Smart Giving: Recommendations from Jessica Craven

Jessica Craven, author of the substack "Chop Wood, Carry Water", recently presented a webinar about smart giving.

Jessica's first recommendation was one we can all get on board with - she suggested that we simply block all those emails and texts trying to encourage us to donate through fear.

She also noted that some of the highest campaign finance totals came from candidates with no chance of winning their races, simply because their opponents were people we don't like. That money could have done so much good elsewhere!

Remember that your funds can do more for downballot candidates, so please spread it around and support our local city & town council candidates as well as school board candidates.

Before I get into the organizations Jessica recommends we all support, I will make a quick plug for us - LD3 Dems is a great option for a monthly recurring donation. We have the data for LD3 and know the right strategies for increasing turnout in our district. Please help - make sure you click the "Yes, make it monthly" button! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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I will paste in Jessica's recommendations below, but here's a link to her original document in case she makes changes or additions. The content below comes directly from Jessica and its inclusion on our site does not constitute our endorsement of her recommendations. Always do your own research.

Run for Something

1) Run For Something—donate here.  RFS recruits young progressives to run for office across the country for municipal, school board, election administrator, county supervisor, and statehouse seats. They offer candidates support, help with volunteer recruitment, and fund their races. Their candidates have a high win rate and their school board candidates absolutely destroyed Moms for Liberty everywhere in November. (Their school board win rate was 72%.) Here’s a list of their recent successes. It’ll blow your mind. Oh, and they elected 138 election clerks this year, including 34 wins against noted election deniers. Their candidates tend to go on to phenomenal things–so they’re also building a bench! SO IMPORTANT! When I say that this organization is saving the country I am not exaggerating. Read their 2024 strategic goal here.

Movement Voter Project

2) Movement Voter Project — donate here (right now, thanks to a generous subscriber, I’m running a 20K matching campaign, so your donations will be doubled up to 20K!). MVP vets and then funds the most effective grassroots organizing groups working on the ground in swing (and other) states. In short, they are funding today’s Stacey Abrams, everywhere. If we want youth turnout, BIPOC turnout, and a growing progressive electorate then funding MVP is how we best get it. They’re absolutely amazing. See their 2024 plan here—your donations will go towards executing it.

The States Project

3) The States Project — donate here. An absolutely vital group focussed exclusively on winning state-level elections and flipping state legislatures. They also help candidates and elected reps write good progressive policy. They are so, so good at what they do—they are the reason we won in VA, and also the reason we had the brilliant election in 2022 that we did. Flipping the MI statehouse? That was them. Flipping the MN statehouse? Them too. I could go on. Read the Times article about them here. See their 2024 target states here. They have tons of other good press on their website. (If you want to give to a specific “Giving Circle” you can give to mine! But the money will go to them either way).

Voter Registration Groups in Mecklenberg County, NC

4) Give to voter registration groups in Mecklenberg County, North Carolina!, NC is SO STRATEGICALLY IMPORTANT that I am working with All in For NC to do just that. We need to win North Carolina in November, and we can. NC has a new state Dem party chair and she’s 🔥. Mecklenberg County has millions of potential Dem voters and the Meck Cty Dems have proven themselves extremely capable under new leadership as well. So donate here to help with this cause–we’re trying to raise 500K to register 40,000 voters there!.

Field Team Six

5) For voter registration in all swing states support Field Team Six. They have data to back up their success and they require just around $3 to register one purple voter (Dem or DTS).

Sister District

Sister District has a small selection of grassroots organizations they are supporting via their “State Bridges” project. They also do a deep research dive into who is most effective. These orgs are all WELL WORTHY of your money. One fund covers eight orgs. Donate here.

Every State Blue

7) Give to an Every State Blue fund to help statehouse candidates in Ohio, Missouri, and Texas. (Read this to see why this is so important.)

WANT HELP DECIDING WHERE TO GIVE STRATEGICALLY?

1) Sign up for updates with Focus For Democracy–they do deep, deep research dives on which orgs are most effective at turning out voters and then raise money for them. They’re having a meeting on Tuesday, February 13th at 5PM PT /8PM ET– Click here to register.

• They will share their 2024 strategy and explain how their recommendations are timed for each stage of the presidential election cycle.  

• They will be recommending organizations that have funding gaps and have proven records of delivering net Democratic votes.

2) Subscribe to Blue Tent. Blue Tent helps donors at all levels give effectively to elect Democrats and enact policies for a fairer America.

3) Join a group doing the vetting for you. These are EXCELLENT groups, most of them run by dedicated volunteers. Force Multiplier, Walk the Walk, Airlift, Flip the Vote.