Updated: August 10, 2020
Intro
We fundraise for the Indivisible organizations because defeating the multi-decade right-wing takeover of American government isn’t easy, and it isn’t free. It takes resources: tools, digital systems, travel (in non-pandemic times), direct support to groups, and above all, a talented staff of organizers, wonks, campaigners, digital and data specialists, and other experts to support the Indivisible movement and fight for progressive values.
We’re committed to fundraising for Indivisible, but we’re not willing to sacrifice our principles, or our strategic independence, to do it. So we developed a set of principles and practices that we stick to even when it’s inconvenient -- even when it means saying no to funds -- so that we are able to responsibly resource the Indivisible organizations and movement.
To see how we were thinking about fundraising when we were babies back in the summer of 2017. The spirit and almost all the specifics have stayed the same, but we’re giving it a bit of a face lift to make it easier to absorb what our approach to fundraising really is, and to add a few principles and practices based on the last three years of experience.
Guiding Principles
- The guiding light of our fundraising philosophy is to resource Indivisible while fully maintaining our strategic independence. Simply put: we are not a donor-driven organization.
- The second -- and secondary -- guiding principle is to secure stable funding to resource the Indivisible movement and Indivisible organizations. We raise funds so the work can happen.
Policies
From those two guiding principles, we have five policies that guide our fundraising:
- Diversification: We seek funding from multiple sources of funding. This provides stability for our organization -- in case one revenue stream becomes less successful -- and also prevents any one area of funding from having too much influence over our work.
- Grassroots donations: We strive for small-dollar, grassroots donations to be the single largest source of funding for Indivisible, so that we are fueled by grassroots donors.
- Gift restrictions: We don’t accept funding from sources that restrict our strategic independence.
- Responsible partnerships: We seek to uplift the fundraising efforts of both organizations primarily serving communities of color as well as local Indivisible groups and other allies.
- Progressive philanthropy: We encourage philanthropy to better support the progressive movement.
That sounds nice! But what does it actually mean in practice?
Practices
Glad you asked :). We have operationalized the above policies into specific practices:
Policy on diversification
We seek funding from multiple sources of funding. This provides stability for our organization -- in case one revenue stream becomes less successful -- and also prevents any one area of funding from having too much influence over our work.
Practice 1: We have three robust, multi-million dollar revenue streams: (1) small individual grassroots donations, (2) larger gifts from individual donors, and (3) family and public foundations.
Practice 2: We explore other revenue sources when it’s strategic. We’re currently doing a small amount of direct mail to determine if that’s a worthwhile source of funding to pursue.
Policy on grassroots donations
We strive for grassroots donations to be the single largest source of funding for Indivisible, so that we are fueled by grassroots donors.
Practice 1: Grassroots donations should be the single largest source of funding. This means we will get more from all our small individual donations than any single other gift from a foundation or large donor.
Practice 2: We will invest in the staff, tools, ads, and systems to ensure grassroots donations account for the largest single source of our support. In 2019, grassroots donations accounted for 25% of our total revenue across the Indivisible organizations. In the first half of 2020, grassroots donations accounted for 29% of our total revenue.
Policy on gift restrictions
We don’t accept funding from sources that restrict our strategic independence.
Practice 1: We are a fundraising-second organization. What that means is that if a donor wants us to do something that is not in our program plans or strategic vision, we will decline the support.
Practice 2: We do not accept more than 20% of our annual budget from any one source, including foundations and individuals. We set a threshold because if we were primarily funded by just one or two individuals, we would be more beholden to their interests.
Practice 3: We do not accept funding from political parties, their leaders, or candidates for federal office. That means we get no money from Bloomberg, the Clintons, the DNC, etc. As a specific example, we received funding in 2017 from a smaller family foundation whose backing donor ran for Congress in 2018. So we turned down a grant they offered us in 2018.
Practice 4: We do not accept funding from for-profit corporations. This includes rejecting matching employer donations if the employer is a for-profit corporation.
Policy on responsible partnership
We seek to uplift the fundraising efforts of both organizations primarily serving communities of color as well as local Indivisible groups and other allies.
Practice 1: We will not compete for support with organizations primarily serving communities of color. We are straightforward with donors about the demographics of our movement, and we do not seek funding from donors we know are primarily seeking to serve communities of color.
Practice 2: We will seek to support racial justice organizations and other allies. We will direct donors interested in supporting racial justice to partner organizations. During emergencies and crises (e.g. family separation crisis, COVID), we will encourage our mailing list to support local organizations working directly with impacted communities. For example, this June, following the murder of George Floyd, we raised $300,000 directly for Black-led racial justice organizations.
Practice 3: We will not—in good faith—compete with local groups’ fundraising efforts. For example, a donor in Boston asked Leah if she should support a local group effort or the national organization. Without skipping a beat, Leah encouraged her to give locally. (Note: this does not mean that donors can’t give to both local and national groups -- fundraising is not a zero sum game!)
Practice 4: We will actively seek to assist local groups’ fundraising efforts. See: the entire distributed fundraising program! We support the logistics of fundraising as well as support with templates, 1:1 coaching, and matching challenges to help local groups fundraise for their costs.
Policy on progressive philanthropy
We encourage philanthropy to better support the progressive movement.
Practice 1: We will never accept discrimination of fundraising staff. In 2018, we developed Fundraising Anti-harassment and Anti-discrimination principles that complement Indivisible’s EEO policy to specifically guarantee that staff will not be asked to tolerate harassment or discrimination of any kind from donors, no matter how large their gifts.
Practice 2: We will seek -- and seek to explain the value of -- best practices in philanthropy, including general operating support, unrestricted funds, and multi-year commitments.
Practice 3: We will honestly explain Indivisible’s strategy and theory of change. This does not mean we never frame our work within a donor’s interests, but that we will not misrepresent our approach, apologize for our strategy, or claim to be able to achieve results that aren’t aligned with our strategy.