Know anyone with access to resources but skeptical of politics and elections as a means towards social change and building a more just future? This post is for them.
TL;DR - Have you become disillusioned with politics and turned off by the thought of donating to anything related to elections? We totally hear you, but it doesn’t have to be that way! On May 13, join Movement Voter Project and Resource Generation Action for Going for Governing Power - An Electoral Giving Plan Workshop. We’ll learn together how we can use our resources to expand and shift what we fund — from transactional politics as usual to long-term power building and movements for social change.
“Donate now to this lesser-of-two-evils candidate!”
Let’s be real: A lot of us have become completely disillusioned with politics.
Maybe we’ve been forced to choose the “lesser of two evils” within a two-party system too many times. Maybe we’re skeptical of a government that can’t seem to get anything done. Maybe we’re sick of a political establishment that feels out of touch with the climate emergency, the soaring cost of survival, the criminal legal system, and other blatant injustices of our time. Maybe it feels like even the leaders who are supposed to be on our side suck — that politicians only care about themselves and their power, not about fixing problems.
We hear you, and many of us at Movement Voter Project (MVP), often feel the same way. So many aspects of our political system are broken, including the last-minute, emergency, and transactional nature of our elections. But we are invested (literally!) in changing that.
“Invest now! Save our democracy! (even though it’s never really delivered for most people!)”
We’ve heard it too: Every election is the “most important election of our lifetimes,” and our inboxes are digital graveyards of high-decibel, all-caps emails asking us to use our dollars to “save” a version of democracy that hasn't been working for most people.
Electoral campaigns beg for your investment, then spend it on expensive TV ads and turning out white, suburban voters, instead of engaging the people most impacted by the problems. They then pack up and leave the day after Election Day, leaving the detritus of expensive consultants and extractive politics in their wake, only to do it all over again every two to four years.
That’s why many of us roll our eyes with disappointment when election season comes around. Clearly, the easiest thing to do is to tune it all out and divest and disengage from this whole political mess.
But what if, instead of disengaging, there was a better, more powerful way to use our resources to build the future we want?
The solution isn't to disengage. The solution is to shift and expand what we fund.
Photo: One PA at a No Kings rally urging voters to vote “Yes” in state Supreme Court retention elections in 2025.
Let’s fund movements, not politics as usual.
Enter MVP. MVP is not here to ask you to save the status quo. We are here to ask you to fund its transformation.
MVP believes that elections aren't the end goal — they are one part of the infrastructure for a multigenerational, bold, and critical social change process. MVP is shifting donors from a model of ”throwing money at an election” (the classical transactional politics approach) to “investing in long-term power” (the movement-building approach).
Instead of gambling on one-off candidate campaigns, MVP focuses on investing in independent community-based organizations that strategically engage in elections — but only as one tool in the toolbox of winning long-term grassroots, cultural, social, and political power.
Photo: Jews for Racial and Economic Justice celebrating at Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first-100-days rally in Queens, NY.
MVP partners get sh*t done.
MVP invests in organizations like LUCHA in Arizona, Siembra NC in North Carolina, One PA in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin Working Families Party, and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ) in New York City. These organizations are in community 365 days a year. Their staff and members are the most trusted messengers in their communities. They are organizing working-class and BIPOC people on issues that impact their everyday lives, like tenant’s rights, a higher minimum wage, affordable healthcare, and more. They are not only running immigration defense and mutual aid programs; they are also advocating for the government investments and policies that would solve the problems and fill the gaps that make mutual aid and immigration defense necessary in the first place.
They use elections to build power and build power to win elections.
And they organize to win elections — but not just for the sake of winning elections. They use elections to build power and build power to win elections. When it’s election season, these groups already have a foundation of trust with the voters they contact, because they have already been knocking their doors to talk to them about rising rent costs and organizing at community meetings together. When they tell a voter why an election matters, people listen, because they spent last weekend together at an ICE watch training strategizing on how to end cooperation between ICE and local law enforcement.
They build bases that not only rally behind aligned candidates (who these orgs often recruit and train!), but hold elected leaders accountable, and even co-govern with them — making sure they prioritize and fight for the issues that matter most to their constituents.
Photo: Minnesota protesters during the January 23, 2026 Day of Truth and Freedom in response to the federal occupation of the state.
Need more? Minnesota: the Model, the Moment, the Midterms
In 2023, Minnesota passed the most ambitious and progressive legislative agenda since the New Deal — universal school lunches, abortion rights, paid family and medical leave, major investments in housing, transportation, and childcare, and more. But these wins didn’t happen overnight. It took 10 years of sustained, cross-sector organizing focused on creating a big-tent movement that welcomed everyone, asked questions and listened to people’s concerns and solutions, and gave them the tools to lead. As the “movement ecosystem” grew, organizers developed a shared issues agenda driven by the needs of most impacted community members and their agreed-upon strategies to achieve it, which included base building, policy advocacy, and winning elections by helping secure victory for aligned candidates who would fight for them.
