1.5°Climate Strategies Group Projects - Member View

| Messaging & Paid Media

| Red States Investments

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

Contribution Info

Project Narrative

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

| Messaging & Paid Media

| Red States Investments

Washington Conservation Action

$57,100 Raised

Washington Conservation Action works to protect Washington's air, water, land, and democracy. To defeat Initiative I-2117, they are focusing on increasing voter turnout among younger and Latino voters across the state, particularly in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District. This effort includes site-based and door-to-door engagement in key communities. Collaborating with community partners, they will conduct site-based persuasion and voter registration at community colleges, provide in-language outreach to Latino voters, and engage suburban neighborhoods through door-to-door contact. By utilizing a shared voter file with partners, Washington Conservation Action will ensure real-time data updates to maximize efficiency and impact.

Geography: Washington

Contact: Alyssa Macy, CEO

Presentation Date: 09/12/2024

NAYA Action Fund

$25,200 Raised

The NAYA Action Fund is raising funds to defeat Initiative 2117 in Washington State and protect the progress made under the Climate Commitment Act of 2021. They are mobilizing a paid field team for door-to-door canvassing and phone banking, while also launching a robust social media campaign and targeted mailers. Financial support will help inform voters, amplify their message, and ensure the community's voice is heard. Together, they aim to safeguard the environment and build a sustainable future for all.

Geography: Washington, Oregon

Funding Type: c4

Contact: William Miller, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 09/12/2024

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

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

Save our Schools

$100,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Save our Schools is organizing around protecting public school funding, an issue that has allowed them to recruit and maintain 16,000 volunteers statewide. They are currently raising funds to expand their volunteer coordination staff from 8 to 16 expanding the reach of their already cost effective volunteer powered voter registration program. Save our Schools has been uniquely successful at reaching, registering, and turning out voters in non-urban parts of Arizona with a special focus on competitive state legislative races, many of which are nested within the States’ competitive congressional districts.

Geography: Arizona

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Beth Lewis, Executive Director

Presentation Date: 04/30/2024

One Fair Wage

$200,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

One Fair Wage Action is mobilizing hundreds of thousands of new and unlikely voters, especially youth and people of color, in MI, OH and AZ using a peer-to-peer voter engagement model focused on the priority issue for those voters this election cycle: the cost of living. They are registering tens of thousands of new voters more cheaply and effectively as part of signature gathering for minimum wage ballot measures that will raise wages for 3.5 million workers and mobilize a minimum of 350,000 new, unlikely voters, with significant impact on Presidential and Senate races this fall.

Geography: Arizona

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Saru Jayaraman, President

Presentation Date: 04/30/2024

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

Working Power

$100,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

WP is a project development and financing company collaborating with NGOs, small businesses, and labor unions to co-develop community solar projects for racial and economic justice while utilizing IRA resources. With a current pipeline of 50 projects involving 16 partners, totaling 50 MW of clean energy, these initiatives aim to reduce CO2 emissions by over 42 metric tons and generate $115M in community benefits. 1.5°CSG funds will help the Ecological Citizen’s Project (ECP)'s 1.1 MW solar installation on 10 city properties in Peekskill, NY which is within competitive Congressional District-17. The $2M in community economic benefits this project generates will provide free food through an innovative food sovereignty program.

Geography: New York

Funding Type: c3

Contact: Bracken Hendricks, Chair of the Climate Justice Investment Committee

Presentation Date: 11/28/2023

| Coordination, Collaboration, and Technical Assistance

Somos Votantes

$206,500 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

Somos Votantes has initiated a field program with seven canvassers dedicated to Nevada and another seven in Arizona, with a focus on educating Latino communities about the opportunities provided by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Through a comprehensive approach involving canvassing, community events, mail programs, digital advertising, and local radio, Somos Votantes casts a wide net to inform Latinos about the economic opportunities brought to them by the Biden administration's IRA. Those who they encourage to access these financial benefits are seamlessly connected with WorkMoney, which takes the lead in facilitating their enrollment in IRA programs.

Geography: Arizona, Nevada

Funding Type: c4c3

Contact: Melissa Morales, Founder & President

Presentation Date: 11/07/2023

Arizona Coalition for Change

$180,000 Raised | Fundraising Goal Achieved!

The Arizona Coalition for Change (C4C), a 501(c)3 Black-led community organization focuses on community empowerment and civic power-building including advocating for progressive policies like voter justice, economic and environmental justice, and youth justice in marginalized Arizona neighborhoods. Notably, they've launched the Clean Energy Clear Lungs (CECL) campaign, promoting clean energy and reducing air pollution in marginalized communities through education and resources while leveraging Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) benefits. This campaign also nurtures lifelong advocates for environmental justice at both state and federal levels. C4C's education program triages interested parties to WorkMoney's resource center to streamline each individuals enrollment process.

Geography: Arizona

Funding Type: c3

Contact: Reginald Bolding Sena Mohammed, Founder Executive Director

Presentation Date: 09/26/2023

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

| Red States Investments