Fundraising on Actblue: Optimizing Digital Systems for Equity , 2020

Client

Sunrise Movement

Location

National

Year

2020

In the Middle of the Pandemic, I remember being at home in Chicago while cases were rising. People were out of work both in Chicago and around the country.

It was clear to me our climate work at the organization was taking a slow down. At this point hubs around the country were wondering how they could help move on Mutual Aid. Partner Organizations were at the forefront of the crisis, doing grocery runs, and securing COVID testing. Folks asked us to help and I knew we needed to step up.

The first question was “what is the organization’s unique value add at this moment?”

While the organization was not equipped to provide disaster relief or to shift to local crisis response, it was able to support something organization’s on the ground needed: financially.
After deciding funds was the best way to support the organizations, we looked at the variety of ways the donation could be set up in way that

- 1: Honored Partnership: Honored the Existing Relationships between partners on the ground and local chapter of the organization
- 2. Prioritized Movement of Funds: Made use of funds quickly to support on the ground mutual aid efforts
- 3. Used Sunrise’s Unique Strengths: Considered sunrise’s national reach, digital presence, and demographic base

This allowed Hubs across the country to use their local, digital reach (3)

to encourage communities in cities like Chicago to support organizations in their area(1), learn about their mutual aid efforts,

We decided to use Actblue’s Tandem Feature, in a distributed effort with hubs across the country.

And fundraise thousands for them in a quick and compliant manner(2)