We revised the SMS blast method to optimise support for larger blasts and avoid timeout errors.

Previously, when an admin or captain received a notification email to approve an action (ie and email or SMS blast), the fact there was an action requiring approval was not immediately reflected in the Pending Approvals inbox.

We have now deployed an improvement so that Pending Approvals inbox is updated immediately. 

We have made some improvements to the process for removing supporters from groups. 

• When a person is removed from a group (or if they unsubscribe), then a call to the NationBuilder API is made to remove all the group's associated_tags from that person's profile.
• If a vice-captain selects the "Remove From Group" option on the supporter's personal profile, a notification email will be sent to the relevant point person (admin or group captain) advising them of the fact a new member removal has been created and is awaiting approval.
  • The subject line and content of this notification are editable via new mailer configuration variables at Settings > Configurations > Mailers.

Occasionally SupporterBase users have encountered timeout errors when trying to access their SupporterBase. 

We have now deployed a fix to resolve these request timeout issues, but let us know if you run into any problems!

By default, SupporterBase applies country restrictions on addresses to improve the user experience with the auto-complete mapping feature (so only addresses from the relevant country are displayed).

However, in some cases organizations are working across multiple countries. As such, we created a new feature that lets users choose a configuration option to support address auto-completion worldwide. 

To select this configuration option, admins can use the left-hand menu in SupporterBase to navigate to Settings > Configurations, then set "Restrict address search by country" to False. 

Some organizations may wish to disable the SMS feature of SupporterBase, for example to suit their engagement strategy or to reduce SMS usage costs.

We have now created an environment variable that lets us disable SMS functionality for you. This is not currently available as a configuration option in SupporterBase, but can be actioned upon request. 

In response to feedback, we recently updated the SupporterBase permission sets to distinguish more clearly between the roles of captain and vice-captain, and to support a higher level of group autonomy and independence. 

In short, as part of this update, vice-captains assumed most of the same permissions as captains previously enjoyed, while captains assumed many of the permissions only previously afforded to admins but solely for their own particular group(s).

More specifically, we have:

• Upgraded the captain access level so they’re able to send out bulk communications and create events without approval from admins, as well as approve bulk communications and events drafted by vice-captains.

1. 1. • Importantly, the ability to add new group captains will still be restricted to admins. Captains can initiate this process but admin approval is required for a new captain to be actually granted access. Indeed, admins are still the only access level able to manage other users in general.

• Upgraded the vice-captain level so they’re able to create bulk communications and events, but still need approval before sending/publishing (essentially similar to what captains could do previously).

1. 1. • Vice-captains will still be able to handle one-on-one communications without approval via email, SMS and phone calls (including call lists).

• Configured notifications to be sent to group captains as well as admin point people (if any are configured for the group) when vice-captains create new events or bulk communications that are awaiting approval.

1. • Admins and captains are always able to opt-out of notifications on an individual basis. This can be done by clicking “Update profile” and deselecting the “Receive notifications” checkbox.

Please review the following page for a full overview of permission and approval settings for supporter group actions: https://www.supporterbase.com/access_levels

Admins can now configure the email blast footer HTML, by navigating to Settings > Configurations > Mailers, then using the content editor under the Email Editor HTML" option.

Added a new feature to enable group leader to be able to edit their public group page directly via SupporterBase. This was previously handled via the NationBuilder control panel. 

Deployed an improvement to ensure faster page load speeds by handling all mailer sends asynchronously.