Admin guide to getting started with SupporterBase
Accessing your SupporterBase
Once you have completed the launch process, including adding your payment details, we will work through the following steps to provide you with access to your new SupporterBase.
- Provisioning your SupporterBase: After you connect your nation, choose a plan and add a credit card through the launch process. We will begin provisioning your new SupporterBase. Please note this process may take 1-2 days.
- Confirming a domain for connection: By default, we will connect your SupporterBase to your main domain in the format nation_slug.supporterbase.com so it’s available online at a URL based on your nation’s slug. If you have another domain (or subdomain) you would like us to use, please let us know and we can arrange that. We can help your team complete this step at any time if you’re unsure which domain you wish to use at the outset.
- Providing access to your SupporterBase: Once we have provisioned and connected your new SupporterBase, we will send an invite to your nominated email address so you can create your account and log in as an admin. You will then be able to invite other admins to your account.
Bonus setup features
As an added bonus, we can also set up the following extra features to your SupporterBase upon request:
- A searchable map of all your supporter groups, as at the bottom of this page: https://www.acf.org.au/community_groups
- A user-facing form on each supporter group calendar page that allows new members to sign up directly to their local group, e.g. https://actionnetwork.environmentvictoria.org.au/repower_north_east
Just let us know if this is something you're interested in!
Customising your SupporterBase
Once you have logged in as an admin, there are a few things you might like to do before getting volunteers and supporters involved.
- Customising your settings. Under the Settings menu item on the left-hand side navigation, you can update important Configurations such as your logo and brand colours, privacy settings, NationBuilder details, terms of use for volunteer leaders, and the content of automatic notifications.
- For detailed support documentation on the various settings available, please take a look at the articles we have added to the Settings section.
- Create some supporter groups! You can learn more about creating and managing your supporter groups under our Groups section.
- Add some supporters to those groups. There are several ways of ensuring the right supporters are added to the right groups. For further information on adding supporters, you can review our support documentation here
- Invite some captains and vice-captains to lead those groups. This article has a few more details about how to do that.
Onboarding volunteer leaders
An effective onboarding process for volunteer leaders will be an important factor in the success of your distributed organising strategy. This includes both the training and support required to confidently use SupporterBase on a technical level, as well as the upfront and ongoing organisational mentoring, advice and support that can help your volunteer leaders be effective grassroots organisers.
- To help with the technical training, you can refer SupporterBase leaders to our support docs and video tutorials.
- You can also review our Onboarding_Template as a starting point in creating your own custom training materials.
- When it comes to training your leaders in organising methods and tactics, this will of course be very specific to your organisation, your campaign objectives and local context. We hope our Onboarding Template will provide a handy initial framework for you to refer to, but you ultimately know your supporters, operating environment and organisational processes better than we ever will, so we would definitely advise you to craft an onboarding experience that will best serve your volunteers.