Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio:
A Smarter Way to Give

Here are details about this quarter’s recipients:

House of Representatives:

In Arizona, Amish Shah (AZ-01) won a contested six-way primary race on July 30. He needs more funding to compete against the first-term GOP incumbent who won this toss-up district in 2022 by only 0.8% of the vote.

In California, Rudy Salas (CA-22) is in a rematch with a better-funded Republican incumbent who won in 2022 by only 3%.

In Michigan, Curtis Hertel (MI-07) is running for a vacant seat in a toss-up district. Increasing turnout in that district will help in the Presidential and Senate contests as well.

In New York, John Mannion (NY-22) won a three-way contested primary on June 25th and will face a well-funded GOP incumbent in an upstate district that has become increasingly competitive.

In Oregon, Janelle Bynum (OR-05) is facing a much better-funded Republican incumbent who refuses to admit that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.

State Legislature Races:

In North Carolina, where the GOP holds super-majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly, Democrats need to break one of these super-majorities in order to protect the veto power of the incumbent Democratic governor (who's also up for reelection).

In the Pennsylvania General Assembly, Democrats have an opportunity to increase their very slim majority in the lower house and gain seats in the GOP-controlled upper house.

Grassroots Organizations:

Black Male Initiative Fund (Georgia) empowers Black men economically and civically through the use of direct action, advocacy, and grassroots organizing -- including voter registration and door-to-door canvassing.

Western Native Voice (Montana) is working to improve Native American voter turnout across all seven Montana Indian reservations and major Montana urban centers through its Pledge to Vote campaign.

Advance North Carolina is a statewide, Black-led organization with a mission to build political and economic power in Black communities and institutions in North Carolina.

One Pennsylvania is the largest door-knocking voter engagement and community justice organization in the state.

Grassroots Organizing Western Wisconsin is using the empirically proven (and common sense) "talk less, listen more" approach to deep organizing -- candid, non-judgmental two-way conversations -- to engage persuadable rural voters across seven counties.

Crimson Goes Blue organizes members of the Harvard community to elect Democrats and protect our elections.

For more information on the current Portfolio, see this reference document.

Throughout the election cycle, new official Democratic nominees emerge on a rolling basis in our targeted federal and state-level races. Aligning Crimson Goes Blue’s Portfolio updates with this primary calendar, as well as quarterly campaign finance reports, allows us to fill funding gaps at critical points throughout the electoral cycle.

Additionally, changes to the Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio’s overall allocation—or the weightings of federal races, state races, and civic organizations—alter the recommended balance of funding among candidates and organizations. These adjustments respond to the number of targets within each strategy as well as the needs of voter registration, protection, and mobilization work at that point in the cycle.

We may update the races in the portfolio during the quarter when new information comes to light — new campaign fundraising and expenditure data, new probabilistic forecasts, etc. — indicating that other races fit our Portfolio criteria better than ones selected for the previous update. Throughout the campaign season, we remain focused on directing Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio donations where they can be put to the best use at the current time.

For information on the Portfolio selection process, as well as the campaigns and civic organizations included in the current quarter’s Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio, see this reference document.

Swing Left’s Blueprint Team recommends civic organizations for the Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio in partnership with both national experts and successful on-the-ground organizers based on the following analysis:

Stage 1: A set of peer-validated parameters such as geographic focus, scale, and cycle experience.

Stage 2: A robust set of criteria, including but not limited to impact metrics, strategic clarity, leadership and staffing, community-rooted programs, and funding need.

On the candidate side, our goal is to drive dollars to where they will have the greatest marginal impact on electoral outcomes. Our return on investment (ROI) model integrates the research and meta-analysis of leading experts, including probabilistic forecasting, electoral data, fundraising performance, campaign expenditures, and qualitative inputs from state-based partners.

For specific details on our target selection process, check out Swing Left’s Blueprint Methodology Document.

Swing Left facilitates grassroots activism in support of Democratic candidates running in swing districts. Swing Left created Blueprint as a mechanism to help grassroots donors set up “giving circles” to pool and channel their donations for the greatest impact.

Crimson Goes Blue works with Swing Left to manage the Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio, giving Crimson Goes Blue members (and their friends and family members) a way to make high-impact donations to candidates and civic organizations in line with Crimson Goes Blue’s overall political strategy.

ActBlue provides the on-line software platform that most Democratic campaigns and non-profit organizations, including Swing Left, use to process individual political donations. Donations to the Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio go through the ActBlue platform. Along with handling the monetary transactions, ActBlue takes care of Federal Elections Commission reporting requirements.

