Originally published Special features for campaigns on Medium.
In March, we wrote a post about some pervasive problems at Greenpeace — mainly, microsites. We detailed many of the issues, but the tiny Planet 4 team can only do so much. So we tinkered on with implementations (to 9 offices and counting), improving the prototype (see all the improvements here), wheeling, dealing and otherwise trying to get YOU to contribute to this global software project.
But we keep hearing about colleagues launching new sites, building unnecessary digital things and paying (a lot) for them. We went to the program side of the organization — our colleagues who design campaigns and content to address ecological problems — and we said “Hey! We’re nerds, and we really want to build the software that YOU need to get stuff done.”
A project was launched. Hello friends, we are starting to focus on some Planet 4 features specifically for campaigners.
Help us reimagine global campaigning. What do Greenpeace digital assets look like in the future? What features do YOU need to get global supporters acting on behalf of our planet.
This post documents the MVP requirements, but this is just the beginning. Do you have ideas? Get in touch!
Part of P4
To meet performance, security & legal requirements (see GDPR) out of the box, we will build these features as part of Planet 4. This will save costs by not requiring external agencies to launch a campaign page. It also helps us make sure that new features are benefiting every NRO and campaign. We already have a technical solution for releases and updates, and Planet 4 will allow us to keep track of our content, eventually retiring and archiving campaign pages. NROs who are not on P4 (yet) and want to participate in a global campaign will receive an instance of P4 to run campaigns on.
Another feature that should prove useful is import/export. Once a campaign page is built, a campaigner or editor can share that page around the organization. Others import the page, translate the content and voila! Sharing content is about to get easier.
Customizable design
We need to offer campaigns the ability to use their own look and feel. Campaign pages can, for example, use the usual Planet 4 header and navigation or choose a more minimal header. We are both building a process for 100% custom design and offering a number of flexible templates with customizable colors, fonts and more. The initial design options will be pulled from campaign style guides and the Planet 4 color palette, and we will provide some guidance to help people make beautiful pages. In short, the MVP will allow campaigners to be creative.
Syncing Leads to NRO databases
We can keep the supporter journey unbroken if we make sure no petition signups are lost. Currently only the most expensive microsites have this feature and they often aren’t kept technically up to date. We aim to support the major CRMs in use by the global organization. The campaign project pages will not store personal data for security reasons. We also want to avoid duplication — supporter data should be stored only in one place — to make sure if there’s a change or deletion request, we can easily accomplish that.
Global Counter
Currently most campaigns have no easy way to see how many petition signups they have globally. We know that a global counter in itself is a good way to encourage people to sign a petition. We aim to help both campaigns and our supporters visualize the impact a campaign is having. As a bonus, this will get us a step closer to features around data visualisation that we have on the Planet 4 roadmap.
Vanity URL
It’s not just a question of vanity to have one global URL for a campaign — it also makes it easy to run a global campaign on social media. A smart redirect plugin will make sure that the supporters land on a page which matches their country or previous choice.
Don’t forget, it’s part of Planet 4
P4 already has tons of features useful for campaigning, and this solution builds on an already engaging and successful piece of software. After the MVP, we want to focus on adding functionality that will extend these pages. Commonly used features like Timelines, Maps, Data visualizations and features that point towards deeper engagement need to be thought out and scoped. If there is something you know you want for your campaigns and aren’t sure if it’s already on the Planet 4 roadmap, please get in touch (or enter a feature request using the form here.)
We’re hiring!
To help us get this feature set out of our minds and onto the web, we’ll be looking for a couple of freelancers to join the P4 team. We will be looking for a PHP developer and a front-end developer who have some room in their schedules for a longer term, part-time freelance contract. Know someone? Get in touch!