This strategy — which we call the Minnesota Model — is exactly the kind of comprehensive approach to winning community and governing power MVP aims to support. The decade of organizing that led to these 2023 victories is also why Minnesotans were ready when Trump unleashed thousands of ICE, CBP, and other federal agents on the state in January. Because the Minnesota ecosystem was so well-resourced and coordinated, organizers were able to mount a swift, effective, and massive resistance that eventually led to the drawdown of ICE, the demotion of former CBP commander-at-large, Greg Bovino, and the firing of former DHS Secretary, Kristi Noem.
The same ecosystem that mobilized thousands of people to win bold policy change in 2023 is the same ecosystem that trained 28,000 ICE watch volunteers and organized one of the biggest general strikes in recent history in 2026. It’s also the same ecosystem that is training those thousands of ICE watch volunteers to, now, become election protection volunteers, bringing new people outraged by Trump into their movement, and mobilizing them for the midterm elections in November. And it’s the same ecosystem that will hold Minnesota’s elected leaders accountable and fight for continued policy change in 2027 and beyond.
This is what we mean by funding a movement, not just politics as usual. Want to feel even more inspired? Watch the full Minnesota story here.
Photo: Siembra NC organizing community members around the issues they care about.
Let’s transform political giving by funding differently.
Power is what makes movements for social change effective. That power generally comes in two forms: people and resources. Our role is to make sure movements for social change — not just politics — have the resources they need to be effective and truly change the social, economic, cultural, and, yes, political, landscape of our country. That means funding big, early, often, and without restrictions, not just when there’s a crisis or a looming election, but year-round, year over year. That’s what MVP does — and we want you to join us.
We have the power to invest comprehensively in movements that can transform the whole system. This doesn’t mean abandoning our values; it means reminding ourselves that fighting authoritarianism is a moral imperative, and so is challenging Democrats who aren’t doing enough. It means using the power that we have — including our financial resources — to create spaces for those most impacted by injustice to lead movements, not just moments. It means transforming what we think is possible by transforming how and where we invest.
It means using the power that we have — including our financial resources — to create spaces for those most impacted by injustice to lead movements, not just moments.
If you have access to resources, one of the most powerful things you can do is invest them in movements for social change. We use the word “investment” intentionally because that’s exactly what it is — an investment in the people power that’s transforming our present into the future we want and need.
Giving now is a radical act. It says: ”Local leaders on the ground know what their community needs. Investing proactively is the best path out of continually needing to respond reactively. Elections are opportunities to build power — not the end game, but the beginning. My investment is one piece of transforming the status quo away from transactional politics toward movement building.”
An Invitation: May 13 Electoral Giving Workshop
Are you ready to think about electoral giving differently — as funding the movement for social change rather than politics as usual? If you are tired of the status quo but you aren't ready to give up on the future, we want to invite you into a different kind of space.
MVP and Resource Generation Action are hosting Going for Governing Power - An Electoral Giving Plan Workshop. In this 90-minute workshop, we will focus on the tensions between transactional politics and movement building, how our electoral giving now can transform politics for the future, and why we need to invest big, early, and often to build and sustain a powerful movement for long-term change.
This won’t be a high-pressure pitch or candidate-centric shenanigans. This will be a political education session for donors (mostly 18-35 years old, though all are welcome) who want to align their wealth with their values.
What: Going for Governing Power - An Electoral Giving Plan Workshop
When: Wednesday, May 13, 7 pm ET • 6 pm CT • 5 pm MT • 4 pm PT
Where: Virtual on Zoom
Photo: Members and participants at LUCHA’s 2026 The Asambela del Pueblo (“The People’s Assembly).
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
The crux of all community organizing is that regular people can win big things and reknit the bonds of society that are so deeply fractured today. When organizers are not resourced to do their work well and at scale, we end up with authoritarians like Trump. And then people who suffer the most from already broken systems only suffer more.
We can shift how power works in this country.
Right-wing politicians and activists would love for us to stay isolated and reactive. But when we come together as a community of movement-aligned donors, we can do something extraordinary: We can shift how power works in this country. We can fund the movements that will move us further, faster, toward a world where wealth isn't concentrated in the hands of the few, people can afford good healthcare, housing, food, and other daily necessities, and we all feel valued, connected, and a sense of belonging and care.
We might not want to “do” politics, but either way, politics is “doing” us — but only if we let it. We can give in to a state of disengagement and cynicism, letting the political machine continue more or less unchanged, or we can spend it as an active, strategic part of the movement for a multiracial democracy and more just future.
Let’s choose the movement.
