Case Study: Zali Steggall achieves historic Warringah victory over Tony Abbott with NationBuilder

Independent Zali Steggall unseated Tony Abbott to become the new MP for Warringah

Zali Steggall, a former Olympic skier and lawyer, ran as an independent for the federal seat of Warringah and faced the challenge of rapidly scaling a grassroots campaign against a long‑standing incumbent. With surging volunteer signups, donations and supporter activity, her team needed a reliable digital organizing hub to recruit, coordinate and manage data without the resources of a major party — so they turned to NationBuilder.

NationBuilder provided the campaign with built‑in action pages, volunteer registration, event tools and trackable paths and goals, allowing the team to communicate, organize and update supporter data in one system. The platform helped drive record volunteer growth and fundraising — 1.4K volunteers, $1.1M in donations — and supported the campaign’s 18.3% swing to victory, while freeing staff time for volunteer training and post‑election community engagement.

Zali Steggall

Andy Knight

Digital Strategist