How the Free Schuylkill River Coalition Used Email Advocacy, Blogs & Constituent Mail to:
*Grow their list of supporters more than ten-fold
*Line up elected official support at the local, state and national level
*Increase participation at local rallies
*Force a major railroad company into a negotiating position
The good news is that a $14 million pedestrian pathway along Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River is finally close to completion. The bad news is that CSX Railroad, one of the largest rail networks in the United States, is threatening to close existing crossings that allow Schuylkill River Park residents to cross over the company’s railroad tracks to get to the new path.
To the surprise of many, the powerful railroad company is finding itself forced to rethink its plans due to a small band of residents that used the Internet to organize disaggregated constituents and elected officials into a dynamic force called the Free Schuylkill River Coalition.
Free Email Advocacy Tools
For their first action, the residents launched an email advocacy campaign to see how many people they could get to email the Governor objecting to the grade closings. To launch the email advocacy campaign, they used a free email advocacy service for grassroots organizations called CitizenSpeak (http://www.citizenspeak.org).
They created a CitizenSpeak account, and filled out a form that asked for the text of the email letter and the email address of the Governor. CitizenSpeak automatically generated a unique web address specific to their campaign. The coalition emailed this link to their local neighborhood association’s members - or at least the 50 members that the association had email addresses for.
The results were overwhelming. Remember, they only emailed 50 people to participate in their email advocacy campaign. Yet over 150 people participated in the first week, thanks to a CitizenSpeak “Tell-a-Friend” feature that allows participants to easily forward messages to their circle of contacts. Using CitizenSpeak’s reporting functions, the Coalition was able to download the 150 participants’ contact information and their personal statements.
An overwhelming percentage of participants provided personal statements in their emails which helped refine the group’s issues. Personal statements resulted in a broader list of demands which were reflected in a second email campaign that netted a 30% increase in the group’s list of supporters, once again, at zero cost.
The Blog
In the text of their email advocacy letter, the coalition invited readers to link to their newly created blog (www.freetheriverpark.org.) The blog provided additional information about the campaign, including pictures of grade crossings in other cities that refuted CSX’s liability concerns.
To create their blog, the coalition used TypePad (www.typepad.com), a low-cost and easy-to-use hosted weblogging service that gives users a rich set of features to immediately share and publish information. With TypePad, it’s easy to create photo albums, add text, invite and manage comments, add trackbacks, and monitor weblog stats. No HTML skills required.
Constituent Mail
To keep in regular contact with their growing constituency, and to maintain high levels of interest and readiness to participate in future actions, the Free Schuylkill River Park Coalition signed up for Constituent Mail (http://www.constituentmail.com) – an affordable and easy-to-use online email management service that lets organizations maintain and segment a database of users for personalized, HTML email communications with click through and open tracking capabilities.
The coalition used Constituent-Mail to email their list of supporters and invite them to attend the First Free Schuylkill River Park Presidents’ Day Rally. The email directed them to the blog where visitors could download flyers to promote the rally and learn more about their cause. Despite freezing temperatures, more than 100 people turned out for the rally. Reporters were on hand from KYW Radio, three TV stations and the Philadelphia Inquirer to help spread the word about their cause.
Campaign Outcomes
As a result of integrating various internet tools with traditional organizing strategies, the Free Schuylkill River Park campaign has multiplied their list of supporters ten-fold, averaged over 40 hits on their website a day, totaled over 4,000 hits on their blog’s photo album, and most importantly won a major concession from CSX. Despite the railroad company’s previous hard line refusal to meet with their group or city officials, CSX has now agreed to engage in negotiations with the city and to address the Coalition.