Salsa's campaign managers should have received the notification, but we pushed out an upgraded e-mail package last week.  Though the old e-mail tool will remain supported until June, the new tool is all that and a bag of chips right now.

Here's how to add the package:

• Click on "Accounts" in the upper right hand corner of your dashboard
• Then, click "Manage Your Packages" in the bottom right-hand box
• "Click here to add the new Email Blast Package"

That's it! Once you've installed it, you can begin e-mailing with it immediately, and you'll find all the great options you're used to, plus some brand new functionality.

Not sure?  Want to test the waters?  Documentation for the new e-mail package is already available. We'll also be offering webinars to help orient everyone this afternoon at 2 p.m. and on Monday, March 30. (All future e-mail webinars will use the new package.)

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This is a question we get a lot:  how can I customize a donation page to behave in a storefront-like fashion -- choosing multiple gift types that result in a single automatically calculated sum?

Mike Heavers of Maverick Digital came up with a nifty solution you can see in action on this donation page.

It's just a bit of script in the page's Custom Donation HTML field, and can easily be tweaked for your own page.

<script language="JavaScript"><!--
function getTotal() {
      document.donation_data.amount.value = parseInt(document.donation_data.memberdues.value) + parseInt(document.donation_data.regamount.value);

    document.donation_data.VARCHAR0.value = document.donation_data.RADIO0.value;
    document.donation_data.VARCHAR1.value = document.donation_data.memberdues.value;
    document.donation_data.VARCHAR2.value = document.donation_data.regamount.value;

}



//--></script>

<br/>

<div class="formRow">

<label for="fc4">Join or renew your membership here: </label>

<select id="fc4" class="blockInput" name="memberdues" onchange="getTotal()">
<option value="0">I do not need to renew my membership</option>
<option value="50">Voting & Assoc Members- Budget under $1m: $50 dues</option>
<option value="100">Voting & Assoc Members- Budget over $1m: $100 dues</option>
<option value="20">Individuals: $20 dues</option>
<option value="10">Students & Seniors: $10 dues</option>
</select>

</div>



<div class="formRow">
<label for="fc34">Registration Fee <span class="required">*</span>: </label>


<select id="fc34" class="blockInput" name="regamount" onchange="getTotal()">
<option selected="">SELECT ONE:</option>
<option value="150">MEMBER-Early Bird Registration Package Only (before 4/17): $150</option>
<option value="225">MEMBER-Early Bird Registration Package w / Gala Ticket (before 4/17): $225</option>
<option value="250">MEMBER-Regular Convention Registration Package Only: $250</option>
<option value="325">MEMBER-Regular Convention Registration Package w/Gala Ticket: $325</option>
<option value="250">NONMEMBER – Early Bird Registration Package ONLY (before 4/17): $250</option>
<option value="450">NONMEMBER – Early Bird Registration Package w/Gala Ticket (before 4/17): $450</option>
<option value="350">NONMEMBER – Regular Convention Registration Package ONLY: $350</option>
<option value="550">NONMEMBER – Regular Convention Registration Package w/Gala Ticket: $550</option>
<option value="200">Gala Only Ticket - $200</option>
</select>
</div>
<br/>

<div class="formRow">
<label for="amount">Total Amount: </label>
<input type="text" name="amount" readonly="readonly">
</div>



<input type="hidden" name="VARCHAR0" >
<input type="hidden" name="VARCHAR1" >
<input type="hidden" name="VARCHAR2" >

<input type="hidden" value="Email,RADIO0,First_Name,Last_Name,Street,City,State,Zip,regamount,amount" name="required"/>

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All politics is local, after all.

TechPresident toots the horn of Wired For Change -- which provides the Salsa CRM platform for political campaigns and basically anyone that isn't a 501(c)3 -- for its innovative DLCCWeb product.  DLCCWeb enabled Democratic congressional state legislative candidates to set up an entire "website in a box" for $40 a month. (Sure could've saved Charles Rangel some cash.)

Quoth TechPrez:

many have missed one of the more fascinating online programs this cycle: The Democratic Legisative Campaign Committee’s DLCCWeb program.

Developed for the DLCC by Wired for Change the concept is simple: For $40 a month any Demcoratic State legislative candidate can have a website, online contribution system with ActBlue, and the web marketing tools they need to make their web program successful.

Compared to just one cycle ago and the dizzying array options at the time – ranging from too expensive to taking too much time – the DLCCWeb is a much simpler and cheaper option for your state legislative campaigns. With this price tag everyone from low-cost campaigns in New Hampshire to high-cost large campaigns in states like Texas and California found ways to use it to help their campaign.

Which is not only nice, but it's a price point cheap enough that campaigns can keep the doors open easily in between elections.  In fact, DLCC is already landing signups for the next election cycle.

Ultimately, all these accolades are for Salsa, the toolset used by both Wired and its nonprofit cousin DemocracyInAction -- for the flexibility and extensibility of Salsa, which was built precisely for the plasticity to plug into new features, applications and uses.

With the November launch of Salsa Commons and its developer zone, we're already starting to see some fascinating tinkering, like this rebuild of our donation page by Public Citizen.  And if you hit one of our public forum calls this week on feature set buildouts -- like extensions to incorporate a full donor database into Salsa -- you got a sneak peak at some of what's cooking in our part of that kitchen.

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