Case Study: The California Faculty Association

The Challenge
The California Faculty Association (CFA) is a union of 29,000 professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors, and coaches. CFA had been seeking a means to increase their member’s involvement in the legislative advocacy process, requiring them to report to their members frequently. Accomplishing this goal proved to be a difficult task. In order to collaborate effectively and keep  their members engaged, CFA decided to make the switch to Abstract.

Easy Report Generation for Member Engagement
‍In order to increase member engagement in advocacy efforts, CFA needed to provide frequent and comprehensive reports. Prior to using Abstract, creating a single report was a manual effort that took hours to complete (something that only a select few of their Government Relations team members were capable of). Now, every member of CFA’s GR team can create customized reports with a click of a button. By using Abstract’s shareable links to these live-updated reports, CFA has ensured that their members are well informed on every development.

Effective Collaboration Across Teams
With Abstract’s intuitive interface and collaborative features, CFA  has  been able to centralize their communication. They  no longer rely  on long email threads and text chains to collaborate. Instead, CFA  utilizes Abstract’s folders, notes, and customizable tags to keep their team aligned. According to CFA, Abstract has become  “a place for us to effectively pass notes across our lobbyists, organizing staff, and member activists rather than sending emails and texts and trying to keep track of  150 different channels.”

Elevated Image
With Abstract, CFA is now always effectively prepared prior to entering the State Capitol building. The union’s  Government Relations team has become more aligned on their needs and priorities. Abstract enables CFA to bebetter equipped when attending bill hearings and meetings with California Legislators, and have become more confident in their public image.

Dedicated Abstract Support
“The Abstract team actually talks to us, which you wouldn’t think would be a big deal, but it turned out to be a significant notion. We have also appreciated the willingness to give us some input into how the [Abstract] system gets tweaked to make it more effective.” -Member of the California Faculty Association Government Relations Team‍