On Monday, the New Progressive Coalition released its signature product, the Political Mutual Fund.  The mutual fund provides progressives with an easy way to donate intelligently to organizations which are pursuing a sound strategy towards a larger goal identified by NPC.  For starters, NPC has identified three large-scale goals which progressives can "invest" in: Victory in 2008 and Beyond, Health Care, and Energy Independence and the Environment.  To be selected for investment within a mutual fund, an organization must meet a variety of criteria. 
It must have a strategy consistent with NPC's goals; it must be effective; it must fill a gap in the political landscape; it must be innovative; it must provide a good "return", according to quantifiable metrics; it must have potential for growth and for changing the landscape; and it should have a good track record and a high-caliber staff.  Individual investors should not plan on getting their money back, except in progress made towards political goals.

The launch of the political mutual funds has been successful, with coverage at the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, DailyKos, ABC, CBS, Time, USA Today, CNN and Forbes.  In terms of real dollars, the three funds combined have so far pulled in just north of $100,000.  The mutual funds together include 37 progressive organizations, including Energize America, the energy legislation group begun on Daily Kos.  There is a relatively low barrier to entry; to join in the fun, progressive investors should chip in a minimum of $50, plus a 2% administrative fee.

The political mutual funds are the culmination of about two years of organizational soul-searching, market research, and some fairly intense grappling with the progressive political landscape.  When it first began, NPC's mission was to serve both progressive organizations (by providing them with resources, both monetary and otherwise, to help them succeed) and progressive investors (by giving them a chance to invest in effective organizations, and to participate in more meaningful ways as well.)  NPC devoted considerable resources towards studying the progressive political landscape.  It divided the alphabet soup of progressive organizations into six sectors: Advocacy, Electoral, Idea Generation,  Infrastructure & Capacity, Leadership Development, and Media.  Inspired by the use of return on investing metrics in the world of financial investments, NPC developed the theoretical framework of a "Political Return on Investment" metric within each sector, measuring things like legislation passed per dollar invested.  Along the way, NPC shifted its focus; instead of creating a marketplace where investors would invest in, partner with, and mentor progressive organizations, NPC decided to create a pseudo-financial instrument for investors to "consume".  The political mutual fund is that instrument.

With the launch of the political mutual fund finally upon us, the progressive movement now has a broad-based mechanism which will allow individual investors of relatively modest means to participate in meaningful and intelligent movement-funding.  But what does the rest of the landscape for funding the progressive movement look like, and what is missing?

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The New Progressive Coalition recently unveiled three political "mutual funds" aimed at giving people a new way to invest in a more progressive America.

We, at Twenty-First Century Democrats are honored to be included in the NPC's Victory in 2008 and Beyond Fund. The application process we went through was lengthy, involved, and worth every minute. Beyond the obvious benefit of being included in such a bold and creative investment model and with such a stellar group of progressive groups, the NPC PROI model provided us an opportunity to quantify all our many accomplishments over the last twenty years.

Understanding that donors have choices and want to know that their investments are wise ones - we will strive to improve upon the already high rating NPC has granted us.  Over this next year, Twenty-First Century Democrats will broaden our reach and expand our efforts to ensure we have the greatest possible impact on the November elections. We will highlight the accomplishments of many of America's progressive leaders. We will work to elevate progressive Democrats into leadership positions within their legislative bodies. We will stand up with and for our candidates against the Republican misinformation machines. And, we will do everything we can to expand the number of strong Democrats in state houses, city councils, the US Congress and every other red, blue, purple or green corner of this country.  

The New Progressive Coalition's independent endorsement of the quality, efficiency and value of our efforts - and by default, the financial investment our donors have made over the years -  is a testament to the determination, integrity and good old fashioned elbow grease of all the many candidates, staff, organizers, volunteers and other Twenty-First Century Democrats who came before us. And the outcome of NPC's analysis will now serve as the baseline for our work - for me, our Board of Directors and the rest of the team at Twenty-First Century Democrats. We are committed to improving upon our successes and winning in '08! And NPC will most certainly help us to do that.

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(Cross-posted on Planting Liberally)

About a month ago, I wrote that small dollar fundraising is the best way  to build the liberal movement.  In part, my claim was based on the apparent inability of the Democracy Alliance to invest in ground-breaking, innovative new political organizations, as reported by The Nation.  My belief is that small dollar fundraising will not only help support the kind of organizations which are most likely to be effective, but that it is far more democratic as well.  In light of some of the discussion going on around here about donating to support on-the-ground blog coverage in CT and New York, I think it's worthwhile to think about what we can do to motivate activists to invest in the liberal movement.

There are many challenges to doing this kind of movement-building, and there's a great organization which aims to address those challenges: the New Progressive Coalition (NPC).  NPC is the brainchild of Deborah  Rappaport, and was founded in San Francisco.  Most of its mission and methods appear to be directly adopted from the  entrepreneurial and risk-taking ethos of San Francisco's dot-com industry.  Angie Schiavoni, the group's membership director, contacted me in response to my "Building the movement with small dollars" post and encouraged me to poke around the site, which I did this weekend.

In the extended, I do some detailed digging on NPC, and share some thoughts about how we can supplement and improve upon its model.

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