Hi folks,

It’s been awhile since I reached out to you all, and I hope you’re doing well. I’ve been keeping busy helping Marianne Williamson launch her presidential campaign and working on a few other organizing projects I can’t wait to tell you about.

I’ll be in touch soon with some exciting news, but for today I want to share a cool project with you started by my friend, Samantha Boucher.

Samantha worked with me on my campaign in 2022. She brings a lot of expertise to the table as an organizer, campaign strategist, and tech leader.

Samantha has put together a team of engineers to solve one of the biggest problems candidates like me faced in the last few years – how to run an efficient and effective campaign when you don’t have an office!

I’ll let her tell you the rest of the story below. Personally? I’m convinced enough of the need for this tool, and confident in its success, that I’ve invested in Shire myself.

I hope you’ll join me and consider supporting this important project.

More soon,

Jason

The message below is from Samantha Boucher, founder of the Shire Project.

Folks – The 2020 election was a true fight for our democracy. Like many of you, I joined in.

As campaign manager for a crucial US Senate race in Iowa, I coordinated hundreds of volunteers knocking on doors, phone banking, and turning out voters.

Then COVID hit, and everything changed.

Like every campaign, we scrambled to digitize our operations. Town halls became Zoom calls. Campaign swings became Facebook Live feeds.

In the midst of this, one thing became clear: There was no such thing as a digital campaign office. It didn’t exist.

The hard lessons we learned in the middle of a pandemic inspired me to create Shire, the first digital office platform built for progressive campaigns.

Campaigns today rely on tools built for the corporate world. They were never designed to be fully functional as a virtual office, and they don’t meet the unique needs of political campaigns. I knew we could do better.

Unlike corporations, campaigns have to scale operations quickly – often in a matter of weeks or even days – and balance the needs of paid staff and a rapid influx of volunteers with wildly different needs and abilities.

Shire also solves the accessibility hurdle. Not everyone can volunteer in person, and they shouldn’t have to. Everyone should be able to participate in democracy no matter their level of physical ability, access to transportation, or where they live.

Thanks to Shire, now they can.

Dan Woods, Chief Technology Officer for Biden’s 2020 campaign, described their digital infrastructure as “digital duct tape” – a patchwork system of digital tools that didn’t meet their needs and left the campaign vulnerable to security risks.

If things were that dire for a campaign that raised and spent over one BILLION dollars in the most important election of our lifetime, imagine how much worse it is for scrappy, grassroots campaigns who don’t have the funds for the establishment’s most sophisticated campaign tools.

Shire will be secure, flexible AND affordable enough to work for any campaign, from school board to American president.

And since our founding, we’ve gotten a lot of attention in the political/tech world. Last Summer, Shire won the coveted Best New Tool award at Netroots Nation in Philly.

That’s me, Samantha, on the far right.

We are weeks away from our Alpha Launch. But to get this resource in the hands of campaigns who need it now, I need to raise another $50,000 to pay our engineering team.

This is not a donation ask! Shire is NOT owned by private equity firms (like the one that recently bought NGP VAN). We are committed to keeping Shire people-owned, people-run, and people-focused.

This is an opportunity for people like you, who care about progressive causes and grassroots organizing, to invest and get an ownership stake in a vital new organizing tool for grassroots campaigns.

We only need 500 more people to make the minimum investment of $100 (or more if you’re so inclined) to meet our goal. If you’re convinced, you can invest right now to help us launch before the end of this quarter.

Folks, this is a digital arms race. The GOP is investing heavily in campaign technology, pouring money into cutting-edge software and targeting tools. Meanwhile, Democrats are consolidating the few tools they do have under private equity control.

Progressives need an independent, affordable tool that’s run by and for the people to close the gap. And Shire will do just that.

The minimum investment for an equity stake is $100, but of course, you’re welcome to invest more for a bigger stake.

If you’d like to hear more about the product before committing to investing in Shire, I would love the chance to talk with you personally so I can show you our progress. Reach out to me anytime at: (515) 481-5221.

In solidarity,

Samantha Boucher

Founder, Shire Project 

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