Our evaluation team's recommendations for giving are strategically-timed based on the changing dynamics of the race and the budget gaps of the various programs.

Join one of our Zoom briefings (held bi-weekly during election season) to hear our latest recommendations.

The programs we endorse must typically have robust ​scientific evidence showing ​that their impact is much greater than most comparable organizations. For instance, it’s not enough for an organization to report inputs like how many calls they made​ or doors they knocked, or even how many conversations their canvassers had with voters. ​We look for scientific testing that shows outcomes like the number of additional people who actually voted as a result of those efforts.

The number of organizations that can meet ​those standards and our other criteria is relatively small.

Our cost-effectiveness analyses help Focus for Democracy make informed recommendations about how to allocate funds among different programs.

However, it’s important to note that cost-effectiveness estimates do not encompass all the factors we consider when selecting programs for funding.

Many program features that we deem relevant cannot be summed up in a cost-per-net-Democratic-vote analysis. For instance, our assessments do not account for factors such as an organization's ability to implement and scale the election tactic or the costs and benefits associated with delaying a decision to retain future options. We may sometimes report the cost per vote over two election cycles for investments in tactics like recruiting members or subscribers. But the actual value of membership recruitment, if followed by effective ongoing communication, may last much longer than two election cycles. The same is true of programs that recruit large numbers of volunteers who can continue to be engaged in future cycles.

Our cost-effectiveness estimates often entail significant uncertainty. Due to these limitations, cost-effectiveness analysis alone is not the sole determinant of our funding allocations.

Often we recommend organizations that help voters cast ballots. Their programs are among the most cost-effective we’ve found at producing a net Democratic vote.

Because the initial outputs of these programs are so inexpensive (for example, it costs about $0.50 to send a pre-filled voter registration application in the mail), some people are surprised at how expensive it is to produce a net vote (between $100 and $300 depending on the voter registration mailer program in 2020).

We hope that this 2020 example helps illustrate the discrepancy in cost between the initial outputs and the cost to produce a net vote. This example does not reflect what we estimate this program’s cost to produce a vote will be in the future. We generally expect the cost to produce a vote to increase over time.

Sign up to volunteer with Working America. They'll be in touch with upcoming opportunities. workingamerica.org/Volunteer.

Our sister organization Focus Action Network also periodically deploys its highly-skilled volunteers (including many members of the Focus for Democracy network) to connect with the organizations we are funding, and strengthen them with planning, organization, management and staffing. Projects include research, outreach, phone/ text/ email banks, and more. Check out their website here to sign up, and they will notify you when there are active projects.