The Fund has raised over $400 million over the past 20+ years to support progressive causes. The Fund has also gathered more than 20 million petition signatures in support of progressive campaigns. We achieve this scale because we efficiently run a large-scale political operation for partners across the country.
The financial resources raised are used to engage members and to fund advocacy on campaigns. This work is predominantly funded by the contributions of our citizen members, originally identified through the canvass—not from corporations, wealthy donors, or foundations.
For example:
- For over a decade, the state PIRGs and Environment Groups have sought to keep the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge off limits to oil and gas drilling. In 2005, PIRG canvassers joined student chapters, field organizers, and U.S. PIRG advocates in working to prevent Congress from opening this pristine wilderness area to drilling. PIRG canvassers raised the public profile of the issue through countless one-on-one conversations, generated funds needed to sustain the long and resource-intensive campaign, and were vital in helping to mobilize citizen activists in critical states and Congressional districts to lobby their Senators and Representatives. Working with a diverse coalition, the PIRGs and their partners ultimately succeeded in convincing key Senators to keep Arctic language out of the Defense Appropriations Bill and vital Representatives to oppose the inclusion of such language in the budget, effectively safeguarding the Arctic Wildlife Refuge for the foreseeable future.
- Between 2003 and 2006, Environment California, a member group of the national association of state PIRGs, undertook to achieve a landmark energy victory unthinkable without the grassroots resources brought to bear by the Fund canvasses. In 2003, the newly formed Environment California launched its first grassroots campaign, enlisting Fund canvassers to knock on 200,000 doors and collect 10,000 signatures in support of solar power, in an effort to achieve its goal of getting 50% of all homes built in the state equipped with solar roof panels. As Environment California lobbied the state legislature to adopt bills establishing aggressive solar policies in 2003, 2004, and 2005, Fund canvassers continued to build a groundswell of public support, building the new group’s membership, raising the money needed to support aggressive advocacy and publicity, and mobilizing Californians to become activists by providing innovative opportunities to take grassroots actions in support of solar energy. In 2005, Environment California introduced the ambitious Solar Homes Bill, which would provide consumer incentives for installing solar panels, require solar panels to be a standard building option in new homes, lift the cap on net metering, and mandate that municipal utilities adopt a solar program at least on par with those of the private sector. Although the bill was not passed in 2005, Environment California, funded largely through citizen contributions generated initially by Fund canvassers, continued to build citizen support for its solar homes campaign through its summer canvass offices, year-round canvass offices, telephone outreach project, an aggressive media campaign, and a field strategy that involved diverse coalition partners. As a result of Environment California’s dogged ongoing efforts and robust grassroots citizen outreach, the California Public Utilities Commission approved the California Solar Initiative (CSI) in January, 2006, committing a combined $3.2 billion in incentive funds to drive consumers toward solar power over the next 11 years. And, finally, in August 2006, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed the Solar Homes Bill into law, joined at the signing by an Environment California advocate and more than a dozen Fund canvassers.
- Early in 2006, Illinois PIRG achieved considerable progress towards its goal of dramatically reducing mercury emissions from the state’s power plants when it persuaded Governor Blagojevich to propose that Illinois require its coal-burning power companies to eliminate 90% of their mercury emissions by 2009. In response to the grassroots organizing efforts of Illinois PIRG’s two year-round canvass offices, action requests sent out to our email activist network (many of whom were identified by canvassers), and hard-hitting reports released by PIRG staff, more than 15,000 Illinois PIRG members wrote to the Governor asking him to adopt a strong mercury regulation. Environment Illinois, the new home of Illinois PIRG’s environmental program, is currently working with its canvasses to put citizen pressure on state legislators to enact the Governor’s proposal.