Complete replacement of NationBuilder. Strategy intelligence via Albert. CRM via Attio. Donations via Stripe. Full data ownership. No vendor lock-in.
Three best-in-class tools replace everything NationBuilder does — and do it better. Full data ownership. Full API control. No lock-in.
Every NationBuilder function is replaced. Nothing stays in NationBuilder after a successful transition.
| NationBuilder Function | Replacement | Tool |
|---|---|---|
| People / voter CRM database | Contacts, lists, segments, tags | Attio |
| Email broadcast | Sequences + integrated ESP | Attio |
| SMS broadcast | Attio automations + Twilio | Attio |
| Donation processing | Payment intents, subscriptions, receipts | Stripe |
| Donor management | Donor records + giving history | Attio |
| Recurring giving | Stripe subscriptions → Attio donor records | Stripe |
| Event registration | Event records + Attio pipelines | Attio |
| Ticketed / paid events | Stripe Checkout or Payment Links | Stripe |
| Volunteer management | Volunteer pipeline + task assignment | Attio |
| Survey tools | Attio forms + integrations | Attio |
| Campaign strategy planning | 4-pool retrieval + 3-stage synthesis | Albert |
| Message framing and polling insight | AES microdata + corpus framing | Albert |
| Opposition research / issue analysis | Live context corpus (daily) | Albert |
| Audience segmentation strategy | Audience projection layer | Albert |
| Swing seat identification | AEC booth-level + TCP swing analysis | Albert |
| External strategy consultant | Specification-first Intake Console | Albert |
Albert sits above the stack as the intelligence layer. Attio is the operational hub. Stripe feeds donor data into Attio via webhooks.
| From | To | Trigger | Action | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe | → | Attio | payment_intent.succeeded | Update donor record: amount, date, method |
| Stripe | → | Attio | subscription.created | Tag "Recurring Donor"; set frequency attribute |
| Stripe | → | Attio | payment_intent.failed | Flag contact; trigger follow-up sequence |
| Albert | → | Attio | Weekly strategy session | Audience priority signals → list filters |
| Albert | → | Broadcast | Weekly framing brief | Copy source for Attio sequences |
| Attio | → | Albert | Polling / sentiment review | Supporter sentiment data fed into Albert |
Do not cancel NationBuilder until all Phase 3 cutover gates are verified.
Build the stack. Import data. Validate before going live. NationBuilder continues to run untouched.
Switch donations to Stripe. Albert becomes the primary strategy tool. Begin recurring donor re-enrolment. NationBuilder broadcast continues for existing list only.
Migrate remaining broadcast list to Attio. Final broadcast from NationBuilder. Cancel subscription. Full stack operational.
Every condition must be true before cancelling NationBuilder. No exceptions.
Attio sequences on a cold domain will land in spam. This must start in Week 1 — before any live broadcast.
A new sending domain needs 4+ weeks of warm-up before bulk broadcast. Sending bulk email on a cold domain will destroy deliverability and get the domain blacklisted.
| Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recurring donors don't re-enrol via Stripe | Medium | High | Personal outreach to Tier 1 donors; extended window; direct phone call if needed |
| Attio import quality issues (duplicates, bad data) | Medium | Medium | Clean and deduplicate NationBuilder export before import; validate on email field |
| Stripe rejected for campaign entity type | Low | High | Confirm entity type before account creation; use Medisam Pty Ltd ABN 27 098 844 289 |
| NationBuilder cancelled before Attio fully stable | Low | High | Hard rule: do not cancel until all 10 cutover gates verified without exception |
| Attio broadcast deliverability issues (cold domain) | Medium | Medium | Start domain warm-up in Week 1; 4-week warm-up before any bulk send |
| Field canvassing gap (no Attio native mobile app) | Medium | Medium | Evaluate canvassing app Attio API integration; document interim manual process |
| Albert synthesis quality degrades mid-campaign | Low | High | Weekly eval harness; maintain external strategist relationship as fallback |