WomenCount Electing Women Alliance

About EWA

Harnessing the Collective Power of Women

What EWA is all about

The Electing Women Alliance is a national network of local giving groups that bring women together as a community to support women candidates. Our goal is to inspire intentional, informed giving to increase women’s political leadership and close the political gender giving gap.

How are we changing the political landscape?

We do things differently

How are we changing the political landscape?

Some women’s political organizations recruit. Others train. We fund. But we do it differently, and our unique value is building local communities of informed, educated donors. Electing Women works to close the political gender giving gap by creating vibrant local communities of donors who come together in support of Democratic women running for elected office. Our events are small gatherings that allow candidates – incumbents and non-incumbents – to engage in substantive, lively conversation about policy and politics.

This work matters

Women lead and legislate differently because they bring their life experiences to the role. Countries and states with more women in office have stronger economies, better health care, and better outcomes overall for families, women, and children.

Yet progress has been too slow and the US continues to lag dramatically behind other countries in women’s political leadership. We have now gone three cycles without increasing the number of Democratic women in the Senate. There are currently no Black women in the Senate and there has never been a Black women governor. We must do better.

Women make up only 31 percent of political donors — despite making over 85 percent of purchasing decisions in the US.

Our Story

Electing Women Alliance

The Electing Women Alliance was formed in early 2015, but the concept was not new: It was based on the first giving group formed in Denver in 2000. The former lieutenant governor of Colorado, Gail Schoettler, had just lost a competitive race for Governor by less than 8,000 votes. Schoettler, along with her friend Judith Wagner, co-founded the Women’s Bank of Denver, and shared a belief that women donors must play a bigger role in supporting women candidates for statewide office. Electing Women Denver was launched and supported women running for governor and Senate.

Building on their success, the model was replicated and in 2015 the Electing Women Alliance launched with groups in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Boston. In subsequent years groups were formed in Austin, Chicago, New York, Sonoma, Oakland, Vail, Santa Fe, New York, St. Louis, Seattle and Washington, DC. And now, new groups in additional locations are being formed. While different communities may have slightly different membership models, all of the groups in the Electing Women Alliance remain loyal to the original vision established back in Denver: bring women donors together in a community to lift up women candidates.

WomenCount

Like EWA, WomenCount has a long history with roots that date back to Vice President Kamala Harris’s days as San Francisco DA. In its first iteration, WomenCount was launched as a voter turnout effort in the late 1990s, and Kamala was among the founding organizers. WomenCount’s slogan at the time? “They used to say women couldn’t vote. Now they say we won’t.” It worked: Women now consistently make up a majority of voters. Every election cycle since, WomenCount has pushed new ways to get more women involved and elected. In 2008, WomenCount made headlines with our “Not So Fast” ad campaign, which called for an end to the pressure being placed on Hillary Clinton to bow out of the presidential primary campaign despite leading both in the popular vote and total states won. After the election, WomenCount turned its energy to creating an online women’s political community, similar to MoveOn, and built a large audience of activists. In our most prominent campaign, WomenCount partnered with California Rep. Jackie Speier to introduce legislation in Congress to create a Presidential Commission on Women. Although the bill did not ultimately move forward, the campaign engaged tens of thousands of supporters in the effort.

Later, WomenCount partnered with The 2012 Project in a nationwide recruitment campaign to line up hundreds of women to run in this critical post-redistricting election. That effort, based at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers, played a role in the notable spike in the number of women elected that year.

WomenCount innovates with the times, and our name continues to reflect our mission. We launched our online payment platform devoted to women candidates in 2015 to leverage the success of smaller-dollar, grassroots fundraising. Since then, we’ve raised more than $8 million for women candidates nationwide—running in local, state and national races—with an average donation of $57.

In 2022, we officially merged our operations with our friends and colleagues at the Electing Women Alliance. There was already overlap in leadership, teams, and most importantly, mission, so it was a natural fit.

 

 

Now more than ever, we need to fund women running for office and close the political gender giving gap.

Get Involved

More than the money raised

Beyond focusing on educated, impactful giving, the Electing Women Alliance works to build strong donor communities in cities across the country.

We take pride in the bonds we create through thoughtful conversations at our fundraisers and on monthly calls with candidates and political experts. Through our giving groups, members have the opportunity to hear directly from candidates on the issues that matter to them most. We also work to help donors leverage their influence and direct conversations with policymakers on important Democratic issues.

Informed Impactful Strategic

Incumbents and non-incumbent candidates rely on Electing Women fundraising events when they launch their campaigns, knowing our national network will step up to help them show strength and support.

Women candidates count on our support.

Join us in this work

  • HARNESSING THE COLLECTIVE POWER OF WOMEN TO SUPPORT WOMEN.