A Decision Guide for Supporting Democracy Organizations and Candidates
Prepared for Indivisible Portola Valley Members and Friends
A practical worksheet for comparing values, effectiveness, transparency and need before contributing time or money.
Created by Steve G. with Microsoft Copilot (GPT 5).
[Click on the titles to show the PDF pages.]
Time: Sat Aug 22, 5pm to 7pm
Location: Mountain View (address provided upon RSVP)
Meet exciting candidate Randy Villegas in person and help him flip U.S. House District CA-22 in the Central Valley, one of the few true toss-up races in the country! This district will be won or lost by just a few hundred or a few thousand votes. Every dollar you donate and every action you take could help get one of those few votes we need!
We have the best chance in years to flip CA-22. Prop 50 moved the race from “Lean Republican” to “Toss-Up”. And Randy’s Republican opponent Rep. David Valadao has voted twice to endanger health care for millions, including most recently for the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill.” That vote ripped health care away from over 65,000 people in his district alone (⅔ of his constituents) and gutted food assistance for more than 60,000 households. Valadao has already lost this seat once before, in the 2018 midterms of Trump’s first term, when he voted to take health care away from the people in this district the first time. But the bad news is that Valadao has millions on hand, while Randy came out of the June primary with very little in the bank.
Randy will join us in person to talk about the race, how he fights for working families, and what he’ll do to protect our democracy and bring accountable, people-first leadership to Washington. He wants to answer to his constituents, not special interests. So he refuses to accept money from Corporate PACs. Randy is relying on our support!
Suggested minimum donation: $100 (more very welcome!) (We won’t turn anyone away. Please give what you can, even below the suggested amount.) All donations go directly to Randy’s campaign. Sponsor the event at $500+.
Whether or not you’re attending, please send the donation as soon as possible (i.e., don’t wait til the event), because Randy needs the funds immediately to counter Valadao’s giant war chest. And voters will receive their ballots in just 2 months!
See also:
Focus for Democracy primarily raises funds for other organizations, such as Working America and Galvanize Action. Because the need to preserve our democracy is urgent, its leadership works pro bono, researching, synthesizing, and presenting recommendations on where to direct our political dollars to achieve the greatest impact.
Rebuilding trust to win elections—one conversation at a time
Ground Truth is an innovative, people-powered canvassing program that’s helping Democrats win back power by reimagining how we talk with voters.
Using the power of social networks and digital media, we motivate individual and collective action to advance resilient communities, just societies, and a healthy planet.
95% of young people are on social media.
Relationships, ideas, and images of our lives are shaped and shared on social media every day. In partnership with Feel Good Action, influencers are leading their followers to ACT.
The Democratic Messaging Project was established in 2022 to inform and educate voters about the historic achievements made by the Biden Administration and Democrats. DMP billboards, postcards, digital and video ads have made a huge impact in battleground states.
Mission: Register Democrats.
Save the World.
Field Team 6 registers millions of Democratic voters, mostly in swing states, by meeting people where they are – via phone, text, postcard, social media, and at in-person, Covid-safe voter drives! Many people just have to be asked to register.
Recommended by: Bob B.
More in Common was established with the mission of tackling the ‘us-versus-them’ divisions that pose a generational threat to the United States. We have published over 30 reports since launching in the US in 2018, with a foundational study that helped shape the emerging field of efforts to tackle polarization in America. Hidden Tribes: A Study of America’s Polarized Landscape showed that rather than being evenly divided, most Americans belonged to an ‘Exhausted Majority’. America’s Exhausted Majority is tired of tribalism, fed up with the country’s polarization, and more flexible and less ideological than the strident voices who dominate public debates.
We work with leaders across the ideological spectrum to strengthen American democracy, solve problems, and better navigate the dynamics of a polarized society. The common thread through our ever-increasing range of projects and partnerships is a simple truth: what we as Americans have in common is greater than our differences. Through both our research insights and on-the-ground projects, we’re building evidence-based solutions to bring this truth to life.
