A celebration of leadership
A celebration of leadership

NationBuilder Year in Review 2020

A celebration of leadership

A note from our CEO, Lea Endres

Leadership isn't always visible or recognized, but it's happening all the time. Often coming from people who we won't read about, or who will never show up on the nightly news. Leaders aren't just people in well-known positions; leaders are the people in our lives who make a difference. The people who step up. Who say yes when it really counts.

Keep reading

Across our community

In 2020, our customers used NationBuilder to

Raise
$351.6M
in donations
Mobilize
386K
volunteers
Make
23.8M
contacts
Sign
9.7M
petitions
Send
1.7B
emails
Send
7.2M
texts
Host
353k
events
Collect over
1M
RSVPs

Delivering the promise of leadership software

We create leadership software designed to serve those who take on and accomplish big things by powerfully engaging their communities. From individuals stepping into leadership for the first time, to the heads of whole political parties, international networks, Top 100 charities, and Fortune 500 companies, NationBuilder customers are setting the bar for what’s possible.

By Hilary Doe, Chief Strategy Officer

Read Article

The year organizing shifted to virtual

In the last year, people in our community

Customer stories

Building the future everywhere

View More

Helping the helpers

Starting in March 2020, NationBuilder offered free software and services to state and local governments, their contractors and agencies, and NGOs organizing essential service provision and emergency response for COVID-19. Since then, organizers have created dozens of nations to aid their communities—and achieve extraordinary results.

Free of charge, COVID-19 relief nations reached:

$214K
in donations
3,200
petition signatures
387
events
141.7k
text blasts
9.6k
volunteers
142.5k
emails sent

U.S. voter outreach across sectors

The 2020 elections were a high watermark for political engagement in the U.S. But the massive engagement we saw wasn’t limited just to those directly involved in politics. A diverse array of other organizations built serious voter education and get-out-the-vote efforts this year – including many who were doing it for the first time. Among NationBuilder’s customers alone, we saw inspiring examples of organizations leading the way.

#EverydayLeaders #EverydayLeaders

#EverydayLeaders

What makes someone step up and lead? While some do it with their own personal gain in mind, far many more do it out of love. They do it because they see a friend or family member or a community in need, and they just have to help. But because they don’t do what they do for attention or accolades, they are precisely the kinds of leaders we need to see and celebrate—to lift up their stories to say thank you.

It was with this intention that we put out a call to our community, asking: who are the leaders keeping your families, neighborhoods, and communities together right now? And the community answered.

Erica Chomsky-Adelson

New Orleans, LA, USA
Erica is a Top #EverydayLeader of 2020 for her leadership of Culture Aid NOLA, a crisis response organization that’s provided 95K New Orleans residents with locally sourced food using a no-barrier model.

Ben Lopez

Los Angeles, CA, USA
Ben is a Top #EverydayLeader of 2020 for his team-focused leadership as the Executive Director of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP).

Michelle Tonn

Los Angeles, CA, USA
Michelle is a Top #EverydayLeader of 2020 for her dedicated and compassionate leadership as Executive Director of Alexandria House, a nonprofit providing safe and supportive housing for women and children.

Judy Vaughan

Los Angeles, CA, USA
Judy is a Top #EverydayLeader of 2020 for her mentorship and partnership as a co-founder of Alexandria House in Los Angeles.

Crystal Feliciano

Trenton, NJ, USA
Crystal is a Top #EverydayLeader of 2020 for her work as an educator, advocate, and community leader in Trenton, New Jersey during the pandemic.

Kim Batty

Hastings, UK
Kim is a Top #EverydayLeader of 2020 for mobilizing 1,000 volunteers on behalf of the Hastings Emergency Action Resilience Team (HEART) in the UK.

Tim Rog

Chicago, IL, USA
Tim is a Top #EverydayLeader of 2020 for his essential work as the Assistant Unit Director of the Surgical and Cardiovascular Intensive Care at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.

Naima Jefferson

Washington DC, USA
Naima is a Top #EverydayLeader of 2020 for organizing a variety of initiatives to help keep her D.C. community together during the pandemic as a working wife and mother.

