1.5°Climate Strategies Group Projects - Member View

Additional 2024 Winning Elections for Climate Investments

Empower Project

$685,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Empower has introduced an innovative digital promotion and micro-payment scheme that significantly enhances relational organizing—the gold standard in text communications. This approach enables Empower to achieve remarkable scalability that dramatically surpasses previous organizing efforts in this space. For every $100,000 invested, Empower generates on average 50,000 additional relational conversations in Presidential battlegrounds. This pay for action program recruits individuals to message their friends, family, and colleagues about the importance of voting in this election cycle. With the inundation of TV ads, mailers, texts, digital ads, and more in battleground states ($15B total spend estimated for the 2024 election), this is a tactic that can break through the noise and create a real impact in the presidential race.

Geography: Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Mike Pfohl, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 10/13/2024

Project Narrative

Common Defense

$106,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Common Defense is uniting veterans from across the political spectrum to support Democratic incumbent Senator Jon Tester in Montana. The program targets persuadable military veterans who are likely voters, using a comprehensive, multi-channel approach. This includes direct mail, peer-to-peer texting, paid relational organizing, earned media, and digital ads featuring authentic, direct-to-camera testimonials from veterans. By leveraging social proof and tailored messaging that speaks directly to veterans, the campaign aims to mobilize these voters and emphasize the importance of supporting the Democratic ticket in a way that resonates with their unique values and experiences. Note: this pitch card is specific to Montana but 1.5°CSG also raised funds for Common Defense in Texas and Nebraska displayed on those cards.

Geography: Montana

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Alex McCoy, Co-Founder & USMC Veteran

Presentation Date: 10/13/2024

Project Narrative

Texas Grassroots Powerbuilding - Part 2

$634,360 Raised

Texas’s rapidly changing demographics warrant significant long-term power-building investments, while the positive polling trends for 2024 indicate a promising path to a potential Allred victory in Texas that could deliver Senate and trifecta control. In response, 1.5°CSG, in collaboration with Way to Win, Texas Future Project, One for Democracy, and Movement Voter Project, is excited to announce our second $500,000 matching funds challenge. Contributions to any of the three featured organizations will be matched dollar-for-dollar, doubling the impact of your support.

Rise AAPI uses direct mail, phonebanking, ethnic media, and digital campaigns – including in-language content – to engage AAPI Texan voters to boost progressive turnout among the AAPI community. Contact: Nabila Mansoor
Planned Parenthood Texas Votes Victory Fund targets low-propensity voters through field outreach, phone banks, digital efforts, and social pressure mail, leveraging data to maximize voter activation. Contact: Drucilla Tigner
Common Defense mobilizes veterans using veteran-to-veteran outreach through relational organizing, direct mail, texting, digital ads, TV, and earned media. Their messaging is tailored to resonate with the military community and boost support for Colin Allred. Contact: Alex McCoy

Geography: Texas

Funding Type: c4c3

Presentation Date: 10/08/2024

Working America

$2,225,862 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Working America brings together over 5 million people without union representation to fight for fair jobs, a just economy, and a democracy that works for all. Their voter contact programs are rigorously tested using randomized control trials, ensuring they deliver Net Democratic Votes at highly cost-effective rates. Through these efforts, Working America has been instrumental in electing fair-minded leaders, defeating anti-worker legislation, and building grassroots power for working people across the country. 1.5°CSG played a leading role in fundraising for Working America's programs in Ohio, Montana, and Nebraska, while also helping to close critical gaps in Presidential battleground States prioritized by Focus For Democracy.

Geography: Montana, Ohio, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, Nevada

Funding Type: c5

Contact: Matt Morrison, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 09/24/2024

Climate Emergency Advocates

$300,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Climate Emergency Advocates (CEA) is launching a targeted, metric-driven door-to-door operation to re-elect Senator Jon Tester and boost voter turnout for PSC candidates Susan Bilo (District 2) and Lenny Williams (District 3). This youth focused program plans 55,000 door knocks, combined with mail, phone, and digital outreach to arguably the most important low-propensity cohort in the State. CEA has secured $150,000 in political funds for this Montana project, faces a $200,000 minimum viable launch budget, and has the capacity to expend $300,000 productively while local organization’s field capacities are mostly saturated.

