By Barbara Head.
In previous posts, we talked about a candidate’s special need for “early money,” see But did you know that grassroots organizations typically follow a similar cycle? After a major election, their coffers are depleted. Their infrastructures need to be rebuilt early – trained staff, mailing lists, budgets for their work, and fundraising to carry them through the year as they work on high-priority tasks like voter registration and voter education.
Grassroots funding also can pay salaries – if we want young people and minorities to organize, we need to provide them with salaries to support their activist work. Not all volunteers are retirees! Mobilizing and facilitating younger and minority volunteer populations are essential for our progressive groups to grow and flourish. In our view, this is one of the best reasons to provide funding to grassroots organizations.
And the good news is that, unlike donations for candidates, many grassroots organizations are organized as 501(c)(3) nonprofit charities. Donations to these charities typically are tax deductible. Check with the charity to be sure, if tax deductions are very important to you.