Contact your MP
A Contact your MP page where supporters look up their federal MP and send a letter — yours, or one they write themselves.
Quick answers
10 questions · click to openHow do I add Contact your MP to my site?
Create a page: Pages → Add new page → Contact your MP. Write your own email is already in the letters list; add campaign letters if you want, publish, and add it to your navigation. It is not added automatically.
Do I have to collect the supporter’s email?
Yes, but not up front. The first step asks only for a postcode. Their name and email sit on the composer, beside the send buttons, and are required before they can send. Email is what matches them to someone already in People instead of creating a duplicate, and a new postcode on that email updates the one we have on file.
Can I write my own letters?
Yes. Add campaign letters on the page — title, subject and body, with placeholders like {{mp_name}} and {{electorate}}. Every letter already opens with Dear {{mp_name}} and closes with the supporter’s name. Write your own email is always offered as well, and is added in the letters list so you can change the blank starter.
Can I change the title-on-the-left layout?
The default layout puts the title and intro on the left and the composer on the right. Change it in the theme’s Contact your MP page layout if you want a different arrangement.
Why does the composer skip straight to the letter?
Because picking a letter from a title alone asks people to choose something they have not read. The first letter you wrote is loaded for them, and the others sit as buttons above it — one click swaps the text, and anything they have typed in a letter is kept if they switch back. With no campaign letters written, there is nothing to choose between, so the buttons are hidden.
Can I limit it to one state?
Yes. On the page, tick the states this campaign covers. Leave them all unticked for the whole country. Someone outside those states is told the campaign is not for them.
Does clicking Send email add them to the CRM?
Yes. That click records the person and an MP contacted activity. We cannot see whether they pressed send in their own email app, so the next screen asks them. The letter itself is not stored.
What is the difference between Contacted an MP and Confirmed they sent it?
Contacted an MP is everyone who got as far as opening a pre-filled draft. Confirmed they sent it is the smaller group who came back and pressed Yes, I’ve sent it afterwards. Both are on the People filter, and the activity feed says which one happened.
Can someone send more than one letter?
Yes. Send another letter takes them back to the composer with their name, email, postcode and MP still filled in, so they only change the message. Start over clears everything and begins from the postcode.
Can I put Contact your MP on the home page?
Link to the Contact your MP page from the home page or your navigation. It is its own page type — it cannot be embedded on another page.
Contact your MP is its own page type. Create it from Pages → Add new page when you want supporters to look up their federal MP and email them. New organisations do not get one automatically — you add it when you need it.
Set the page up
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Create the page
Go to Pages → Add new page and choose Contact your MP. Give it a title and slug, then create it. Publish it, and add it to your navigation if you want it in the menu — creating a page does not put it there.
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Write starter letters
On the page editor, Write your own email is already in the letters list — a blank starter supporters can fill in, already framed with
Dear {{mp_name}}andYours sincerelyplus their name. Add a letter and that same frame is in the body for you. Campaign letters you write only need the argument — we add the greeting and sign-off when the supporter opens the composer, so you will not get two. Placeholders you can drop in:{{mp_name}},{{electorate}},{{postcode}},{{supporter_first_name}},{{supporter_last_name}}.A campaign letter with a blank title, subject or body does not appear on the public page. Write your own email is always offered to supporters even if you remove it from the list.
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Optional: limit to certain states
Tick QLD, NSW and so on if this campaign is only for those constituents. Leave every box unticked to accept postcodes from anywhere in Australia.
What supporters see
The default layout puts the title and intro on the left and the composer on the right. Theme authors can rearrange that in the Contact your MP page layout.
The composer stays in one container. The rest of the page does not reload.
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Find your MP
One field: a postcode. That is all the lookup needs, so it is all we ask for before showing them anything. If the postcode crosses electorates they pick theirs from a list.
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Write your letter
The composer opens with your first letter already in it. Your other letters sit as buttons above — one click swaps the text, and anything they have typed is kept if they switch back and forth. Write your own email is always one of them. If you have written no campaign letters there is nothing to choose between, so the buttons are hidden and they get the blank starter.
Underneath the letter they add their name and email. That is where those fields live now: the letter is written by the time they are asked, which is the point people are most willing to give them. Until they do, the sign-off reads [Your first name] [Your last name], and it fills in as they type.
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Send
Send email opens a pre-filled draft in their own mail app; Open in Gmail and Open in Outlook do the same in the browser. They still press send themselves. That click is what we record in the CRM.
The next screen does not claim the job is done, because we cannot see whether they sent it. It asks: Yes, I’ve sent it, or It didn’t open — take me back, which returns to the composer with everything intact so they can try another mail app. Confirming shows a thank you with share buttons, and Send another letter for anyone who wants to write again.
In the CRM
Opening the email app creates (or finds) the person by email and logs MP contacted on their activity — MP name, electorate, which letter they picked, and postcode. A new postcode on that email updates the one we have on file. We do not keep a copy of the letter.
Pressing Yes, I’ve sent it afterwards marks that same activity as confirmed. It does not create a second one, so nobody is counted twice. The activity feed reads “opened an email to” until it is confirmed, and “confirmed they emailed” after.
You can filter People by who has contacted an MP, by who confirmed they sent it, or by a specific Contact your MP page. Confirmed they sent it is the warmer list of the two — it is the people who came back and told you. Automations can trigger on MP contacted, including scoped to this page. Auto-tags on the page still apply.
Putting it on another page
Link to this page from home or the navigation. Contact your MP is its own
page type — it cannot be embedded on another page. Theme authors can drop
{% contact_your_mp %} into this page type’s layout — it reads
the letters from the page.
What this is not (yet)
State MPs are not in this version. The lookup is federal House members only. You still cannot prove the supporter hit send in their own mail client — asking them is the closest we get, and they can skip the question. Automations cannot yet trigger on a confirmation specifically, only on MP contacted.