Geography: Montana

Funding Type: c4

Contact: Shaun Kelleher, Head of Campaigns

Presentation Date: 09/24/2024

Jon Tester Victory Fund

$20,500 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Senator Jon Tester, a third-generation Montana farmer, grandfather, and former school teacher, has served in the U.S. Senate since 2006. As Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, he also sits on the Banking, Commerce, and Indian Affairs Committees. Tester and his wife Sharla continue to farm their family land near Big Sandy. A champion for climate change, conservation, and renewable energy, Jon has been a strong advocate for rural communities and public lands. He supported the Inflation Reduction Act, playing a key role in passing this transformational legislation.

Geography: Montana

Contact: Jon Testor, U.S Senator

Presentation Date: 09/24/2024

Presentation

Meeting Notes

Texas Grassroots Powerbuilding

$1,210,500 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Texas’s rapidly changing demographics warrant significant long-term power-building investments, while the positive polling trends for 2024 indicate a promising path to a potential Allred victory in Texas that could deliver Senate and trifecta control. In response, 1.5°CSG, in collaboration with Way to Win, is excited to announce our largest-ever $500,000 matching funds challenge. Contributions to any of the three featured organizations will be matched dollar-for-dollar, doubling the impact of your support.

Communications Workers of America (CWA) which leads the “Fight for Democracy” program, focused on mobilizing Black and Latino voters in Texas' five largest counties through canvassing, calling, texting, and paid media. Contact: Derrick Osobase
Texas Organizing Project’s (TOP) voter contact program engages voters with canvassing, calls, texts, relational outreach, mail, and digital. They focus on empowering Black voters through organizing in key Texas counties. Contact: Brianna Brown
Texas Freedom Network (TFN) is a leading voter engagement model, targeting young Texans through comprehensive GOTV efforts including canvassing, digital ads, and campus outreach events across the state. Contact: Val Benavidez

Geography: Texas

Funding Type: c4c3

Presentation Date: 09/17/2024

Colin Allred Victory Fund

$6,650 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Colin, a fourth-generation Texan from Dallas raised by a hardworking single mother, is a former NFL linebacker and a dedicated civil rights attorney who has fought for voting rights nationwide. After serving in the Obama Administration at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Colin made headlines in 2018 by defeating a 22-year Republican incumbent in Texas' 32nd District, winning re-election twice since. With a 97% lifetime score on the League of Conservation Voters’ National Environmental Scorecard, Colin champions both environmental and working-class issues. Colin has the ability to win tough elections cycle after cycle and knows that Texans are fed up with Ted Cruz and ready to move FORWARD. Let’s help him win in Texas this year!

Geography: Texas

Contact: Colin Allred, Texas Senator Candidate

Presentation Date: 09/17/2024

Presentation

Meeting Notes

GALEO Impact Fund

$58,500 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

The GALEO Impact Fund was founded in 2019 to expand and influence Latino political power in Georgia and elect progressive policymakers who align with their community's values, and hold all officials with Latino constituencies accountable. Their sister organization GALEO was founded in 2003 to increase civic participation by educating and empowering the Latino community and developing Latino leaders through strategic leadership programs throughout Georgia. GALEO’s 2023 Puente Para La Gente Survey showed them that the cost of living, access to meaningful wages and jobs, and protecting the quality of the air and water are all top priorities for the community. GALEO Impact Fund's is working hard to achieve positive outcomes for the Gwinnett and Cobb transit referendums.

Geography: Georgia

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Kyle Gomez-Leineweber, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy

Presentation Date: 08/27/2024

Georgia Conservation Voters

$75,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Georgia Conservation Voters (GCV) believes all Georgians have the right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, eat healthy foods, and live in a world free from environmental harm. As an LCV affiliate, GCV envisions a future where Georgia’s elected leaders are informed and empowered to take action to advance climate and environmental justice. Their vision for the 2024 transit referendums in Cobb and Gwinnett counties is to enhance mobility for all by providing the right services in the right places. By turning out voters to pass this referendum, they aim to create clean jobs, foster energy independence, grow Georgia’s economy, and address transportation equity.

