Happy we made the switch to Muster

We have been very satisfied with Muster and are glad we made the switch from our previous vendor where everything was a la carte and the customer service was non-existent. Muster has been very attentive to our needs and the software itself is great. We've recommended Muster to several other non-profit organizations in our area because of our good experience with it.

Pros

We like how easy it is to use and that the price includes everything -- each feature is not a la carte.

Cons

When we first subscribed there were some kinks to be worked out particularly around loading lists, but those have been addressed.

Muster is a Must-have

We began using Muster in its early days as a tool for us to build a grassroots advocacy organization. Before Muster, we used MailChimp, which is great for sending email, but it doesn't provide the key functionality of calling your list to specific, political action and then tracking the outcomes. Muster was absolutely critical to our success when, last year, our city council passed the final vote to begin building rapid transit infrastructure for our city. Now, as our organization grows and matures, Muster's features allow us to keep our supporters engaged and keep our officials on the right track.

Pros

Muster is great for the following reasons: Excellent underlying data that makes segmentation and targeting your list simple. The team is fantastic at supporting their product. Sending quick updates is easy.

Cons

Muster could be better if: More integrations Greater ability to customize emails Organization-facing mobile apps for managing lists, signups, calls to action.

Effective Advocacy Tool

Using Muster has increased our reach on issues that matter most to our members. Our members find it easy to click through the prompts and customize their message to legislators, and they are able to easily share the Action Alerts among their networks as well.

Pros

Muster is an effective tool for engaging our association membership to participate in advocacy activities and engage their elected officials. With a few simple clicks, it makes it easy for people in our network to reach out and advocate.

Cons

There is not a way to modify the text in the messages we send to legislators—ie, bolding certain phrases, italicizing legislation, or bulletin key takeaways. This is disappointing that the letter the legislator receives is not eye-catching in that way, where they can easily pull out the key features of the message.

Powerful and economical

Pros

User-friendly with an easy to use interface. Economical - well suited for a growing organization. Very responsive team, actively seeking feedback and making changes to suit our campaign.

Cons

Data organization can be tricky. Large numbers of contacts can slow down the interface.

We needed a simple and straightforward 'contact your legislator' tool. We got that and more.

We increased our grassroots lobbying presence from practically non-existent to one of the most active groups in the state of Iowa. We also grew our activist network 4-fold, with the help of a lot of online ads that drove new activists to the action page.

Pros

It's very simple, you can begin using it almost immediately after signing up, and you can track and monitor every email/letter/phone call you produce. We signed up thinking we would only use the email action tool to get members of our organization more involved in grassroots lobbying. Instead, we used every tool available and grew our activist network 4-fold (with the help of a lot of online advertising to drive people to the action page).

Cons

When you create a new email action for users to click on and contact their lawmakers you can edit the landing page (which describes the purpose of the action and some talking points) but not the form letter. So if you want to freshen up a form letter you have to create a new email action. This was just a minor inconvenience.