John --

FairVote is a national leader for a functional and truly representative democracy by championing reforms that get at the heart of fixing our broken politics: ranked choice voting (RCV) for all major elections and the Fair Representation Act for Congress. While 2020 has been a challenging year for us all, there are victories to celebrate -- and a vision of how we can join with you to win sweeping reforms by 2032.

We’re coming to you early this year, the day before GivingTuesday, to ask you to join the global generosity movement by supporting FairVote. Ways you can support our work beyond volunteering include:

• Online donations via our website giving portal
• Qualified Charitable Distributions from your IRA
• Donor Advised Funds that increasingly support our work
• Gifts of stock and bequests - please contact [email protected]

2020 was a big year for American democracy. Despite a global pandemic, the November general election saw the highest voter turnout of adults in American history, and structural electoral reforms won on the ballot in Colorado and Virginia. Ranked choice voting legislation passed in Virginia and Utah, and RCV won a remarkable seven out of eight eight times on the ballot -- most impactfully in Alaska, which now joins Maine in using RCV in its elections for president, U.S. Senate and U.S. House.

RCV worked well in practice too. With FairVote leading on educational support, RCV was used successfully for the first time in five Democratic presidential primaries, while three Republican state conventions used RCV with high impact and approval. More than 1.4 million Americans used RCV when casting their ballots in Maine and 10 cities, maintaining a years-long string of RCV elections where turnout and engagement surpassed expectations.

Thought leaders embraced RCV, including at least 16 editorial boards, dozens of Nobel Prize winners and leading academic authorities listed at FairVote, both the Conservative and Progressive scholar groups proposing changes for the National Constitution Center, and a substantial report from a high-powered commission convened by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

But there is much more to do. We live in one of those rare times when enacting major systemic changes to our elections is both imperative and within reach. FairVote has a four-year-plan that seeks to normalize greater use of the ranked choice voting ballot, build support for RCV in Congress and expand organizational and influencer support for RCV and the Fair Representation Act.

We are so appreciative of all of you who promise to make this our biggest year ever for donor support and are determined to make this coming decade one of comprehensive change.

With great thanks,

Rob Richie
President and CEO, FairVote
http://www.fairvote.org/