Hey Chrysalis Giving friends -

I just attended a very compelling Zoom talk/fundraiser organized by a friend of a friend about the work of the Voter Participation Center https://www.voterparticipation.org/ (a 501c3) and it's sister organization the Center for Voter Information https://www.centerforvoterinformation.org/ (a 501c4).

Basically, the argument in favor of donating to them is summed up by this graph from a NYT op-ed https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/opinion/black-voters-2020-election.html : [image: image.png] VPC and CVI are organizations that mail out guided voter registration forms and mail-in ballot request forms to target audiences that skew heavily Democratic. VPC registers people of color, unmarried women, and young folks, which are categories they are allowed to target as a c3. CVI (as a c4) can use partisan donor lists to get even more granular in who it targets.

Their data shows that every voter that they register is then about 70% likely to vote in the election and 80% likely to vote Democratic. They've registered hundreds of thousands of folks already this cycle in many of the key zip codes across the country where a few hundred more Democratic votes could tip a house/senate race.

The speaker on the call presented data (that I don't have in front of me) that argued that supporting this work is one of the most cost effective ways of influencing the election, because it is much cheaper than door-to-door campaigning and VPC/CVI have gotten good at creating mail strategies that get folks to respond and register. Turns out it's very hard and very expensive to get folks to change their mind https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/09/campaigns-direct-mail-zero-effect/541485/ about who they're going to vote for, but it's much easier to just get more people who are likely to vote your way to the polls. Campaigns burn through huge pots of money on persuasion ads on TV that have very little impact, whereas VPC/CVI can blast thousands of potential Democratic voters with registration forms for the same cost as a 30 second ad.

Anyway, I was sold and made a donation. Would encourage folks who are making donations in the electoral arena to consider them as well. And if you don't need the tax deduction, give to CVI as they have a harder time raising money as a c4.

Cheers, Gene