Founding Organizational
Partners

Why This Matters

Across civic organizations, candidate development efforts, and issue-based work, the same challenges keep showing up.

Efforts are often fragmented. Candidate preparedness varies. Support systems differ from place to place. And there's no consistent way to build on what works or carry momentum from one cycle to the next.

As a result, progress is uneven and hard to sustain.

At the same time, many local elections are decided by just a few hundred votes, but there is no reliable, repeatable way to reach and activate those voters.

The challenge isn't a lack of effort. It's the absence of a system that can bring it all together and make it work consistently.

What The 500 Project Is

The 500 Project is focused on building the infrastructure layer that supports candidate development, activation, and organizational coordination.

The goal is not to replace existing organizations, but to strengthen them by providing a more consistent and scalable foundation underneath their work.

What This Means

For participating organizations, this is intended to provide:

• A more consistent foundation for candidate development and activation
• A way to scale what works without rebuilding each cycle
• Early visibility into how this is structured and deployed
• Input into how organizations plug into the system
• Ongoing updates as development progresses

Participation

Participation at this stage is:

• Non-binding
• No financial commitment
• No operational obligation

Founding Group

Founding organizations will be part of a small early group helping shape how this is built and how it is deployed.

This stage is focused on alignment, input, and staying close as the infrastructure is developed.

Limited Availability

Founding positions are limited during initial deployment.