Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio:
A Smarter Way to Give

Here are details about this quarter’s recipients:

House of Representatives:

In Iowa, Christina Bohannon (IA-01) is challenging second-term Republican incumbent Mariannette Miller-Meeks, in a rematch of the 2024 race that Miller-Meeks won by only 799 votes.  

In Nebraska, Denise Powell won a narrow victory on May 12th in the competitive Democratic primary for the state's 2nd Congressional District, a seat the GOP has held since 2017. She needs a cash boost to win in November against a well-funded Republican who spent much less on his primary campaign because he ran unopposed.

In Pennsylvania, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti (HBS ‘14) is the presumptive Democratic nominee challenging first-term GOP incumbent Rob Bresnahan Jr. (PA-08). Bresnahan won this “lean Republican” district by less than 2 points in 2024, even though Trump won it by 9 points that year.

And in Pennsylvania’s neighboring 7th Congressional District, firefighter Bob Brooks won the contested Democratic primary election on May 19th. He needs to replenish his campaign coffers to prevail over Ryan McKenzie, the well-funded  Republican incumbent, who won this toss-up district in 2024 by just 1 point.

Organizations:

The Alaska Democratic Party is building a voter engagement operation to elect Mary Peltola to the U.S. Senate and flip the Governor's office. They have a coordinated leadership team and strategy in place to mobilize volunteers across the vast state to engage with their neighbors, both in person and online, and inspire them to vote blue. Now the  party needs the resources to hire more of the local organizers who can build out the volunteer network. This is particularly important to reach remote rural communities, including some where voters have not always had reliable access to polling places. 

Activate 48 is an Arizona coalition of Latino, immigrant, working class, and allied organizations with a solid track record of mobilizing voters and holding elected officials accountable since 2021.  Its members have a strong presence in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, where five serious Democratic candidates are contesting the August 4th Democratic primary. The Republican incumbent (who is running for Governor) won this seat by almost 4 points in 2024, but in 2026 the race is rated a toss-up.

Detroit Action is a grassroots community organization building power for workers and Detroiters of color throughout the metro region.

The North Carolina Democratic Party is building year-round organizing power it can deploy to flip a U.S. Senate seat and defend key seats in the U.S. House and on the State Supreme Court in November. Their communications team is collaborating with digital influencers. Their strong voter protection team is preparing for the challenges expected in November. The party has a funding gap to keep all this going and needs donor support.

The Ohio Organizing Campaign mobilizes Ohio voters around issues that affect their families and neighborhoods—including community safety, fair school funding, early childhood education, and voting rights–to fundamentally shift the balance of power in Ohio cities and across the state. In 2026 the Campaign is working to expand voter engagement and registration to fight for people-powered democracy.

Crimson Goes Blue organizes members of the Harvard community to elect Democrats, ensure the integrity of our elections, and fight authoritarianism.

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.

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, keep an eye out for a pop-up window 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.  (If you don’t see the pop-up, don’t worry! It doesn’t appear every time, and ActBlue will not share your email address or phone number without your consent.)

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.