More in Common is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization. We receive funding from foundations, organizations and individuals who share a commitment to building communities and societies that are more resilient to the forces of social fracturing and polarization. Philanthropies that support More in Common’s work fund projects across a wide range of issue areas.
Galvanize Action connects with moderate women in rural, small-town, and suburban communities to build an America that works for everyone. We work at the intersection of data science, behavioral psychology, and neuroscience to find women who want progress on key issues but aren’t reliably playing a role in getting us there, connect with them on their values, and influence their civic behavior. We’re sharing our unique insights into moderate women voters and making our full creative library available to the movement.
Central Valley Matters is a coalition of organizations in California working to strengthen democracy and activate the electorate. We started as a group of volunteers who actively participated in the congressional elections in the Central Valley starting in 2018, and have grown into an alliance of volunteer groups focused on fundraising and supporting selected local, grassroots organizations in the Central Valley. For activism in the communities of the Central Valley to be sustained, it must be developed organically by and for the people who live there.
Central Valley Matters is dedicated to supporting locally based grassroots organizations that know their communities best and can be most responsive to their needs, and translate that into political power. Such support is a proven and crucial strategy for preserving our democracy, as was evident in Georgia and Arizona in 2020. We believe that when community voices are heard through voting, they are better represented at all levels of government. And our country is better for it.
Currently, our coalition of over 40 California volunteer groups helps to fund civic engagement in the Central Valley, supporting our carefully vetted grassroots organizations based in CA’s CD 22:
Community Water Center Action Fund, Dolores Huerta Action Fund, Poder Latinx, plus Delano Guardians, Loud for Tomorrow & Valley Voices.
State policy becomes national policy, state leaders become national leaders, and states serve as a bulwark against an activist Supreme Court and chaos at the federal level. Sister District works to protect our democracy by electing Democrats in swing states like Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Texas.
Founded in January 2017, Swing Left continues to work hard to win elections for Democrats. Since merging with Flippable in 2019, Swing Left has remained committed to strengthening our democracy by fundraising, letter writing, phone banking, and canvassing.
Local Majority’s mission is to provide critical research to Democratic state legislative candidates. Since 2017, Local Majority has produced issue papers for state candidates in Virginia, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Arizona. Local Majority provides research that is practical and accessible to support Democratic campaigns for the state legislature.
Democracy Forward uses the law to build collective power and advance a bold, vibrant democracy for all people.
Democracy Forward is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy and public education, and regulatory engagement.
In towns and cities across America, we provide legal representation and expert counsel to the people and communities who make up the very fabric of American democracy — free of charge.
The Election Official Legal Defense Network (EOLDN) connects election officials in need of advice or assistance with licensed, qualified, pro bono attorneys and with communications professionals. EOLDN is a project of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Center for Election Innovation & Research.
In America, we don’t do kings.
We’re a grassroots movement of thousands of local Indivisible groups with a mission to elect progressive leaders, rebuild our democracy, and defeat the Trump agenda.
Defeating a multi-decade right-wing takeover of American government ain’t easy. But we’re here to win, and we have a plan. Here’s how we’re doing it:
We Are Indivisible. Our opponents depend on a divide-and-conquer strategy, so we treat an attack on one like an attack on all. We show up for each other, and particularly for those facing the brunt of right-wing ideologues’ attacks – often immigrants, people of color, and low-income people. We share a vision: a real democracy, of, by, and for everyone.
Strong Leaders, Strong Groups, Strong Movement. We build and sustain our movement’s power by helping individuals take leadership. They grow and lead local Indivisible groups, take independent action, and coordinate with their fellow local leaders. As a movement, our power comes from coordinated national campaigns where we act together, indivisible.
Inside/Outside Strategy. We understand systems of power – like how Congress operates – and we work inside them to get results. That complements our outside strategy of locally-based constituent pressure to demand elected leaders, regardless of political party, work for our democracy.
A Virtuous Cycle of Advocacy and Elections. We show up to advocate for policy wins in off-years and get out the vote in election years. These efforts reinforce each other to ensure our democracy works for all of us and that the people in power do too – or we will replace them with electeds who will.
