Defending Democracy with SURJ Seed the Vote Fundraiser

We are a team of volunteers from Springfield and Eugene, Oregon, unified behind our goal of defending our democracy!

Our Goal: Defeat Trump, maintain control of the Senate, and win back the House. Seed the Vote is sending volunteers to doorknock alongside local partners in swing states where the Presidential race is likely to be the closest, and where we need to defend Senate or House seats, or have the opportunity to pick up new ones. In 2024, we’re sending canvassers to doorknock in 5 of the states that will likely decide this election: Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Why we’re racing to raise extra funds *right now*

• Our original goal was to send 2,000 canvassers this year. We’ve now surpassed this goal, with over 3,000 canvassers already signed up, and 100 new sign-ups coming in every day.
• We anticipate that we will send out over 4,000 canvassers before election day. 30% of people who sign up with us tell us they need financial support in order to canvass, and we need to raise an extra $500,000 to make sure we can pay for their hotels & travel.
• Our local team set up individual fundraising pages and raised over $7000! We are also sending 2 volunteers next week to Nevada, and the funds we raised will pay the expenses of 7 more volunteers. We would like to double our impact by raising $15,000 total!

We work closely with our local partners to pivot quickly where needed, in order to be most effective. In PA, our partners recently determined that we need to send as many canvassers as possible to the mostly-white suburbs of Philadelphia, to knock the doors of voters who otherwise aren’t being reached. The election could be decided by votes in these areas. In a matter of days, we decided to set up brand new campaign offices & recruit new volunteers to go there. We are now fundraising to cover the costs of this important pivot. In an election this tight, face-to-face conversations will be critical. We are knocking the doors of people on our side, to make sure they get out to vote, AND doors of people who are undecided who they might vote for, or not sure if they’ll vote at all. We are working to persuade these folks to vote for Harris/Walz.

As of Oct 15, 2024:

• Our volunteers have already knocked over 130,000 doors across 5 states, and had over 30,000 conversations.
• We anticipate being able to knock over 400,000 doors and have 80,000 conversations before the election. For context, the 2020 presidential election was won by 40,000 votes - so we are on track to talk to twice as many people as the number that decided the 2020 election.

Seed the Vote’s history and impact:

• In 2020, over 9,000 STV volunteers (1,270 doorknockers and 7,730 phonebankers) helped defeat Trump and win control of the Senate by doorknocking and phonebanking into AZ, PA, GA, and FL.
• Arizona was a critical state in deciding the outcome of the 2020 Presidential race. The 154 STV canvassers in AZ knocked 45,000 doors and had 16,000 conversations in a race decided by 10,457 votes. STV phonebankers had an additional 10,000 conversations with AZ voters.
• After the Presidential election of 2020, we quickly pivoted to send 448 volunteers to doorknock in GA for the Jan 2021 Senate runoffs. We successfully helped elect Senators Warnock & Ossoff to capture control of the Senate.
• In the 2022 midterm elections, 590 STV volunteers doorknocked in NV and GA & helped maintain control of the Senate. In NV alone, STV volunteers talked to ~7,500 people at their doors during the tight re-election race of Senator Catherine Cortez-Masto, won by only 9,007 votes.
• In April 2024, STV volunteers knocked the doors of 11,000 people in Pittsburgh, PA to help successfully re-elect progressive Congresswoman Summer Lee.

“The difference canvassing is making is profound. ONE genuine, face to face conversation can neutralize or reverse the influence on a voter of MILLIONS of dollars of right-wing funded advertising!” - Seed the Vote doorknocker in Pittsburgh

Where donations will go:

• $50 covers mileage & gas for a volunteer driving to the city they’re canvassing in
• $100 covers gas for a team of canvassers for a week
• $250 buys a flight for a volunteer coming from the same coast/midwest
• $600 buys a flight for a volunteer coming from the opposite coast
• $1000 covers hotel & flights for a canvasser flying out for a week

Impact of donations:

• In a week, one canvasser can knock 300 doors and have 75 conversations.
• $10,000 will send 10 canvassers to knock 3,000 doors and have 750 conversations
• $15,000 will send 15 canvassers to knock 4,500 doors and have 1,125 conversations