: Signups on org2 work again
BUG: Validator for 'in one of' comma-separated list now allows spaces in values (minor)
BUG/ENHANCEMENT: The list of events for the Event History condition on the Supporter Query page had multiple events appearing on one line. Also removed the random description text appended to the line which was breaking the table and didn't really serve a purpose. (minor)
DEBUT: Org2 created, a second server for better performance and scalability (major)
DEVELOPMENT: Actions! (Keep an eye out for more info.) (major)
DEVELOPMENT: Updated the select Supporter ajaxy code for use with other tables (medium)
ENHANCEMENT: Added a disclaimer to the email summary page about conversion rates only applying to salsa blasts and links (minor)
ENHANCEMENT: Added ability to add multiple event fees in events workflow (medium)
ENHANCEMENT: Changed storefront layout from just a long vertical list of items to a grid format. Added thumbnails for items on the main shop page and smaller thumbnails next to items in the cart. Added "Billing Address" label to the check out page. (medium)
ENHANCEMENT: List/Upload images paginated (major)
ENHANCEMENT: Permissioning switch from tabs to packages (major) ²
ENHANCEMENT: Updated the relationship tab of the supporter page to use the select Supporter code (medium)
STYLES: Fixed CSS for letter to the editor media contacts (minor)

Have questions about this? Leave a comment and I'll do my best to explain!

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03:19 PM Aug 28, 2007 - 4 comments permalink

Cagematch?

Wild Apricot Blog is rockin' a case study of The Humane Society of the United States in a discussion on how using both Myspace and Facebook to promote advocacy work is relevant, but even more important is knowing the difference. Kind of like the difference between apples and...apricots. I think it’s a little too early to tell, but so far, we’ve seen more success with fundraising on Facebook, and advocacy on MySpace. This is mostly because of the third party applications that are available on Facebook, which make it easier to participate in group fundraising...Our advocacy banners are very popular on MySpace, but people don’t really have any place to put them on Facebook.

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12:55 PM Aug 23, 2007 - 5 comments permalink

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