Muster

Muster is a focused advocacy and government relations platform rather than a broad public affairs suite, and the focus is what makes it approachable. The Muster Platform combines an Advocacy CRM, advocacy campaigns, email broadcasts and text broadcasts in one product, and the vendor's own framing emphasises ease of use. For an organisation whose government relations work is one part of a small team's job rather than a dedicated department, that matters more than depth of policy tracking.

The Advocacy CRM acquires, manages and segments contacts to power government relations work. Segmentation is the operative capability, because effective advocacy depends on identifying which supporters live in which legislator's district and mobilising only those, rather than sending everything to everyone. Advocacy campaigns rally advocates around an issue, send messages to policymakers and return comprehensive analytics on the results.

Communication runs through two channels with different strengths. Email broadcasts use a drag-and-drop editor for building advocacy emails without design help. Text broadcasts handle SMS, which the vendor describes as the most effective way to engage advocates, and that is broadly borne out in practice: an SMS asking for an action at the moment a vote is scheduled reaches people that an email will not. District Impact Reports build comprehensive reports demonstrating an organisation's value at local, state and federal level, which addresses a distinct need for associations that must show legislators their membership footprint in a given district. Three audiences are addressed separately: nonprofits driving action on charitable issues, associations engaging members in grassroots advocacy, and agencies working on behalf of clients. Pricing is not published.