Geography: Georgia

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Brionté McCorkle, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 08/27/2024

Rural Youth Voter Fund

$1,171,600 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

The Rural Youth Voter Fund (RYVF) supports and expands civic engagement and power-building efforts that nurture the extraordinary promise of young rural voters to protect and strengthen democracy. Launched in 2023 by the Rural Democracy Initiative (RDI), Movement Voter Project, and Clean and Prosperous America, RYVF is building a network of grassroots organizations working to mobilize the 30 million ambivalent young voters living in rural areas and small cities in key battleground states. RYVF aims to deploy at least $10 million to effective efforts focused on voter participation, leadership development, persuasive communications, and rural issues affecting young people. Camille Thompson with Collective Renaissance Georgia, a recipient of RYVF support, spoke on the call as a representative of the types of orgs supported by the RYVF.

Geography: National

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Sarah Jaynes, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 08/06/2024

Ohio Organizing Collaborative

$130,000 Raised

Ohio Organizing Collaborative (OOC) is the state's largest community organizing group and independent voter engagement program centering people of color, women, and young people. OOC membership includes students, people of faith, felony impacted people, public school parents, care economy workers and more. Through this program, OOC will apply their deep experience running field programs to a new partnership with WorkMoney to educate Ohioans about opportunities to receive financial benefits generated by the Inflation Reduction Act.

Geography: Ohio

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Molly Shack, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 07/09/2024

Community Change Voters

$114,000 Raised

All data points show that hard-to-find & reach Black, Latino, Native, AAPI, women, and young voters will need additional engagement to turn out for values-aligned candidates. One way to motivate turnout is through layered canvas mail: a personalized mail touch will increase voter turnout, influence voter behavior, and decrease canvas decay. Through a partnership with WorkMoney we will be adding QR codes and pathways to connect voters to government resources that put money directly in their pockets. We know these voters feel economic anxiety and believe no one cares about their pain. The care and IRA benefits framework is an antidote to apathy so that voters can make a direct connection between their power at the voting booth and governing process. This is our opportunity to shift the political calculus -- and ensure voters aren’t isolated from the safety net.

Geography: Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, Georgia, Wisconsin

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Grecia Lima, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 07/09/2024

Jane Fonda Climate PAC

$63,300 Raised

Jane Fonda Climate PAC is on a mission to reshape the political landscape, ensuring that leaders are not only aware of the urgent climate crisis but are also committed to taking decisive action. Through strategic campaigns, direct candidate support, and relentless grassroots organizing, Jane Fonda Climate PAC is holding the fossil fuel industry accountable and pushing for a sustainable future. And now, in 2024, they’re taking their efforts to the next level with the launch of a groundbreaking relational field organizing program. This initiative aims to empower communities and amplify their voices in electing climate champions to state legislative seats. These are the individuals who will shape policy, drive innovation, and lead us toward a cleaner, greener tomorrow. Join to learn more about the critical climate fights at the down ballot level and how JanePAC is building a bench of climate champions to lead us to a clean energy future.

Geography: National, California, Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Oregon, Colorado, Nevada.

Contact: Jane Fonda, Principal

Presentation Date: 05/28/2024

Celebrity Presentation

Meeting Notes

Sister District Project

$31,500 Raised

Sister District mobilizes their national network of grassroots volunteers around the most strategic opportunities to win elections and build power in state legislatures. In 2024, they are driving make-or-break field and fundraising capacity to state legislative races in battlegrounds ― AZ, GA, MI, NC, NV, PA, WI. Sister District is closing narrow vote margins, helping Democrats win key seats, shifting the balance of power in entire chambers, and advancing policies on climate change, democracy, and more. Funding will allow Sister District to implement their proven volunteer-powered field strategies and tactics in these seven target states, and expand their work into MN and NH.

