Democratizing Legal Philanthropy Through Crowdfunding: A Case Study
An original piece by Neil Weare, President & Founder of We the People Project, an organization running the voting rights case Segovia v. Board of Election Commissioners
When I turned eighteen, I was required by federal law to sign up for selective service, meaning I could be drafted to serve during times of war. At the same time, I was unable to vote for President and lacked voting representation in Congress, simply because of where I lived: Guam, a territory that has been a part of the United States since 1898. The U.S. history textbooks I read in high school said little about Guam and other U.S. territories, but it was easy to see that the second-class status of Americans in U.S. territories violates our most basic democratic and constitutional principles. After graduating from Yale Law School, I founded We the People Project, a non-profit which leverages impact litigation to help bring an end to the disenfranchisement of the more than 4 million U.S. citizens — 120,000 of whom are veterans — living in U.S. territories.
From the start, fundraising for our organization has been a challenge, with territorial voting rights not making it onto the radar of any major philanthropic organizations or donors. Yet, by bringing together talented pro-bono attorneys from major law firms, we’ve succeeded in bringing innovative cases that give a voice to Americans who are politically marginalized. In Segovia v. Board of Election Commissioners, we represent veterans and others in Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, who would have been able to vote for President in 2016 if they lived in any other U.S. territory or a foreign country, but were disenfranchised because of discriminatory federal and state overseas voter laws.
As we appeal Segovia to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the question of how to properly fund the case has loomed large. A new legal crowdfunding platform, CrowdJustice, is helping to answer this question. CrowdJustice, which is well known in the United Kingdom, went live here in the United States last week and is quickly making a name for itself. What’s been so great about working with CrowdJustice is that the platform is able to both help raise important resources for our case while also driving greater national awareness about voting rights in U.S. territories.
The results speak for themselves. In less than 48 hours, we are more than two-thirds of the way towards our $10,000 target goal. How does it work? The CrowdJustice platform hosts a case page that is optimized for telling our plaintiffs stories — giving donors a strong sense of who they are actually supporting and how their contributions will be put to work. Our page also includes a powerful video (above) that allows donors to see and hear the plaintiffs they will be supporting. Throughout the process, we have received support from CrowdJustice to make our appeal as effective as possible and tools to reach new audiences far beyond our current donor base.
We’ve also been able to leverage the fundraising process into an opportunity for media outreach and education at both the local and national level. So as we receive pledges of support, we’re also advancing our goal of increasing public awareness about an issue many have not had the opportunity to think about before. Most Americans don’t even realize the U.S. has territories, much less that the 4 million citizens who live there are disenfranchised. CrowdJustice has provided a platform to amplify our message in ways we could never have expected. It’s brought our own advocacy community closer together, providing a meaningful opportunity to organize. And it has helped facilitate building relationships with new allies across the nation that previously may not have seen clearly how they connect with our advocacy issues.
CrowdJustice’s goal is “to make the law a powerful tool for everyone — not just a tool for the powerful.” In this way, it has helped to democratize legal philanthropy by empowering individual donors to make a real impact for issues and organizations where support from institutional funders is insufficient. CrowdJustice also empowers organizations to act more nimbly, raising funds for emergency projects that may not fit neatly into grant cycles.
We haven’t yet crossed the finish line in meeting our target goal of $10,000, but CrowdJustice is helping us get there through two basic steps:
- Making it easy for people to pledge their financial support for our case at www.crowdjustice.org/case/righttovote/. Whether someone is able to contribute $5, $50, or $500, each contribution is an investment towards greater equality and expanded voting rights.
- Empowering people to share the case page with their friends, family, and colleagues through powerful social media tools, especially through our Facebook page. This lowers the barriers to engagement, and gives individual supporters a megaphone to help amplify our overall message.
Want to see how it works for yourself? Check out our case page, and if you like what you see, make a pledge of support and leave us a note. The veterans and disenfranchised Americans we represent will be thankful!
Have a legal case that could benefit from crowdfunding?
