Our core philosophy is to solve real problems for real organizers. Most of the organizers we’ve talked to (and we’ve talked to a lot) are already using some sort of database to store basic information about activists, so rather than create yet another user database from scratch we’re starting by adding some missing group-organizing features to existing tools.
We chose to start with the Action Network platform, because that’s the one most often chosen by new groups who are trying to organize themselves. Affinity and Action Network work symbiotically — AN provides bulk emailing, petitions, and other online-focused bits, while Affinity provides tools for working with your activists and partners in the real world. Integrations with other major online-focused database systems are on the way, as well as the ability to us Affinity as a standalone platform, if online organizing is just not your thing.