Geography: Arizona, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Lala Wu, Co-Founder & Executive Director

Presentation Date: 05/14/2024

Red Wine and Blue

$32,000 Raised

Red Wine & Blue is a grassroots community of over half a million diverse suburban women working together to defeat extremism, one friend at a time. They provide a welcoming pathway to political engagement for women, including many who have never been political before, to organize in their communities. To complement their full-time teams in MI, NC, PA, and OH,they are raising funds to hire additional GOTV organizers focused on converting their members into relational volunteers who mobilize their friends, family, and neighbors to vote in critical federal battleground areas. This is a rare relational field program targeting what has consistently proven to be one of the most important and moveable groups of voters - suburban women.

Geography: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Katie Paris, Founder & CEO

Presentation Date: 05/14/2024

Northern Plains Resource Council

$70,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Northern Plains Resource Council (NPRC) organizes a multi-generational mix of farmers, ranchers, environmentalists and rural people in some of the toughest parts of Montana to advocate for clean air, clean water, and progressive natural resource policies. We use face-to-face organizing to develop trust, win strategic campaigns, develop new leaders, and build power. Northern Plains is talking to hundreds of Montanans about the Biden Administrations investments in home energy rebates, LIHEAP, and REAP, to provide immediate financial relief to hundreds of economically stressed Montanans. NPRC’s educational campaign triages interested parties to WorkMoney’s resource center to streamline each individual’s enrollment process.

Geography: Montana

Funding Type: c3

Contact: Maggie Gordon, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 04/16/2024

Citizens' Climate Education

$50,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Citizens’ Climate Lobby's c3 affiliate Citizens’ Climate Education (“CCE”) is a nonpartisan grassroots network with 220,000+ supporters and 380 active chapters across the United States. For this project, CCE is partnering with WorkMoney to raise awareness about their resource center which helps consumers capture electrification and weatherization credits. CCE volunteers will deploy educational resources nationally, including in every key battleground state and district generating an economically efficient cost-per-acquisition. In these battleground areas alone, the expected impact of this $50k project is direct exposure to 57,000 supporters and the promotion of educational materials via 1,250+ tabling events and volunteer-organized presentations.

Geography: National

Funding Type: c3

Contact: Topher Anderson, Acting Director of Development

Presentation Date: 04/16/2024

Student PIRGs

$154,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

The Student PIRGs are a national network of student-run non-profits that have recruited, trained, and mobilized college and university students to win on public interest issues since 1971. The organization helped pass the first GHG reduction bills in the 2000s, won commitments for 100% renewable energy at the campus, city, and state level accomplished with a Boards of Directors made up entirely of current college students. This spring, the Student PIRGs aim to leverage their year-round infrastructure on campuses in Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia to educate young people about how their network and families can save money and save the environment through new programs and tax incentives created by the Inflation Reduction Act. StudentPIRGs IRA education program triages interested parties to WorkMoney's resource center to streamline each individuals enrollment process.

Geography: Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Dan Xie, Political Director

Presentation Date: 02/20/2024

Climate Bond Initiative

$20,000 Raised

Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) is a UK-based nonprofit, deeply engaged with policymakers and financial firms around the world as the top certifier of green bonds, but has limited presence in the US. Carbon Washington, founded to promote the first carbon pricing ballot initiative in the US, is now focused on mobilizing the trillions of dollars in public and private investment needed to meet climate goals and is partnering with CBI to facilitate its U.S. expansion.

Geography: National

Funding Type: c3

Contact: Sean Kidney, CEO and Founder

Presentation Date: 01/09/2024

Inclusive Prosperity Capital

$117,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Inclusive Prosperity Capital (IPC), a mission-driven 501(c)3 national clean energy financing platform spun out of the Connecticut Green Bank, focuses on bridging the gap in clean energy financing for traditionally underserved communities and market segments. IPC has invested over $50 million in clean energy and resilience projects across the U.S. and Territories, with a near-term pipeline of over $100 million of additional investment opportunities. Approximately 50% of IPC's investments benefit low to moderate income communities, with approximately 60% directed towards communities of color IPC's unique business model leverages a blended capital stack to ensure sustainable operations and capital reinvestment. As a lead coalition partner with the Justice Climate Fund, IPC is well-positioned to access Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) capital facilitating the potential to exponentially scale its impact during the coming years. Currently, IPC is spearheading the creation of a secondary market platform, collaborating with organizations like Opportunity Finance Network, Inclusive, Carsey School of Public Policy, and Natural Resource Defense Council, to standardize clean energy financing, making it easier for small community lenders to issue clean energy loans to subprime applicants with the risk reduced by philanthropic dollars.

