Although Faithful America had inherited an impressive supporter list, the young organization had very few funds in their war chest, and had not been able to impressively grow its funds in the few months they had been up and running. In order to increase their presence during a critical presidential race, Faithful America turned to Salsa, swiftly raising over $7,000 in just one weekend. Now that's a quick turnaround.

No Money, No Voice

On the campaign trail, political candidates are so consumed heaving attacks on each other, they rarely think about the collateral damage of their remarks. But when Gov. Sarah Palin stated that "A smalltown mayor is like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities," her ignorant and hurtful remark maligned tens of thousands of people of faith who serve as community organizers in churches, synagogues, and mosques across the United States. Faithful America knew they had to step in and defend these earnest and hard-working casualties of political warfare. As a young group with little money in their coffers, however, Faithful America could not afford the ad space they sought in local newspapers to respond to the offensive remark. Unless they could raise some money, Faithful America would have to remain voiceless in their anger.

DIA Helps Faithful America Find its Voice

While low in funds, Faithful America did have a wealth of supporters' names, inherited from an organization who shared their mission to unite people of different faiths behind a shared vision of the common good across the nation and the globe. In order to best mobilize these supporters at this critical moment, Faithful America turned to Salsa and its ingredients for organizing.

Although Faithful America was new to online organizing, Salsa made it easy to put together an email blast and corresponding donation page. Over the course of a single weekend, Faithful America raised roughly $7,615. They were then able to respond to Gov. Palin's comment through a series of ads in the local newspapers in the cities where Gov. Palin had made her remarks, thanking community organizers for their hard work and dedication to community betterment.

Keeping the Faith

Since that first campaign, Faithful America has consistently utilized Salsa to keep their movement and their community strong, and their voice heard by media nationwide. Before the first Presidential debate was held in September 2008, Faithful America raised money and placed radio ads to educate voters, and Faithful America supporters responded so overwhelmingly to an action alert calling for them to contact debate moderator Jim Lehrer, demanding that he challenge the candidates when they gave an untruthful response during the debates, that Lehrer's office contacted Faithful America to comment on the overwhelming push.

Faith in America's Future

With Salsa's help, Faithful America has grown their supporter list to over 100,000 supporters, and the organization has processed over $52,000 of donations. Beth Dahlman, Online Organizer for Faithful America, says it best: "Salsa has been a large help, especially as we were learning the ropes in the online community. The simple (but powerful!) tools made experimenting easy, and of course, we would never have raised over $7,000 [in one weekend]!"