Our Approach
Focus for Democracy researches programs and reviews evidence to identify where election donations can achieve the highest impact.The majority of our work is non-partisan, and aims to increase voter participation and provide non-partisan voter education to the public, including to our growing network of over 20,000 donors.
For our work that is partisan, our approach begins by identifying key races that are critical to protecting our democracy. We then focus on identifying organizations that effectively implement evidence-based programs with the potential to substantially affect those races. These programs either provide non-partisan information to voters or produce votes for the pro-democracy candidate. Evidence-based programs track and measure their impact (i.e. net votes produced) by randomized controlled trials or other verifiable methods.
Our evaluators strive to ensure that the dollars spent on a program recommended by Focus for Democracy produce more votes in key competitive races for a given investment than other known alternatives produce.
With a given amount of money, we believe it is better to help donors focus on making large contributions to fewer organizations that have been thoroughly evaluated, rather than distributing small donations more broadly to a multitude of organizations that cannot be evaluated with the same rigor.
Our Process for Recommending Programs
Our evaluation team spends hundreds of hours each year reviewing data to recommend the most cost-effective programs. See our Research on Election Programs for a full explanation, and an overview of our process below.
Identify Potential Programs
We actively search for organizations implementing evidence-based election tactics at scale in key targeted races, and frequently receive inquiries from interested organizations. We also consider programs that fill a critical strategic gap but cannot be easily measured for cost-effectiveness.Evaluate Programs
We review program data to determine if they meet our criteria. Organizations must be open to our intensive investigation process (including discussions of their track record, progress, strengths, and weaknesses) and thorough vetting of the evidence they present regarding their impact.We prioritize programs and tactics that are backed by evidence from randomized controlled trials. Whether the goal is to measure the impact of a new pharmaceutical drug or a persuasion tactic, randomized controlled trials are the gold standard for rigorous research evidence.
For programs and tactics that can’t be evaluated by measured experimentally, we dig deeply into all the available data and examine other factors including the organization’s reputation and track record.
Recommend Programs
We believe that sound funding decisions involve both solid evidence and judgment calls. Once we’ve developed initial recommendations, we invite other donor advisors and evaluators to make assessments and provide feedback on our analysis.We present our final recommendations at Focus for Democracy Zoom Events, meetings with foundations and donor advisors, and in reports to our network.
Track Results
We maintain close and ongoing communication with our top recommended organizations to gain insights into their activities and progress over time. This transparency enables us to deepen our understanding of and confidence in their ability to perform as we expect.
Learn More About Our Work:
“Concentrate your resources on needs that would not be met without your efforts. Conversely, avoid making small contributions to the multitude of worthwhile activities that have many possible funders and that would likely proceed without your help.”