When you create an email blast, there will be a tab for "Theme".   Click on "New custom theme" and you will be able to clone the existing one and then start making changes to it.

Yes! NationBuilder has a concept of "broadcasters," which are the people who responsible for all your external communications. You connect an email address, Twitter and Facebook account to each broadcaster. When you send an email blast, you select which broadcaster it should come from, and the email address associated with that broadcaster is the one which is used. The same thing is true for each autoresponse - you just select which broadcaster you want to use from a dropdown menu.

For more on this, check out our screencast on setting up an email blast.

For email recipient information, we support {{ recipient.first_name_or_friend }} {{ recipient.full_name_or_friend }} {recipient.email }} {{ recipient.id }}

All the {{ broadcaster }} and {{ mailing }} variables are available, too.

"Deferred" is a new data point provided by NationBuilder so users can identify which email addresses are delaying delivery of a nation's content.

Reasons for deferring emails include but are not limited to: 

• the receiving server doesn’t recognize your IP, and is afraid you’re sending spam; 

• the receiving server doesn’t have any open ports to receive email; 

• the recipient’s mailbox is full; 

• some recipients have marked your mail as spam, but not enough for the server to block you. Instead, they will refuse to receive more until they see what the rest of your current recipients do. 

You can read more about deferred email delivery here: http://docs.sendgrid.com/docs/email-deliverability/what-is-throttling/ 

First, follow the instructions for getting a custom domain set up with NationBuilder. Let us know that you'll be using Google Apps so we can properly configure the domain settings.

After your custom domain URL is live, apply for a Google Apps account. You can start the process for a free account - with up to 10 users and custom email addresses - here.

Early in the setup process, Google will ask you to verify site ownership. Click on the "Alternate Methods" tab, and choose the "Add a meta tag" option.

Copy the verification code - it will be bracketed by questions marks. You need just the code, not the whole HTML snippet.

Go to your NationBuilder control panel and click Pages > Settings > Analytics set up, and paste the verification code in the field marked "Google site verification key."

Return to the Google Apps setup and click "verify." Note that it can take 30-60 minutes before the verification code is recognized by Google.

If you've already set up a custom domain and want to add Google Apps with Gmail, just shoot us an email and we'll be happy to adjust the settings to optimize your email capabilities.

email CNAME sendgrid.net.

smtpapi._domainkey CNAME dkim.sendgrid.net.

smtpapi._domainkey.email CNAME dkim.sendgrid.net.

with google apps:

TXT record - "v=spf1 a mx include:_spf.google.com include:sendgrid.net ~all"

without google apps:

TXT record - "v=spf1 a mx include:sendgrid.net ~all"

Sending out text message blasts to your supporters is as simple as going to your broadcaster page, setting up a new phone number (which NationBuilder provides you with), drafting your text blast, choosing your recipients, and sending it out. Text message replies from your supporters will appear in your broadcaster's dashboard as well as the overall control panel dashboard for everyone in the organization to see. Learn more by viewing our texting screencast.

NationBuilder interacts with Twitter in several ways. The first and most important takes place when you connect your Twitter account to a Broadcaster.  

Broadcasters are the voices of your nation and are completely separate from people in your NationBuilder database. When you connect a Twitter account to one of your broadcasters by going to Messages > [broadcaster name] > Settings> Twitter, all of the followers of that Twitter account become supporters of your nation, and are entered into your database.

From your broadcaster dashboard you will be able to compose and send tweets. This is useful when you have a Twitter account for your organization and multiple staffers are going to be using it. Once your Twitter is connected to your broadcaster, all retweets and mentions of that account will appear in the executive dashboard. 

Another way NationBuilder interacts with Twitter is by letting your users sign in with their Twitter accounts. This is helpful because NationBuilder will pull their public information and profile picture from that account for that particular person's control panel profile. 

Nationbuilder allows you set up a phone number and forward calls to your own number. If you don't pick up and the call goes to voicemail, that message is recorded in your control panel dashboard for everyone in your staff to see and listen to. If you already have that person's number saved in your database then you will see who the person that called is, if not the number will appear on its own. 

NationBuilder is an application that powers websites and community databases. It also enables sharing on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks. After actions like RSVPing for an event or making a donation on a NationBuilder-powered site, you may be prompted to share that action on Twitter and Facebook. If you've not already authorized NationBuilder to access those applications on your behalf, you will have to do so to enable this sharing function. If you authorize your Facebook account, NationBuilder will share the post to your Facebook without you having to leave the site you're on, and enable deeper integration with that site.

These Facebook authorization settings are specific to the site you're using, and NationBuilder will not post anything on your Facebook that you do not authorize.

For any page in your control panel, click Page Settings > Social media.  The excerpt is right there.

Facebook tends to cache this information for a long time, but you can clear Facebook's cache by using the Facebook debug tool.  It's a little trick, just put the public URL of your page into that form and Facebook will re-get your page.

If you previously connected a Facebook page to a broadcaster and have noticed post likes are no longer appearing in your activity stream, a Facebook authentication problem is most likely the cause. You can solve this by simply disconnecting and then reconnecting the Facebook page.

To do this, click on Messages and select the broadcaster whose Facebook page the problem relates to. Then click Settings > Facebook and click Disconnect Facebook page. Next, re-select the Facebook page. Within a short amount of time, new post likes should begin appearing in the activity stream.

Facebook no longer allows applications access to that information. 

NationBuilder has two note types. The first is a public note that you can post to someone's public profile. It will be visible to everyone.

The second is a private note for administrators. It is part of NationBuilder's social CRM and will appear in the dashboard activity stream. You can also display one private note prominently in the administrative view of a person's profile. This note can be used to keep track of important information about donors and supporters or to exchange background information between nation admins.