Empower citizens to engage and run in local politics

Centrist Project; IndependentVoting.org; Represent.Us

Trust and confidence in the U.S. government are at historic lows, leading the Economist to recently downgrade our country to a “flawed democracy.” That’s because our government has been gridlocked by hyper-partisanship and corrupted by special interests. This is becoming as true on the state level as it is on the federal level. 

  • Independent Voter Network, Centrist Project, Represent.us will execute a localized voter activation effort that:
  • Educates voters in Colorado about the conditions that create hyper-partisanship and government dysfunction;
  • Engages voters to take actions such as signing a petition in support of issues related to “unrigging the system”;
  • Mobilizes this audience to support reform measures and candidates through reform organizations;

Through our online channels including IVN.us and organizational Facebook pages, we will be able to deliver over 10 million impressions and/or video views with nonpartisan educational information to a targeted audience of 1 million voters. We will collect at least 10,000 opt-in leads of engaged and targeted voters in both states and then channel these voters to support efforts to support Represent.us’ resolution strategy and the Centrist Project’s candidate strategy.

This Collective Impact Grant would not only significantly bolster our individual efforts, but would provide an opportunity for an effective partnership. For the same reasons that autonomous political organizations on the right and the left regularly run “joint action” campaigns, we will similarly be able to achieve:

  • Greater cost efficiency in our outreach/marketing program by pooling our resources to reach and identify potential supporters;
  • Greater effectiveness in our grassroots organizing program by engaging supporters who are more deeply involved in the reform movement generally.

The bottom line is: more supporters, who are more likely to take action, for less cost per individual acquisition. This partnership is easily scalable with additional funding in later stages –– as we would be able to reach, engage, and mobilize additional citizens as our budget increases.