Civic Influencers is committed to ensuring young voices and votes matter in our democracy. They have reimagined how and where to engage young voters. Their Organizing, Advocacy and Learning model equips young people to dismantle barriers to voting.
VoteRiders is a non-partisan, non-profit organization with a mission to ensure that all citizens are able to exercise their freedom to vote. VoteRiders informs and helps citizens to secure their voter ID as well as inspires and supports organizations, local volunteers, and communities to sustain voter ID education and assistance efforts.
Lawfare is a non-profit multimedia publication dedicated to “Hard National Security Choices.” We provide non-partisan, timely analysis of thorny legal and policy issues through our written, audio, and other content—all of which you can find here. We strive to achieve academic-level depth with magazine-level readability at the pace of news. We aim to improve the discourse on the law and policy of national security with a relentless focus on substantive issues that matter—in a fashion that is useful to policymakers and practitioners, but also accessible to anyone who wants to access it. Our areas of coverage range from national security law, threats to democracy, cybersecurity, executive powers, content moderation, domestic extremism, and foreign policy, among many others.
The Mission of the Democratic Volunteer Center is to support volunteers and activist groups in the democratic process by providing the space, infrastructure and resources necessary to elect Democrats and pass legislation aligned with Democratic Party values at the local, state and national levels.
Working America is the political organizing arm of the AFL–CIO. It is the largest non-union workers’ group in the United States. Working America advocates for progressive policy issues, recruiting people in working-class neighborhoods on their doorsteps in an effort to persuade them to support labor-backed candidates at election time.
Whether it’s supporting a candidate, passing legislation, or changing our culture, MoveOn members are committed to an inclusive and progressive future. They envision a world marked by equality, sustainability, justice, and love. And mobilize together to achieve it.
Inspired by Justice William J. Brennan Jr.’s devotion to core democratic freedoms, the Brennan Center for Justice works to strengthen democracy, end mass incarceration, and protect liberty and security.
The Brennan Center for Justice is an independent, nonpartisan law and policy organization that works to reform, revitalize, and, when necessary, defend our country’s systems of democracy and justice.
Corporations have their lobbyists in Washington, D.C. The people need advocates too.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power, and fight to ensure that government works for the people – not big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 1 million members and supporters throughout the country.
With rare exceptions, we don’t participate in partisan political activities or endorse any candidates for elected office. We take no government or corporate money, which allows us to remain fiercely independent and call out bad actors – no matter who they are or how much money and power they have.
Founded with 4,000 core members in 1970 to serve as a people’s lobby, Common Cause has grown into a nationwide network of more than 1 million members and supporters, with a presence in 30 states and Washington, D.C.
Common Cause works to ensure that every vote counts, that every eligible voter has an equal say, that our elections represent the will of the people and that our government is of, by, and for the people.
Using the power of law, narrative, research, and people, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) defends the humanity and advance the rights of Black people in America.
LDF is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
February 19, 2025
Today, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) and Lambda Legal filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of nonprofit advocacy organizations challenging three anti-equity executive orders from President Trump related to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility and transgender people.
The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization working to protect and expand voting rights and ensure everyone is represented in our democracy. We empower voters and defend democracy through advocacy, education, and litigation, at the local, state, and national levels. IPV is affiliated with The League of Women Voters South San Mateo County
American Civil Liberty Union – Defend the rights of all people nationwide
The ACLU has evolved in the years since from this small group of idealists into the nation’s premier defender of the rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. With more than 1.1 million members, 500 staff attorneys, thousands of volunteer attorneys, and offices throughout the nation, the ACLU of today continues to fight government abuse and to vigorously defend individual freedoms, including speech and religion, a woman’s right to choose, the right to due process, citizens’ rights to privacy and much more. The ACLU stands up for these rights even when the cause is unpopular, and sometimes when nobody else will. While not always in agreement with us on every issue, Americans have come to count on the ACLU for its unyielding dedication to principle. The ACLU has become so ingrained in American society that it is hard to imagine an America without it.
