Overview of Actions data strategies and 3rd party services

The Actions app is a powerful online advocacy tool that leverages a number of different data strategies and 3rd party services to ensure the proper targeting and delivery of messages by your constituents. Here's an overview of those key elements. Installation instructions for the Actions app and its 3rd party services can be found here.

How a visitor's address is matched to Who Can Act a geographic or legislative area

When a visitor comes to an Action page in Soapbox, they will be asked for their address to determine if they live in the geographic or legislative area you have defined for Who Can Act. Soapbox uses Google Civic API to determine if they fall in this area. Google Civic API is a free service that must be setup for your site. Instructions can be found here.

How visitors are matched with elected officials as Pre-Defined Targets

After a visitor has been verified as living in the geographic or legislative area you have defined, Soapbox uses Google Civic API to match their address with their appropriate elected official and displays details of that official to the visitor with the text of the letter they are sending.

How messages are delivered to targets of Actions

Messages as sent to targets using different 3rd party services depending on the type of target:

• United States House of Representatives: Messages sent to U.S. House of Representatives members are delivered using the U.S. House's Communicating with Congress API service. This service is preconfigured in the Actions app. No setup is required.
• United States Senate: Messages sent to the U.S. Senate are delivered by the Actions app using the KnowWho communication service. A KnowWho Customer Code is required to enable U.S. Senators as Pre-Defined Targets. For details on obtaining a KnowWho Customer Code, please feel free to submit a ticket to us.
  
  NOTE: Inclusion of the U.S. Senate as targets for an Action is an add on service. Please review our Pricing page for details.
• State Lower House, State Upper House, Governor, and Lieutenant Governor: Messages to state and local officials are sent to the email address for the official in Google Civic API using an Amazon Simple Email Services account for your organization that you have configured in the Actions app.
• Custom targets: Messages to state and local officials are sent to the email address for the official in Google Civic API using an Amazon Simple Email Services account for your organization that you have configured in the Actions app.

How supporter and letter data is saved to Soapbox

Supporter data can be viewed in Soapbox on the Supporters tab for a given Action. Clicking on the name of the supporter will open a modal popup displaying details of their message(s).

You can also export a CSV file of supporters or letters by clicking the Export icon on the Supports tab.

How supporter and letter data is saved to Salesforce

Supporter data is saved to Salesforce as a Lead record and auto-converted by the Soapbox Actions for Salesforce packages. Letter data is saved in a custom field on the Campaign Member record associated with that supporter. Information about the target of the letter is stamped to this custom field along with details of the letter.