Crimson Goes Blue Portfolio:
A Smarter Way to Give

Here are details about this quarter’s recipients:

House of Representatives:

In California, Rudy Salas (CA-22) and Derek Tran (CA-45) are good prospects for unseating GOP incumbents in this year’s general election.

In Michigan, Curtis Hertel (MI-07) is the sole Democratic candidate running for a vacant seat in a toss-up district.

Now that the North Carolina GOP has a legislative supermajority, Rep. Don Davis (NC-01) may face a more difficult path to reelection under a GOP-gerrymandered map.

In New York, candidates Mondaire Jones (NY-17) and Josh Riley (NY-19) will face well-funded GOP incumbents in the general election.

In Ohio, Rep. Emilia Sykes (OH-13) is now facing a tight race with the GOP challenger who emerged from the March 19th primary.

U.S. Senate:

In Pennsylvania, defending Senator Bob Casey’s seat will be crucial to maintaining Democratic control of the Senate. Although he won a third term in 2018 by more than 13%, Republicans have been narrowing that gap in recent statewide elections.

State Ballot Initiatives:

Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition of reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations, is collecting signatures to place a constitutional amendment protecting abortion access in Arizona on the November ballot, an effort that promises to boost Democratic turnout.

Grassroots Organizations:

Communities for a New California specializes in strategic organizing and public policy advocacy, with a strong emphasis on Latina voters.

Battleground New York is a new coalition of New York’s leading civic organizations and unions leading the effort to mobilize Democratic voters and flip five Republican-held seats in the U.S. House in 2024.

Leaders Igniting Transformation (LIT) is organizing young people in Milwaukee and on college campuses across Wisconsin.

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.

See the Swing Left Blueprint FAQ.