FAQ: How do I email the creators of all petitions in an effort?

If your organization is running an effort, you may wish to contact the leaders of those petitions. Contacting the leaders of all petitions in an effort isn't possible via ControlShift, but that sort of email can be sent from your organization's CRM or mailing tool. 

For all organizations, a list of petition leaders can be generated by going to the admin homepage > Efforts > choose the effort > Petitions > Export Data.

The exported CSV will include information about all petitions, including contact information for their creators. The resulting CSV can then be uploaded into your CRM or mailer tool to build your email's recipient list.

For organizations using ActionKit, it's also possible to query the list of petition leaders from within ActionKit. To get started, log into ActionKit and go to the Reports page. Then click New Query > Custom SQL.

The custom SQL will look like: 

SELECT u.id, u.email, u.first_name
FROM core_user u 
JOIN core_action a ON (a.user_id = u.id) 
JOIN core_actionfield af ON (af.parent_id = a.id) 
JOIN core_page_tags pt ON (pt.page_id = a.page_id) 
JOIN core_tag t ON (t.id = pt.tag_id) 
WHERE 
t.name = 'ControlShift Effort: save-the-sea-animals' AND 
af.name = 'controlshift_role' AND 
af.value = 'creator';

You can change which fields you're pulling from the user record – in our example we're pulling the user's ID, email address, and first name.

You will also need to change the name of the effort. In our example, t.name = 'ControlShift Effort: save-the-sea-animals' refers to an effort called "Save the Sea Animals." The name of the effort will need to be updated to the appropriate name for the effort your organization is running. An easy way to confirm the correct t.name is to go to the import page in ActionKit that mirrors one of the petitions in the effort. In the Tags section of that petition, you'll find the appropriate "ControlShift Effort:" tag.

Add the "Mailer" category to the report before saving, and it will be possible to use the report for mail targeting.