How The Fairness Project's ballot initiative strategy brought real economic progress to 8.1 million workers in 2016.

1. Ballot Box Breakthroughs
How The Fairness Project’s Ballot Initiative Strategy Brought
Real Economic Progress to 8.1 Million Workers in 2016

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Ballot Box Breakthroughs
How The Fairness Project’s Ballot Initiative Strategy Brought
Real Economic Progress to 8.1 Million Workers in 2016
www.thefairnessproject.org
PUTTING OUR
FAMILIES FIRST
There was a point when Tabatha
– a single mother in Portland,
Maine – kept her McDonald’s
uniform on underneath her
Dunkin Donuts apron because
she was almost always wearing
one or the other. She worked 18-
to 22-hour days for a little more
than $8 an hour. Working two
jobs was the only way she and
her children could survive.
Now, her wages will
go up 50% to $12 an hour.
PUTTING OUR
HEALTH FIRST
In Arizona, Desiree struggles to
raise three kids as a single mom.
Her employer did not offer sick
leave so when she got cancer
she had to get treatment without
taking off work. Once, she was
forced to put off a procedure
for so long her doctor told her it
might no longer be safe. “I was
thinking of having the procedure
and then signing myself out of
the hospital so I could return to
work,” Desiree said.
Now, for the first time
she will have paid sick leave.
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Table of Contents
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ballot Initiatives Can Succeed Where Lawmakers Fail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ballot Initiatives Did Succeed Where Lawmakers Have Failed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Economic Ballot Initiatives are Some of the Best Money Spent in Politics . . . . . . .
How The Fairness Project Contributed to National and Local Success . . . . . . . . . .
• Early Investments Helped Get Campaigns Up and Running and
Attracted Significant Additional Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
• Using Data to Reach and Mobilize Key Demographics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
• Overall Strategic Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
• Enhanced Research and Messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
• Sharing Best Practices and Strategic Advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
• Building Business Support: Fair Pay Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
• Strong Digital Strategy and Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
• Digital Supporter List-Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Just Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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PUTTING OUR
PEOPLE FIRST
Marilyn is a home health care
worker in Colorado. Despite 20
years of experience, she earns
just $9 an hour, the state’s
minimum wage. “I’m one
paycheck away from being
homeless,” she said. “I literally
have to balance every dime to
make sure I eat every day.”
Now, her wages will
go up to $12 an hour.
PUTTING OUR
WORKERS FIRST
Andy runs five restaurants
throughout Washington D.C.
and has seen firsthand how
workers earning low wages
impact local businesses.
Over the past two decades
he has heard the doomsday
predictions from businesses
afraid of improving their
business models.
From banning smoking inside
restaurants to paid sick leave
and now raising wages, Andy
has seen how business in
our Capital can thrive when
workers are supported.
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In every jurisdiction in which The Fairness Project worked, significant
raises to the minimum wage were either voted into law on Election Day
or, prior to being put to a vote, enacted into law by elected officials who
cited the minimum wage ballot initiatives as their prime motivation.
Overview
In the weeks after the 2016 election, pundits
and progressives tried to make sense of
an outcome that shocked the world. As it
became clear Hillary Clinton would actually
win nearly 3 million more votes nationwide
than Donald Trump, the perverse nature of
our country’s presidential selection process
was once again fully revealed. For the
second time in 16 years, the wishes of the
minority triumphed over the wishes of the
majority, and a minority-supported president
was put into office (Al Gore received more
votes than George W. Bush in 2000).
But for those who struggled to analyze
the outcome of this upside-down set of
facts, where the majority still ruled and the
votes of everyone still mattered, they could
look to four places - Arizona, Colorado,
Maine, and Washington. Even as many
questioned why working people across the
country, especially in the industrial Midwest,
seemingly voted against their own economic
self-interest by electing Donald Trump,
voters in these locations overwhelmingly
supported ballot initiatives to raise the
minimum wage for 2.1 million working
people. This was in addition to the 6 million
workers who received raises from ballot
initiatives that motivated lawmakers to act
in California and the District of Columbia.
In total, ballot initiatives brought raises to
8.1 million working people, more than 10
percent of all wage earners in the United
States. In Arizona and Washington, voters
also approved paid sick leave for 2 million
workers.
Standing out of the spotlight but playing
a critical role in each of these efforts was
a 13-month-old organization called The
Fairness Project.
The Fairness Project is now positioned to multiply its
success in 2016, bringing even greater economic gains to
more working people in more states in 2017 and 2018.
In October 2015, built on the vision and
significant financial support of California
healthcare union SEIU-UHW, The Fairness
Project launched with a simple but profound
mission to change policies and solve the
economic problems facing working people
and their families in spite of the continued
failure of most politicians at the federal,
state, and local level.
No longer willing to wait for elected officials
to do their jobs, The Fairness Project
backed state- and city-based ballot initiative
campaigns and raised national awareness
of the need to bring economic fairness to
tens of millions of people. The campaigns
achieved this by putting political power
directly into the hands of voters to enact
the economic improvements they want
and need. In the 2016 election cycle, those
improvements involved raising the minimum
wage and providing paid sick leave to
millions.
The Fairness Project provides funding
directly to ballot initiative campaigns, but
unlike many other funders, it goes beyond
financial support to provide ongoing services
that give these campaigns cutting-edge
tools to build broad grassroots support and
ensure success on Election Day. Services
include digital outreach and social media;
data, analytics, and targeting; strategic
planning; opinion research; media support;
and national campaign coordination.
And with little hope that the federal
government will pass policies to reduce
economic inequality and put more money
into the pockets of working people, it will
be more important than ever to make these
gains through direct democracy at the state
and local level. Using its successful model,
The Fairness Project is poised to lead and
support those efforts.
Note: In both California and Washington D.C., elected leaders cited active minimum wage ballot
initiatives supported by The Fairness Project as the driving force behind enacting the legislation.
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ARIZONA
Passed 58.7-41.3%; raises for
779,000 workers (+934,000
will get paid sick leave); raises
the minimum wage $3.95
over four years
CALIFORNIA
Passed by state legislature;
raises for 5.6 million workers;
raises the minimum wage
$5 over six years
COLORADO
Passed 55.1-44.9%; raises for
488,000 workers; raises the
minimum wage $3.69
over four years
MAINE
Passed 55.5-44.5%; raises for
181,000 workers; raises the
minimum wage $4.50 over
four years; eliminates lower
tipped wage by 2024
WASHINGTON
Passed 58.1-42.0%; raises for
730,000 workers (+1 million
will get paid sick leave); raises
the minimum wage $4.03
over four years
WASHINGTON D.C.
Passed by city council; raises
for 127,000 workers; raises
the minimum wage $3.50
over four years

