GetActive: A Year in Review of One-Click Advocacy

Last summer the Equality Federation invested in a system called GetActive, an online database with e-mail, advocacy, and fundraising capabilities. As a Federation member, the Kentucky Fairness Alliance received free access for the first year.

We took our time, moving member information into GetActive from our old database, working through the training manuals, no doubt driving technical support people crazy. Since then we’ve delivered nearly a half million individual e-mails, full of news, information, and opportunities to get involved in the democratic process.

The first message we sent out announced the passage of a GLBT-inclusive hate crimes amendment in the U.S. House of Representatives. Right away there were messages in our inbox: people thanking us for bringing them the good news.

Not long after that, we tried out our first one-click advocacy campaign. We provided our supporters a simple message asking their state legislators to support fairness in the 2006 General Assembly.

In a positive sign of things to come, that very first campaign landed KFA in the news. Supporter Amanda McWane of Oldham County received a strange and dismissive reply after she sent an e-mail to State Rep. David Osborne. KFA put her in touch with Louisville media, and the story spread from there. Read the Advocate’s coverage.

Throughout the legislative session, Kentucky’s elected officials heard from fairness allies in unprecedented numbers. GetActive’s one-click advocacy tools are empowering us to bring your voices to the table, your stories to Frankfort.

Another proud moment in our year of one-click advocacy came this spring, when Gov. Fletcher turned his back on calls to demand fairness of institutions receiving state funds. When hundreds of you clicked through the e-mail you received, urging Fletcher to veto the $11 million allocation to the University of the Cumberlands, you discovered that Fletcher’s e-mail address had been disabled.

Undeterred, we said we would print your letters and deliver them in person. Executive Director Christina Gilgor presented your letters to the Governor’s office with the capital press corps in tow. Once again, you didn’t just speak up for yourself in Frankfort; you raised the voice and visibility of fair-minded Kentuckians in the public, media conversation.

The first year of a new innovation will always be unprecedented. Our challenge going into 2007 is to extend, and build upon, the momentum 2006 has given us. Our e-mail list has hovered consistently around 5,000 contacts since our initial launch. Of those, more than 2,000 have participated in a one-click advocacy campaign. We need you in order to beat those numbers in 2007.

We have a tough legislative session ahead of us. Already the anti-fairness extremists in our legislature are gearing up to ban equal access to employment benefits. No doubt we’ll face another attempt to take away job protections from residents of Covington, Louisville, and Lexington. And we will continue to press for legislation that includes gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in human rights protections statewide.

Please, keep up your excellent work. Send e-mails to your legislators, and keep using that Tell-a-Friend button. The larger our network of allies the more power we hold in the legislature and in the press.

Our thanks to you, our e-activists, and our thanks to the Equality Federation for its invaluable role in making e-activism in Kentucky possible.