Dear DIA Community,

As many of you know, there have been a lot of changes around here lately (all for the better, we swear) -- the biggest one being our growth. DIA is growing in all kinds of ways. Our staff is growing, our community is growing, and our platform is also growing. We're excited about this and we hope you are, too.

We will continue to deliver ever-improving functionality for a fraction of the cost to new and continuing clients and empower a broader community. Growing as projected could save organizations some $200 million over five years, every penny supporting program, strategy and infrastructure for social & environmental change organizations.

We will also continue to help organizations realize their visions for the potential of technology.

Stay tuned for more exciting annoucements and changes and thanks, as always, for your continued support of what we do!

Trainings and Events

Join our live group trainings. In Washington D.C. Oct. 5, and New York City this fall, date TBD.

We have regular webinars available. Join us for "DIA 101", a telephone training/webinar on core toolset items. Prospective clients, new users and old hands looking for a refresher all welcome! Visit our home page to register for upcoming webinars.

Strategy Sessions. DemocracyInAction is pleased to bring to members of our community this series of free workshops on making the best possible use of e-activism. Watch for our next strategy session soon -- you can see our upcoming events here.

NTEN: Washington DC. Join DemocracyInAction and other colleagues in the nonprofit/technology space on Oct. 11. This is a great opportunity for anyone with an interest in helping nonprofits use technology more effective, meet colleagues and collaborators, learn from each other and from leaders in the field. Hope to see you there!

DIA Blogs Online Advocacy for Progressives

DemocracyInAction has launched a blog dedicated to covering Internet activism for progressives -- whether DIA users or not.

Drop on by!

Tell Us Your Story

Over 200,000 people turned out for the largest anti-war rally since the start of the Iraq war. Nearly all of the organizing groups used DemocracyInAction tools to reach and mobilize their members. (United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink, Operation Ceasefire, Gold Start Families for Peace, Peace Action, Veterans for Peace, and 20/20 Vision -- thanks for all your hard work!)

We are confirming in practice that the service we provide is indeed capable of bringing decisive force to the myriad social change movements they support.

We want to hear from you. How is DIA improving the effectiveness of your organization? Please share your story here.

Comings and Goings

We're thrilled to announce a new addition to the DIA team: Ian Peters, a programmer and client manager who came aboard Aug. 1. Drop him a welcome message at ian at democracyinaction.org. The DIA staff, like the DIA community, has doubled in the last six months!

Joining us for the fall are interns Mara Veraar and Cameron Lefevre. We're recruiting interns for the entire 05-06 school year and for summer 2006 -- check out our job announcement here.

Thanks and farewell to Chelsea Bassett and Natalia Fisher, our two fantastic summer interns!

Join Our Team!

Want to put your technical skills to use to help build a progressive movement? DemocracyInAction currently has two open positions:

Web Developer/Project Manager
Support Engineer

Learn more here.

Featured Tool: Use Distributed Events for House Parties/Meetups

The Distributed Event tool lets your supporters take your mission to the grassroots. Use this tool to create an opportunity for supporters to create their own local events -- vigils, fundraisers, teach-ins, whatever you can dream up -- and publicize those events to others in their area.

This tool has tremendous power for viral recruiting and moving online activism into the real world. One DIA organization recently quintupled its e-mail list with a well-executed distributed event which gathered nearly 900 events representing every state in the country.

See the tool in action (and maybe sign up for an event yourself) at the Women's Funding Network's house party page, organizing get-togethers for the upcoming Lifetime movie Human Trafficking.