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Ballot Initiatives
Can Succeed Where
Lawmakers Fail
The ballot initiatives supported by The
Fairness Project showed the power of
issue-based direct democracy. Candidate-
centered political campaigns are often
more theater than substance. They are
fraught with complex and often off-putting
interactions between candidates, confusing
– sometime contradictory – positions on
a multitude of issues, and, in this election,
blatantly false claims, fake news stories, and
the meddling of foreign governments. All
this confounds voters’ decision-making and
turns them off to the idea that politicians
will improve their lives.
Ballot initiatives, on the other hand, are
relatively straightforward and simple, even
when opposing viewpoints are put before
the electorate.
“Our families will dictate
the future of Arizona,
not politicians, not
special interest groups,
and not even a party.”
– Tomas Robles, Campaign Chair,
Arizona Healthy Working Families
But ballot initiatives still need to compete
on a crowded and sometimes overwhelming
field – with billions of dollars spent to get
voters’ attention – and break through to
reach voters. That’s where The Fairness
Project can tip the scales. Providing the
best and most cutting-edge political tools
to effective ground-based organizations
significantly raises the chances of success.
Ballot Initiatives
Did Succeed Where
Lawmakers Have Failed
Congress has failed to raise the wage for
eight years and many states’ legislators
have dragged their feet for just as long.
So in 2016 voters took action in their own
states to pass extremely popular economic
fairness policies. The minimum wage and
paid leave ballot initiatives were so popular
in 2016 that they far outstripped the appeal
of candidates. The measures passed by a
larger margin and bigger vote totals than
the winning presidential candidate in all
four states. And, in Maine and Washington,
more votes were cast for the minimum
wage ballot initiatives than were cast in the
presidential race. That means that some
supporters who turned out to vote for the
initiatives didn’t vote for the top of the
ticket. The widespread support shows that
these initiatives appealed to independents
and voters of all political stripes. The results
show that many people who voted for
Trump or for more conservative down-ballot
candidates also voted in favor of raising
the minimum wage and providing paid
sick leave.
“For over a year, Arizona
Healthy Families, working
with The Fairness Project,
has been reaching out to the
Latino community and the
organizations that are integral
to it. Our victory November
8th was due to our investment
in our Latino community that
wants to fix their economy
and create a better future for
their families.”
– Tomas Robles, Campaign Chair,
Arizona Healthy Working Families
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*Senator Patty Murray was the only candidate to win by a larger margin than the minimum wage. She also
was the only Senate candidate who campaigned on behalf of the minimum wage initiative and made it a
major component of her campaign.
“Amendment 70 is one of the first things people [were] so
excited to vote for. We did voter registration and people
weren’t so excited about the candidates we had this election
cycle, but as soon as we talked about Amendment 70 and the
impact it will have for Colorado, they were so thrilled. They
were like, ‘Where do I vote? Do I vote now? When?’”
– CARLA CASTEDO, COLORADO DIRECTOR, MI FAMILIA VOTA
In coming election cycles, The Fairness Project will support ballot initiatives to
advance economic fairness on more issues and in a growing number of states.

