With everything else going on around here, I wanted to send out one last reminder to everyone that the deadline for the BlogPac Progressive Entrepreneur Contest: Five For Under $5K is tonight, at 10pm eastern. Once again, here is how to enter, and what is at stake, how to enter, and why we are doing this:
You can see the rules for this contest, including how to submit an entry, by clicking here. The five winning projects will receive up to $5,000 directly from BlogPac, a featured post here on Open Left, and a fundraising letter to our email list. The winning entries will be decided by our panel of judges, which include representatives from some of the most influential, enterprising organizations in our movement: Gina Cooper of Yearly Kos, Susan G of Dailykos, Adam Green of MoveOn.org, Jane Hamsher of Fire Dog Lake, Justin Krebs of Living Liberally, Ben Rahn of Act Blue and, of course, Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers of BlogPac. Given the panel of judges, even submitting an entry to the contest guarantees that your idea will be reviewed by a wide variety of progressive, “open left” leaders who can help it take flight!
Almost any project is open to consideration in this contest. It can be national, regional or local. It can focus on media, culture, social networking, direct action, research, elections, messaging and much more. It can work to expand the audience of progressive radio, book more progressives appear as commentators on cable news networks, or find ways for progressive bloggers to have access to health care. It can produce strategy guides for grassroots activists run for party office, train a new generation of activists in civil disobedience tactics, or help produce a progressive documentary. The only requirements to be considered for the contest are as follows:
The project on progressive infrastructure, not public policy. This contest is not trying to pass or propose specific legislation, but instead to build upon the architecture of the progressive movement.
The project cannot have received more than $25,000 in donations / revenue in the past calendar year.
Sending a description of your project, how it will help progressive infrastructure, how much money it needs, and how it will use that money to [email protected].
Why are we doing this? Because time and time again, the new, progressive infrastructure that has helped to stop the conservative movement in its tracks has come from grassroots activists with little in the way of political connections or start up money, but still with a wealth of ideas and determination. In 1998, two computer entrepreneurs fed up with Republican attempts to impeach Bill Clinton founded MoveOn.org. Living Liberally, a social networking organization with over 200 local chapters around the country, was founded in 2003 by a group of friends who wanted to help progressives stay in regular contact with each other. Act Blue, which generated over $25,000,000 for Democratic candidates in the last three years, was a project put together by a group of college friends in Cambridge. The progressive blogosphere, which now attracts between two and four million readers a day, came into being when thousands of concerned citizens around the country simply started putting their thoughts online with no more than their ideals, hope and desire for change as guides.
Each of these projects started small, but grew into something special because the creative, indefatigable people behind them. At BlogPac, we know that there are many more of these committed, inspired activists who either already have small organizations, or who just have ideas for new organizations. With only a little assistance, these projects and these ideas can turn into the next big thing in the progressive, political ecosystem, thus helping us all continue to take our country back.
The contest opens today, July 10th, and the deadline for submissions is 10 p.m. eastern on Tuesday, July 24th. The winners will be announced at the Open Left caucus (yes, we have one) of Yearly Kos in early August.
Already, we have received several dozen excellent entries, and there is still time to send in your entry. Even if we can’t fund every one of them right away, your ideas will be seen by some of the brightest minds and most active people in terms of building grassroots, progressive infrastructure. You have until 10 pm today, so there is no time like the present. I hope to see your entry in my inbox!
