1.5°Climate Strategies Group Projects - Member View

Investing in Elections for Climate (2024)

Community Change Voters

$110,000 Raised | $45,000 Match Remaining

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: PACc4c3

Speaker: Grecia Lima, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 07/09/2024

| Powering Up the Deployment Decade (2023/2024)

| Racial Equity Investments

Down Home North Carolina

$150,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Down Home North Carolina is building a statewide network of member-leaders who advocate for economic, climate, and racial justice in rural and small-town communities. They are successfully establishing a permanent, year-round organizing infrastructure in North Carolina’s rural areas by leveraging member-leaders who are deeply rooted in their communities. This project will utilize Down Home’s network to educate rural voters about the historic climate investment opportunities available to their communities while directing individuals interested in accessing federal financial benefits to the WorkMoney resource center.

Geography: North Carolina

Funding Type: PACc4c3

Speaker: Todd Zimmer, Co-Director

Presentation Date: 06/11/2024

Pennsylvania United

$150,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Pennsylvania United is a membership organization in Western PA that has played an important role in supporting the election of the Mayor of Pittsburgh, the Allegheny County Executive, and progressive federal candidates, all based on a shared vision of climate, jobs, and justice. PA United is part of a broad coalition focused on implementing the Inflation Reduction Act by decarbonizing large buildings. This project will expand PA United’s efforts to include canvassing 20,000 doors with scripts educating voters about the benefits the IRA is delivering to their communities while directing individuals interested in accessing federal financial benefits to the WorkMoney resource center.

Geography: Pennsylvania

Funding Type: c3

Speaker: Alex Hanson, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 06/11/2024

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

Speaker: 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

Speaker: Dan Xie, Political Director

Presentation Date: 02/20/2024

UndauntedK12

$500,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

UndauntedK12 is committed to assisting K-12 academic institutions in optimizing their access to IRA and federal resources. Their mission is to accelerate the transition to zero-carbon schools while enhancing institutional and student awareness of the health benefits of clean buildings. UndauntedK12 is actively seeking resources to expand their successful initiatives in California and Massachusetts to school districts nationwide; with a focus on purple States. This expansion includes a program to track the allocation and utilization of IRA funding within school districts, creating a valuable resource for showcasing how IRA resources have improved children's health and well-being.

Geography: National

Funding Type: c3

Speaker: Jonathan Klein, Co-Founder

Presentation Date: 10/24/2023

| 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

Speaker: Beth Soholt, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 10/10/2023

| Coordination, Collaboration, and Technical Assistance

| Messaging & Paid Media

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

Speaker: Matt Traldi, Founder and CEO

Presentation Date: 10/10/2023

| Down Ballot Races

| Messaging & Paid Media

| 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

Speaker: 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

Speaker: Sara Jaynes, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 02/07/2023

| Coordination, Collaboration, and Technical Assistance