It’s early 2017 and America is gearing up for an undoubtedly active political year. With a new administration and many changes occurring, people are speaking out and protests are popping up everywhere. It seem every time you turn on the news, you see communities across the nation are coming together to not only show their support for civil liberties, but also enact legislation and advocate on behalf of groups facing discrimination and inequality. Uprisings and protests are taking place daily in major cities and small towns, petitions are circulating and individuals are calling their representatives in congress. People in your community are empowered to create social change NOW and are eager to express their opinions.

There are ways for individuals in your community to get involved. The framework is available to enact social change. The Jewish Community Relations Council and synagogue groups like Social Action Committees have created a means for people to come together to work towards changing society for the better. Organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and AIPAC make it possible to advocate on behalf of those who need support.

If you’re part of a Jewish organization that coordinates social action, it is absolutely critical to make it easy and quick for people in your community to get involved and take action on what matters to them. Members of your community are most likely to seek out information and make the first contact either by phone or through your website, rather than stopping by your organization. This means you need to make it easy for them. This set of questions will help you get started:

For Phone Calls

• If somebody calls your organization looking to get involved, is there a clear way for them to do so?
• Are they directed to a key staff member who is readily available to work with them?
• Does your organization take a record of their contact information?
• Does your organization follow-up with this person in a timely manner? 

For Website Visitors

• Is your contact information readily visible?
• Is there an area of your website dedicated to volunteering and/or advocacy?
• What is the user experience like for your reader?
• Is the visitor greeted with a form?
• Is there an area to provide information?
• Does the website show examples of ways the organization has come together in the past?
• Does the website show context surrounding issues that the reader may be interested in?
• Does the website provide multimedia or photos of people just like your interested reader to further motivate him or her to get involved?
• Does the website seem credible?
• Does the organization seem like they create constructive change? 

These are all important considerations as you work towards organizing your community. Your website, especially, is a tool that can reach like-minded individuals and provide a digital gathering ground for them to come together and strengthen their voice through building a critical mass and working with key leadership.

We offer a number of tools that can be easily and affordably implemented in your website to make it easy for your community to come together. These tools included:

Letters to the Editor– Getting the word out is easy when you encourage your supporters to contact one of over 8,000 local, regional, or national media outlets in our database.

Contact Your Elected Officials– Drive your base to call or write their elected officials at the national or state level.

Call Talk Radio– Encourage your members to voice their support by calling one of the hundreds of talk-radio shows in our database. Our response form lets them provide valuable feedback to you: Did they get through? Did they make it on air? What was their experience like?

Petitions– Give your members an easy way to reaffirm their support and help you grow your list with a viral petition campaign.

Volunteer– Some supporters give money, but many will want to give time and can offer valuable services. Encouraging your supporters to volunteer for your organization is an excellent “next step.”

Tell a Friend– A fast way to get the word out, and an excellent way to identify your most vocal and persuasive supporters.

Social Networking–  Leading a petition campaign, and want to make your message go viral? Our Facebook integration lets supporters post an update to their wall with links back to your site so their friends and family can take part, too.

It’s not just about what tools you offer your supporters, though, it’s about making them part of a broader strategy, making them easy to use, and making them effective. We pre-fill forms with all information about your supporter that we safely can to make it as easy as possible for them to act on your behalf. You can easily daisy-chain one form to another to encourage your supporters to take more than one action, and all of our advocacy tools support unlimited custom fields.

Your community is ready to come together and take action. Having the tools to do so makes it easy for your organization to support them and create a smooth, seamless and effective way to get involved. Get in touch with us at My Jewish Website for more information or for a FREE 15-minute consultation to see how we can help you with all your website design needs.