CNN
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J. Smith-Cameron thinks he’s found a secret weapon.
For the past two years, she has led a giving circle of friends, friends of friends, and friends of friends that will grow to more than 400 people in 2024 and support whitewashing in the state Legislature. I did.
And while most of the leaders in the giving circle don’t play Geri in “Succession,” the majority are women, a stark contrast to the gender imbalance that is a typical feature of U.S. political giving. ing.
Her circle, called State Fair, is run by the States Project, which was founded in 2017 to help transition power in state legislatures and is a key left-wing counter to the right’s long-standing investments in state elections. He is emerging as a player.
The dominance of women in States Project’s giving circles (82% of leaders and 75% of donors) sheds light on when and how women make political contributions. And it reflects the high importance that liberal voters, especially women, place on state elections, especially after President Donald Trump’s inauguration and the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Women still lag behind men when it comes to traditional campaign contributions. About 45% of donors to state House and Senate general election campaigns from 2019 to 2022 were women, according to a study by the Rutgers University Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP). Their representation as a percentage is even lower when looking at total contributions to state House and Senate races. About 30% came from women, indicating that women often donate smaller amounts than men.
In contrast, between 2020 and 2023, 72% of funds raised through States Project’s giving circles came from women.
“We know that women vote for men, but they don’t always think about donating and having their voices heard as a form of participation,” said CAWP senior researcher Kira Sambonmatsu. Told. “So mechanisms like giving circles can make a difference.”
The move was accelerated by a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned federal abortion rights and sent the issue back to the states. The number of State Project giving circles jumped from 75 in March 2022, before the ruling, to 314 in November of the same year. Currently, 183 circles are active.
On a recent Thursday night, a group of about 20 people, the majority of them women, gathered on Zoom to learn how their small donations can help save Pennsylvania’s General Assembly and flip the state Senate this year. It has expanded. Their circle, Wake Up PA!, has already raised nearly $64,000 of his $100,000 goal.
The cost of an election may not be that high. But this is a central part of Zoom’s pitch to newcomers. It doesn’t take as much money to sway a state House race as it does a U.S. House race, and raising small donations is a way for voters to shift power. Congress could have the power to draw electoral maps, approve the slate of electors sent to Washington, D.C., and increasingly control abortion rights.
The States Project, which funnels money into PACs for America’s future, projects to raise more than $10 million in 2024. More than $5 million has been donated to date.
Smith-Cameron is the first to admit that the concept of raising money for state elections isn’t always easy to implement. She wasn’t like that at first either. She first heard about her giving circle at the States Project in 2018, and it wasn’t until a few years later that she launched her own circle.
“I couldn’t process it. I think this is interesting. It’s very news to people that so many huge, earth-shaking events are actually happening at the state level. And almost Like Democrats, we are so blinded by the big races at the national level that we tend to look the other way.”
However, he is now able to sleep at night. “I feel like I’m doing something tangible. It’s doable. It’s affordable,” she says, noting that she’s doing more intimate soirées in her New York City apartment, as well as virtual silk slumber parties and martini parties for members of her circle. said Smith-Cameron, who is also an organizer. Her circle sent money to flip the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 2022, flip the Virginia House of Representatives last year and protect the state Senate.
“If you only have $100 to donate, that’s the best place to donate it because you can’t just throw it into the wind,” she added, adding that she has gone viral on social media and raised millions of dollars. He alluded to the “celebrity cause” campaign for Democratic U.S. senators. I won the dollar, but I didn’t win.
However, any amount is fine. “There’s no minimum or maximum,” said Melissa Walker, Director of Giving Circles at States Project. Each circle decides for itself which states to direct its funds to, and some circles hold “state selection parties” where members vote.
Regardless of whether you donate or not, “everyone is valued equally in this giving circle,” Jan Swenson, one of Wake Up PA!’s organizers, said during the group’s Zoom meeting.
Co-leader Jessica Diamond added: “When we add together our donations, we see the total increase and that’s very encouraging.” “Part of the beauty of this model is exponential growth. …It’s really the best way to compete with the Koch brothers of the world.”
Collaborative giving groups have long been a feature of philanthropy, but only really began to take off in the early part of this century, according to a 2024 report from Grand Valley State University’s Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Philanthropy Together. It is said to be around.
And women have been at the heart of that movement. For the report, researchers conducted a national survey of donor group members and found that 92% of respondents were women.
“I think there are gender differences that we see in other forms of data in terms of women being more outgoing and wanting to be more connected,” said one of the report’s authors, WK Kellogg Community Philanthropy Commissioner. Chief Michael Layton said. Johnson Center. That connection, he says, is part of the beauty of collective giving. “It’s based on social capital, not financial capital,” he said.
Traditional giving circles began in a time when women didn’t have independent income, Walker added. “The men were making money and probably not investing it in what the women wanted, but the women put their pennies together and did something for the community.”
Smith-Cameron believes the strategy resonates with her female friends.
“I feel like women are especially sensitive to this kind of power, where you get together in a group and talk about something. It’s intimate and it’s demystifying,” she said, adding that women donate small amounts repeatedly. He noted that he observed a high trend.
“My guy friends, they’re more worried about the presidential election and the Senate. And it’s very hard to keep them from seeing shiny objects,” she added.
Giving circles can also be learning circles, said Walker, who was writing young adult novels and working at a teen magazine when he said the 2016 election sounded a wake-up call.
Walker admitted that she didn’t even know who the New York congresswoman was until she heard former state Sen. Daniel Squadron, one of the founders of the States Project, speak at a holiday party. She and other children’s book authors formed what became the first giving circle in 2017.
“My dream, so far a pipe dream, is to keep the Senate race out of the spotlight at the dining room table,” Walker said. “But in fact, we were able to do what the Michigan majority was able to do because we won each chamber by less than 400 votes.”
Asked about criticism that this type of fundraising method perpetuates out-of-state interference in other states’ elections, Walker said, “State law has become pervasive.”
“The state should be a laboratory for democracy, but it can also be a laboratory for things like voter suppression laws and abortion bans,” she added.
That’s one reason Smith-Cameron uses her status as an entertainer to talk about her work with state-level giving.
“If we can get people to understand this concept, we can just give the country this giant shot of vitamin B12,” she said. “I feel like it’s a secret weapon hidden in plain sight.”
