Best organizations to donate to for 2018 elections

May 23, 2018 2:39 PM

What are the best organizations to donate to for taking back the House and Senate in 2018?

I have a sum of money to donate against Trumpism, and would like to see it used wisely. What organizations in your opinion are doing the best work to ensure the House and Senate go Democratic in 2018? I have the usual worries that the Democratic establishment will misallocate funds and resources, with disastrous consequences. Priority is to take the House back so at least one arm of government is not run by gangsters. If possible, please provide some examples of how the org has done good work in the past.

posted by benzenedream to Law & Government (7 answers total)

Best answer: Individual candidates who have already shown intent in primaries to use donations for field operations and not piss them up the wall on consultants and TV ads. Yes, the House matters, but consider candidates in those state and local races that aren't completely lost to gerrymandering: the amount of actual power they wield often negatively correlates with the attention they get.
posted by holgate at 3:15 PM on May 23, 2018

Postcards to Voters has been a great pointer for me to look at close, meaningful smaller races - and heck they could use some dough.
posted by bq at 4:18 PM on May 23, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'd pick the top 10-15 "most likely to flip" races (maybe wait until candidates are through the primary) and throw what you can to each Democratic nominee individually.
posted by kylej at 4:24 PM on May 23, 2018

Best answer: There’s Pinboard founder/owner Maciej Ceglowski’s collection of candidates in races that he thinks can be flipped, “The Great Slate”. (There was an FPP about it.)
posted by Going To Maine at 5:47 PM on May 23, 2018

Best answer: Color of Change is doing amazing, innovative, effective work to turnout African American voters. They've already played a huge role in winning several races, including Doug Jones and Stacey Abrams last night. They are relatively small but do A LOT with what they have.
posted by lunasol at 5:59 PM on May 23, 2018 [8 favorites]

Response by poster: Postcards to voters sounds cool, but I don't see a lot of empirical evidence that they influence turnout on their page from a cursory glance.
posted by benzenedream at 6:06 PM on May 23, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: For folks who care about tax deductibility of their donations, definitely consider HeadCount. They’re doing great work in registering young voters and voters of color, managing to be a real force for progressive change yet with a 501(c)3 status rather than the 501(c)4 [not deductible as charitable donation] status of Color of Change and most explicitly progressive orgs.
posted by kalapierson at 9:32 PM on May 24, 2018 [2 favorites]