Founded on the principle that young people deserve to live with justice, love freely, express their gender and sexuality, and define their families on their own terms, Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity (URGE) has built its power by centering the leadership of young people of color who are women, queer, trans, nonbinary, and people of low income. As a state-driven national organization, URGE advances reproductive justice through advocacy, education, and youth organizing across key states.
With a grant from Progressive Multiplier, URGE developed a strategic digital acquisition initiative to grow their email list and build a sustainable grassroots donor pipeline. The project focused on two key experiments: 1) Generating new leads through paid email acquisition; and 2) Increasing engagement from existing list members through optimized email and SMS communications.
By partnering with platforms like Civic Shout and hiring Wingo, a digital fundraising consultant, URGE created the infrastructure needed to convert website visitors and new contacts into engaged supporters. The project addressed a fundamental challenge facing many advocacy organizations: how to build financial independence when individual giving staff capacity is limited and traditional grant funding remains the primary revenue source.
Through this project, URGE built something more valuable than immediate donations: a foundation for sustainable grassroots fundraising. The evergreen content bank, automated welcome series, and tested messaging strategies will continue generating engagement and revenue long after the grant period ended. As Abiha described it to her supervisor, "The seeds are planted, the buds are blooming. Are we at a full tree that is raining money yet? No, but we have shoots."
The impact extended beyond fundraising to URGE's programmatic work. With a larger engaged audience familiar with their mission across both their key investment states and the rest of the country, URGE saw dramatically higher participation in their educational offerings. Their town hall on self-managed abortion drew more than 400 registrants from audiences who trusted URGE and wanted to deepen their connection to the work.
The project also demonstrated to URGE's leadership that investing in fundraising infrastructure pays dividends. Even as the organization faced budget pressures and funding uncertainties common in the reproductive justice space, their executive director recognized that raising money requires spending money. This led to a commitment to continue funding Wingo's support beyond the grant period, ensuring the momentum wouldn't be lost.
Perhaps most significantly, URGE's experience offers a model for other advocacy organizations navigating similar challenges. For groups working on issues where traditional foundation funding may be pulling back, building independent revenue generation capacity through grassroots donors provides both financial sustainability and proof of community support. New contacts who hadn't heard of URGE three months prior were not only taking action by clicking, filling out surveys, and contacting legislators, but also making financial contributions to support the work.
The project transformed URGE's approach from sporadic acquisition attempts to a systematic, data-informed strategy for building and nurturing a grassroots donor base. With the infrastructure now in place and learnings from extensive testing, URGE is positioned to continue growing their individual donor program from $130,000 toward their ambitious goal of $2 million, ultimately diversifying their $8 million funding portfolio and ensuring they can continue fighting for reproductive justice regardless of shifting foundation priorities.