Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio:
A Smarter Way to Give

Here are details about this quarter’s recipients:

House of Representatives:

In California, first-term Rep. Adam Gray (CA-13) defeated a Republican incumbent in 2024 by only 184 votes;  Trump won his district with a margin of 5.4 points.  A local Republican mayor has already announced he will enter the race for this seat in 2026.

In Michigan, first-term Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (MI-08) defeated a Republican incumbent in 2024 by 7 points, but Trump won her district with a 2-point margin.  The GOP is already targeting this district.

In New Mexico, Rep. Gabe Vasquez (NM-02) defeated a Republican challenger by 4 points in 2024, the same year Trump won the district with a margin of 1.8 points.

In New York, first-term Rep. Laura Gillen (NY-04) defeated a one-term Republican incumbent in 2024 by only 2 points in her suburban Long Island district.  Harris narrowly won the district with a 1.3 point margin, down significantly from Biden’s 14.5-points margin of victory in 2020.

In Oregon, first-term Rep. Janelle Bynum (OR-05), the first Black member of Congress from Oregon, defeated a Republican incumbent in 2024 by less than 3 points, even as Harris won the district by 10 points.

Organizations:

Democracy Forward has filed 59 legal actions (and counting) since January 20th to challenge Trump’s executive overreach.  It also leads a coalition of over 500 pro-democracy organizations to broaden the fight against Trump’s abuses of power. 

State Democracy Defenders Action works with national, state, and local allies to defend free and fair elections, including mobilizing public support for the prosecution of election deniers who break the law.

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.

In partnership with both national experts and successful on-the-ground organizers, we identify civic organizations for the Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio each quarter.

To support election security and litigation against abuses of power, we look for organizations with a reputation for independence, credibility, a track record of winning cases, a dedicated budget  and defined budget gap for this specific area of work, no reliance on pro bono support from major law firms, and a focus on filing lawsuits that protect the democratic process, the role of Congress, and/or a free press.

For organizations engaged in voter mobilization, we employ 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.

Our targeting of close races improved in 2024, helping Democrats grow their U.S. House caucus and limit the GOP House majority to only three seats.  98% of funds donated to 2024 Congressional campaigns through the Portfolio went to races decided by less than 10 points.  In contrast, only 42% of all individual donors' funds given to Democratic House campaigns went to races decided by less than 10 points; the other 58% went to sure bets or lost causes.

You can learn more in Swing Left's End-of-Cycle reports for 2024, 2022, and 2020, as well as their Donor Story on Crimson Goes Blue from 2022.

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.