Both avenues give donors access to rigorously vetted portfolios. However, the recommended allocation for the Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio typically sends a larger share of each donation to grassroots groups than Swing Left’s default portfolio. Also, when possible, we prioritize competitive races in states where large concentrations of Crimson Goes Blue members live, in line with our overall political strategy.

Another reason we encourage Crimson Goes Blue members--and members of their networks--to donate through the Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio is that it allows us to gauge the overall impact of our members’ political donations. Furthermore, our Portfolio gives our members and Harvard affiliates the option to contribute to Crimson Goes Blue, supporting efforts to expand the pool of activists and donors who can help win elections.

Over the 2020 cycle, 85% of the funds raised for candidates through the Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio went to races decided by single-digit margins—a testament to our team’s ability to pinpoint competitive races with promising candidates.

In the 2022 midterm cycle, the Portfolio excelled at targeting the very tightest Congressional races, helping prevent a “red wave.” Every one of the U.S. Senate races and 84% (31 out of 37) of the U.S. House races in the Portfolio were decided by single digits. In contrast, a third of all individual donations to Democratic Senate candidates and almost 60% of donations to Dem House candidates went to races decided by more than ten points.

In 2023, every one of the Virginia state legislative races supported by the Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio were in the top quartile of most competitive races in that election. This support helped Democrats hold on to their majority in the upper house and win back a majority in the lower house, strengthening their check on the GOP governor’s dangerous agenda.

You can learn more in Swing Left’s Blueprint Donor Story on Crimson Goes Blue and their Blueprint End-of-Year reports for 2022 and 2020.

No. Swing Left’s Blueprint is free to use—and, aside from ActBlue’s 3.95% credit card processing fee, all of your contribution goes to the high-impact candidates and organizations in the Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio.

By default, each donation includes an allocation of 10% to support Crimson Goes Blue’s operating expenses. This allows us to organize for each campaign and promote the political activism of Harvard alums and their networks, while building a model for alumni activism. You can adjust the allocation for Crimson Goes Blue (and other funds in the portfolio) and even zero it out if you prefer, before finalizing your donation.

If we’re able to determine that you’re a member of the Harvard community, you’ll become a member through your donation.

However, we may not be able to track down your affiliation. Therefore, we encourage you to take less than five minutes before or after you contribute to fill out our short membership form and join Crimson Goes Blue. You can join here.

No. As with any political campaign donation, contributions to candidates through Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio and Swing Left’s Blueprint are not tax-deductible. Blueprint funds civic organizations through 501(c)(4) vehicles, which are not eligible for tax exemption either.

Our process gives donors a choice to opt out of receiving communications from recipient campaigns and organizations. After ActBlue processes your donation, a window pops up asking whether you want to share your contact information in order to “stay up-to-date.” If you don’t want communications, click on the “not now” button every time you make a donation.

Then you’ll receive only periodic emails from Crimson Goes Blue and Swing Left with need-to-know information, including periodic Portfolio updates, strategy insights, and impact reports.

However, to comply with Federal Election Commission (FEC) requirements, ActBlue reports individual contributions to candidates and political action committees to the FEC and those donations will be visible in the FEC’s on-line database.

While there are limits to how much a donor can contribute to any one candidate, there is no limit on donations to the overall Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio. When you enter your donation amount on the portfolio page, the generated ActBlue link will automatically cap your contribution where a limit is reached and redistribute remaining dollars to unrestricted portions of your portfolio. This only applies for one-time donations, as individual campaigns are responsible for tracking contributions over time to ensure donors do not exceed limits throughout the electoral cycle.

If you plan to give over $50,000 at once or have concerns about contribution limits due to your previous giving, contact the managing director of Crimson Goes Blue by clicking here.

Your donation will show up as ActBlue on your credit card receipt. In order to comply with legal requirements, your donation may be split into more than one entry; in that case, the total amount of the split entries will equal the donation amount you selected.

Your email receipt will also come from ActBlue. The body of the email will show that you have donated via the Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio, and it will indicate the amounts you donated to organizations and candidates. For the civic organizations, the receipt may list only the name of the relevant fund, not the groups that are included in that fund. For example, in a given quarter the Blueprint Voter fund could benefit four civic organizations working to get out the vote in four different states, but only “Blueprint Voter Fund” will appear on the receipt.

See this reference document.