Several years ago, Crowdpac started as an experiment to increase the participation of everyday citizens in our democracy. We provided new kinds of data and information to voters to help guide their decision making at the voting booth. Millions took our surveys and quizzes to learn more about their political leanings and how donations made or received could predict one’s ideology.
After a few years of testing different approaches, we found the most effective way to increase political participation was by providing simple, social and affordable crowdfunding tools to new and emerging leaders launching their own candidacy, organization or movement.
We were proud to be there at an incredibly important moment in American political history, and are prouder still to have left a mark. In the aftermath of the historic 2016 Presidential election, we were there to power a new wave of democratic participation by bringing younger, more diverse candidates to the field at all levels of government, from Mosquito Controller to local school boards to Capitol Hill, including 14 new members of Congress.
Our users changed the conversation during Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court: the campaigns waged on our platform gave hundreds of thousands of Americans the means to express their political will and engage with elected officials like Senator Susan Collins through small-dollar donations.
This experiment has been an incredible experience for us all. Sadly, it has come to a close. We’re grateful to our investors and to those of you who contributed to help keep our company up and running, however providing these types of tools has come at a cost we can no longer afford to pay.
As of June 19, 2019, we will no longer be able to support crowdfunding campaigns on Crowdpac.com. For the next month, our first priority will be to direct our users to some of the amazing resources that are standing by to power political change.
We are still far from putting our democracy back in the hands of the people, and we failed to create a sustainable platform to do so. For this, we are truly sorry.
But, while this marks the end of Crowdpac’s platform, it does not mark the end of the movement led by our users. The success of first-time candidates in 2017 and 2018 inspired thousands of others to get off the sidelines, with plans to run for office themselves in 2019, 2020 and beyond. The millions of dollars raised to replace Senator Susan Collins in Maine’s next U.S. Senate race remain intact and waiting for the 2020 Democratic nominee. Be A Hero PAC, the architects behind that effort, will continue to raise funds for future campaigns.
We remain in awe of what our users have done with the Crowdpac platform and have no doubt that they will continue to do amazing work across the country. We thank them for being the leaders that they are in a time when America needs brave and competent new political leadership more than ever.
Though our chapter is coming to close, a new chapter of American democracy has just begun.
Sincerely,
Gisel Kordestani & the Crowdpac team
