Giving Tuesday Options for Supporting Organizing Groups in Battleground States
November 30, 2021
This post will help you give to organizing groups whose work will help register, mobilize, and turn out voters in some of the most important battleground states in the 2022 midterms and beyond.
Today is “Giving Tuesday,” a day conceived to balance the consumerism of “Black Friday” (and its cousins “Small Business Saturday” and “Cyber Monday”). You are probably getting bombarded with solicitations to donate money today. And they are likely not just coming from charities and activist organizations, but from magazines, newspapers, businesses, and other entities you would not normally think of “donating” your money to. Movement Voter Project has created state funds that allow you to donate to a number of organizing groups with one easy donation. They will get the money to the folks doing the work on the ground. Below are links to MVP’s state funds in some target states (an early iteration of next year’s Trifecta states). The idea is to make it easy for you to donate to groups doing the important organizing work in battleground states for 2022.
Progressive and Democratic fundraisers have identified that there is an ongoing challenge to efficiently direct contributions from donors (large and small) to non-party organizing groups that are doing the important year-round community organizing necessary to build a progressive voting base. ActBlue has started helping candidates and organizations put together funds that can facilitate this kind of giving for donors. Movement Voter Project has several states funds in which aggregate donations will be shared among several organizing groups in those states. I’ve linked the state fund with several states that have Senate elections in 2022. This is your chance to begin investing in the organizing that progressives need to do to prevent Republican victories in 2022, 2024, and beyond.
Each of the states below have important Senate races in which one of three things is true: (1) a Democratic incumbent who is expected to be in a tight race; (2) an open seat being vacated by a Republican; or (3) a targeted/vulnerable Republican is running for reelection. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is vulnerable, but Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) at this point looks to be in a good place for reelection. However, organizing in Florida is important and Rep. Val Denings (D) is raising a lot of cash to challenge Rubio. The only open seat being vacated by a Democrat next year is Vermont, and with Gov. Phil Scott (R) opting not to run, it is a Safe Democratic seat. There are two exceptions below to (1) above: MVP does not have a voter fund set up for either New Hampshire (Maggie Hassan) or Nevada (Catherine Cortez-Masto), so there are no links for these states. I hope to put together a more comprehensive list of organizing groups you can donate to in all battleground states as I work on the Trifecta Briefs for 2022.
You can find websites for all the groups mentioned for each state at the “donate here” link if you want to better understand what those groups are working on. You can additionally donate directly to any individual organization through their (i.e., the individual organization’s) website. But if you are doing so because you are concerned about MVP taking a cut of your donation, rest assured. It won’t; 100% of the donations made through the MVP state funds go directly to the organizations. Finally, if you are interested in donating to the incumbent Democratic Senator or the leading front-runner where there is no incumbent running there are links on the candidates names to do that. If you have to pick and choose between a political donation and a donation to the organizing groups, please choose the latter option. The organizing groups need the money more than the politicians, regardless of what they say in their fundraising emails. And we need these organizing groups to be successful if there is any hope for these politicians beating their Republican opponents.
(If you are aware of organizing groups in the battleground states that are not included in the state funds, but maybe should be, please live a comment and let me know.)
DONATION OPTIONS BY BATTLEGROUND STATE
Arizona - incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly (D)
Donate here. Organizations receiving donations include: Arizona Coalition for Change; Arizona Students’ Association; Arizona Wins; Instituto Lab; Instituto Power; LUCHA; Mijente; PODER in Action; People’s Defense Initiative; Tomorrow We Vote; Poder Latinx.
Florida – incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio (R) Democratic front-runner candidate is US Rep. Val Demings)
Donate here. Organizations receiving donations include: Poder Latinx; Alianza for Progress; Black Votes Matter; Dream Defenders; Emgage Action; Engage Miami; Engage Miami Civic Fund; Faith in Florida; Florida Immigrant Coalition; Florida Rights Restoration Coalition; Florida Rising; Florida Student Power Alliance; Florida Student Power Network; Mi Familia Vota; Emgage Foundation.
Georgia – incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D)
Donate here. Organizations receiving donations include: Poder Latinx; Asian American Advocacy Fund; Asian American Advancing Justice; Fair Fight Action; Geogria Equality; Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights; Georgia Shift; In Defense of Black Lives ATL; New Georgia Project and Action Fund; SONG Power; MIjente; Southerners on New Ground; Black Male Voter Project.
North Carolina - (open)(Democratic front-runner candidate is former state supreme court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley)
Donate here. Organizations receiving donations include: Advance Carolina; Carolina Federation; Down Home North Carolina; Durham for All; Equality North Carolina; Foraleza; Ignite NC Action Fund; NC Latino Power; New North Carolina Project; North Carolina Asian Americans Together in Action; Poder NC Action; Siembra NC.
Pennsylvania - (open)(Democratic front-runner candidate is Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman)
Donate here. Organizations receiving donations include: CASA in Action; Working Families Organization; 215 People’s Alliance; CASA de Pennsylvania; Keystone Progress; Make the Road Action; One Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania Stands Up; Pennsylvania United/Pittsburg United; Pennsylvania Working Families Party; POWER; Reclaim Philadelphia.
Wisconsin – incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson (R)(Democratic front-runner candidate is Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes)
Donate here. Organizations receiving donations include: Working Families Organization; Black Leaders Organizing Communities; Citizen Action of Wisconsin; Freedom, Inc.; Leaders Igniting Transformation; One Wisconsin Revolution; Voces de la Frontera Action, Inc.; WISDOM; Wisconsin Working Families Party.
If you prefer to donate to funds designed to support affinity groups or issues, MVP has a number of them. You can find them here.