ANNOUNCING: 2021 Accelerator Awards

“Democracy is not a spectator sport”

The Unite America Fund is once again partnering with our friends at RepresentUs to administer the Campaign Accelerator Awards, in which we support promising electoral reform campaigns by providing a grant (of an average ~$25,000) and expert consulting to twenty championing campaigns. We know that the amount of money spent trying to influence a broken political system dwarfs the amount of money spent trying to fix it, which is why the Campaign Accelerator Awards are a crucial recurring element of our effort. It’s our responsibility to support the growing reform movement in the most impactful way possible.

‍That starts with your application. The deadline is March 22, 2021.

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Are we a good fit?

To get an idea of the kind of reform campaigns we’re focused on, explore recent reform campaign victories in Alaska and Virginia. If your campaign is focused on passing laws through ballot measures and legislative campaigns through 2022-2024, we may be a good fit.

The ideal candidates for the Awards are a cross-partisan mix of volunteers who have identified a prospective team who they would hire as initial paid staff / vendors with a viable vision of what the path to victory looks like to win passage of a statewide law via ballot measure or legislation to adopt Ranked Choice Voting, Open Primaries, Vote by Mail or Anti-Gerrymandering by 2024.

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What are the details?

By the end of March 2021, we will have reviewed all applications. Prospective grantees will submit a 2-page backgrounder by April 16, 2021. Here’s what must be included:

• Individual and / or organization bios / background / history
• Project goal
• Project proposed timeline
• Project history (action, investment, media coverage, etc.)
• Project’s current case for investment (if exists)
• Project’s current campaign plan (if exists)
• Project’s current budget (if exists)
• Project’s decision making / governance structure
• Project’s point of contact(s) for compliance and treasurer (or who will likely serve in those roles if not yet appointed)
• Bank wiring information instructions or other instructions for making a financial contribution to the project

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Who are some former Accelerator Award grantees?

We support change. FairVote Minnesota, who were among the initial grantees of the Accelerator Awards, work tirelessly to pass ranked choice voting measures. In 2020, they succeeded in getting RCV passed in the cities of Bloomington and Minnetonka.

In 2019, Campaign Accelerator Award grants supported reform movements across the nation, spanning from Pennsylvania to New Mexico and Illinois to Tennessee. As our collective efforts snowball in scale, we hope for even more. See 2019 winners here.

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This isn’t the only way to get involved, right? I want to help.

You can donate to a reform organization such as Unite America or spend some time e-campaigning by sharing social media posts - or you could start your own reform campaign (seriously!).

Importantly, share the application link with like-minded and passionate people! We are eager to discover new and promising electoral reform campaigns of which we can support, and one of them could be headed by someone you know.