Geography: National

Funding Type: c3

Contact: Kerry O'Neil, Chief Executive Officer

Presentation Date: 11/28/2023

| Climate Finance

Greenlight America

$100,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Greenlight America is focused on leveraging local grassroots support with the goal of winning local clean energy siting and permitting fights. The U.S. needs to build 6,000 clean energy facilities over the next decade, almost 2 per day, as well as more than 10,000 miles of transmission lines to hit emission reduction goals. Local opposition is the biggest obstacle to these projects, and there are few coordinated efforts to engage supporters as advocates for these projects. Greenlight is building a scalable, nationwide clean energy campaign hub to work with partner organizations, engage and mobilize local residents, and win project approvals.

Geography: National

Funding Type: c3

Contact: Matt Traldi, Founder and CEO

Presentation Date: 10/10/2023

| Coordination, Collaboration, and Technical Assistance

Land & Liberty

$105,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Land & Liberty, part of the Clean Grid Alliance, boasts a highly experienced team with a two-decade track record of effectively navigating utility-scale siting conflicts across several states, including Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Their renewable energy siting efforts are distinctly concentrated on the more conservative, rural regions within these states, acknowledging that these areas hold the greatest technical potential for renewable energy projects while concurrently harboring the lowest levels of public support for the fundamental reasons behind transitioning to carbon-free sources of electricity.

Geography: National

Funding Type: c3

Contact: Beth Soholt, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 10/10/2023

| Coordination, Collaboration, and Technical Assistance

Harambee House

$155,500 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Harambee house is organizing the Southeast Environmental Justice Summit on June 7-11th in Atlanta, Georgia. This summit will bring together front-line community organizers with utilities, businesses, energy service companies, and federal agency representatives to prepare them to apply for new federal funding opportunities under IRA and other federal programs. An output of this summit will be a draft 10 year environmental justice plan for the 8 states in EPA Region 4 including: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

Geography: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee

Funding Type: c3

Contact: Dr. Mildred McCain, Founder

Presentation Date: 05/02/2023

| Coordination, Collaboration, and Technical Assistance

Texas Climate Jobs Project

$250,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

TCJP is developing and expanding NGO-led state coordinating tables focused on expanding the partnership between labor and environmental organizations to access IRA funding for climate and economic development efforts in the fossil fuel heavy State of Texas.

Geography: Texas

Funding Type: c3

Contact: Bo Delp, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 04/04/2023

| Coordination, Collaboration, and Technical Assistance

United Today Stronger Tomorrow

$300,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

UTST is developing and expanding NGO-led state coordinating tables focused on procuring federal funding in UT, MT, and IA. This work is critically important for making IRA a climate success in these states and will have additional political significance in Montana because of its competitive U.S. Senate race in 2024.

Geography: Utah, Montana, Ohio

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Paul Gestos, Special Project Director

Presentation Date: 03/07/2023

| Coordination, Collaboration, and Technical Assistance

Rural Democracy Initiative

$240,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Rural Democracy Initiative is launching a new $20-$40m Regional Rural Focused IRA Coordinating Hubs Project over the next four years. It will focus on setting up regional hubs which can offer coordinating, collaboration, and technical assistance to rural communities and small towns particularly in red and purple states. That's where the difference between the probable and the possible for climate action with IRA funds would be the greatest. 1.5°CSG is kickstarting this project with an aim to get he first $200k in the door.

Geography: National

Funding Type: c3

Contact: Sara Jaynes, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 02/07/2023

| Coordination, Collaboration, and Technical Assistance