An action alert is a message that an organization sends to mobilize people - often members of their group and supports of a specific point of view - calling on them to take action to influence public policy. Typically, action alerts are in reference to a timely issue, where prompt action is needed in order to affect upcoming decisions. Action alerts are considered a cost-effective and efficient grassroots organizing tool and are employed widely by many advocacy organizations. A well-designed action alert can be a "powerful way to invite people to participate in the processes of a democracy."

Action alerts may, for instance, ask supporters to:

• Contact their member of Congress in support of proposed legislation; or
• Write a letter to the editor
  Letter to the editor
  A letter to the editor is a letter sent to a publication about issues of concern from its readers. Usually, letters are intended for publication...
  
   about a specific item in the news.

Action alerts commonly begin by explaining the public policy issue to the recipients, and then tell the reader how they can impact the decision. Action alerts go by many other names; Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

, for instance, refers to them as "Urgent actions"

Organisations that use action alerts

• Citizens Against Government Waste
  Citizens Against Government Waste
  Citizens Against Government Waste is a 501 non-profit organization in the United States. It functions as a think-tank, 'government watchdog', and advocacy group for fiscally conservative causes...
  
  
• People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is an American animal rights organization based in Norfolk, Virginia, and led by Ingrid Newkirk, its international president. A non-profit corporation with 300 employees and two million members and supporters, it claims to be the largest animal rights...
  
  
• Electronic Frontier Foundation
  Electronic Frontier Foundation
  The Electronic Frontier Foundation is an international non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization based in the United States...
  
  
• Union of Concerned Scientists
  Union of Concerned Scientists
  The Union of Concerned Scientists is a nonprofit science advocacy group based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. James J...
  
  
• American Family Association
  American Family Association
  The American Family Association is a 501 non-profit organization that promotes conservative Christian values, such as opposition to same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion, as well as other public policy goals such as deregulation of the oil industry and lobbying against the Employee Free...
  
  
• Public Citizen
  Public Citizen
  Public Citizen is a non-profit, consumer rights advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a branch in Austin, Texas. Public Citizen was founded by Ralph Nader in 1971, headed for 26 years by Joan Claybrook, and is now headed by Robert Weissman.-Lobbying Efforts:Public Citizen...
  
  
• National Right to Work Committee
• Tea Party Express
  Tea Party Express
  The Tea Party Express is a California-based group founded in the summer of 2009 to support the Tea Party movement. Founded as a national bus tour to rally Tea Party activists, the group's leadership also endorses and promotes conservative candidates running for state and federal offices...