Omoyosola Adenuga

South-East London, UK
Omoyosola is a Top #EverydayLeader of 2020 for her volunteer work with Parents and Communities Together (PACT), which has helped to remedy digital exclusion in her community at a time when internet access has been most essential.

Ecosystem

A thriving community of creators

Providing infrastructure for leaders goes well beyond just software. Our growing base of partners show up every day to provide additional support in fundraising, strategy, communications, event organizing, and other vital disciplines for thousands of movements around the world. Simply put, they are an indispensable part of our community. The NationBuilder ecosystem now boasts over 150 certified website architects and nearly 90 supported app integrations, and the value that they have delivered to our shared customers over the years is immeasurable. We thank our entire partner base and look forward to building an even brighter future together.

A thriving community of creators

Providing infrastructure for leaders goes well beyond just software. Our growing base of partners show up every day to provide additional support in fundraising, strategy, communications, event organizing, and other vital disciplines for thousands of movements around the world. Simply put, they are an indispensable part of our community. The NationBuilder ecosystem now boasts over 150 certified website architects and nearly 90 supported app integrations, and the value that they have delivered to our shared customers over the years is immeasurable. We thank our entire partner base and look forward to building an even brighter future together.

A thriving community of creators

Our strategic partners enhance the work we do to serve our customers and achieve our mission through events, thought leadership, and educational programs across the globe.

  • Whole-Whale-blue-stacked-300x300.png
  • CC_green_-13.png
  • GT_logo_stacked.png
  • NYTA_01.png
  • VM-2019-0000-foundation-stacked.png

Architects are certified NationBuilder designers who design, develop and implement custom NationBuilder website themes.

  • alisonshumanmedia.png
  • bitleague.png
  • chuckwalla.jpg
  • girl_dino.png
  • harrismedia.png
  • hinesdigital.png
  • madebypumpkin.png
  • nationdigital.png
  • outreach_experts.png
  • socialbenchers.png
  • tekhaus.png
  • voxara.png

See all

Certified NationBuilder Agencies provide full-service capabilities for NationBuilder customers. Having acquired all of our certifications, they offer proven proficiency in web design, application development, and NationBuilder product knowledge.

  • brandresponse.jpg
  • codenation.png
  • datack.png
  • forpurpose.jpg
  • progressivenation.png
  • tectonica.png
  • ra2.png
  • radishlab.png
  • vancity.jpg
  • webedge.jpg

See all

From mobile apps that make field organizing easy, to supporter engagement tools for connecting constituents with elected officials—our ecosystem of integrated apps takes the capabilities of NationBuilder to the next level.

  • apps-logos-ecanvasser.png
  • apps-logos-newmode.png
  • apps-logos-actionbutton.png
  • apps-logos-promptio2.png
  • apps-logos-oneclickpolitics.png
  • apps-logos-handy2.png

See all

Acknowledgments

We’re truly grateful to the whole team at Tectonica—and in particular Mariana Spada, Fernando Petroli, and Nicolás Figliozzi—for their creative partnership in designing and building this digital experience, and to Jesse Haff and Alex Carpenter for bringing it to life. Thank you all for making it real! Heartfelt thanks to all the customer-facing teams at NationBuilder for the incredible service they provide, and especially to Lison Laissus, Dana Landers, Oliver Wells, Marco Suárez, Line Kristensen, Michael Dennis, Erika Avellaneda Celis, Katie Angelo, Skylar Dapp, and Alex Simoes-McArtor for the facilitation that’s been integral to capturing the amazing work of our customers. Thank you to the customers, nominators, and Everyday Leaders who generously shared their inspiring stories with us, and to the whole NationBuilder staff for their tireless work to make the tools to lead available to everyone. Thanks to Steven Ke for the brilliant data insights that help us tell our story. To Lea Endres, Hilary Doe, Jay Godfrey, and Jon Bratsis—thank you for your vital contributions here and for your leadership in general. To Nelli Veletyan, thank you for your beautiful writing and invaluable partnership in putting it all together. — Jane St. John