6. 10 11
Economic Ballot Initiatives are Some
of the Best Money Spent in Politics
This cycle, ballot initiatives proved to be some of the best money spent in politics by providing
massive returns on investment. For the amount spent by The Fairness Project, there will be tens of
billions of dollars in economic benefits to workers, their families, and entire communities.
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Conducting opinion research in partnership with the states to develop
winnable ballot language and clear messaging to help drive campaigns
Developing data models that enabled campaigns to reach and mobilize
voters who would be most impacted by and most likely to vote for the
initiatives, especially women and people of color
Investing early through partnerships with
state-based, grassroots organizations
Sharing best practices on what
worked across the country
Counseling campaigns facing difficult challenges
during various phases of the campaigns
Deploying staff to states to provide
on-the-ground support
Building support from business leaders to negate opposition
by showing that higher wages are good for business
Providing critical ongoing services throughout the campaigns,
such as overall strategy, research, data analytics, and digital support
in direct partnership with the state-based campaigns
Generating media coverage that gave greater visibility to the campaigns;
elevating the issues to make sure they were in the public discourse leading
up to Election Day; and encouraging candidates for office to take a
position on the initiative
How The Fairness Project Contributed
to National and Local Success
The Fairness Project’s expertise helped guide local partners through the planning, signature filings,
initial and post signature-gathering filings, and execution phases of their campaigns, helping them
use their resources most effectively—and win.
The support The Fairness Project provided to these six ballot initiatives contributed significantly to
the final outcome. The contributions included:

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Early Investments Helped Get
Campaigns Up and Running and
Attracted Significant Additional
Contributions
Early money gave the state-based
organizations credibility, and that enabled
them to attract additional investment,
hire top talent, and maintain a two-way
conversation with voters over the course of
a year-long campaign. Our partners could
spend their money efficiently – e.g. relatively
less-expensive early media buys or signature
gathering – and build a strong base of
support that in most states forced the
opposition to effectively concede without
much of a fight.
Maine was The Fairness Project’s first
partner. Early funding allowed Maine’s
existing grassroots campaign to collect
signatures at a lower cost – largely through
volunteers. They built one of the most
successful business organizing efforts of all
the states, with more than 600 businesses in
support of the measure, far surpassing those
opposed. The early money also allowed the
team to begin conversations with voters
more than a year-and-a-half before Election
Day. The Maine campaign used the additional
time to build early support among voters
and awareness among journalists of the
benefits of the most controversial part of the
initiative that ended the sub-minimum wage
for tipped workers. By the time the election
cycle was in full swing, the opposition had
virtually given up.
In California and Washington D.C., early
organizing created enough of a groundswell
of demonstrated support for the ballot
initiatives to propel legislative action to
raise the wage to $15.
In California, a crowded year for ballot
initiatives meant signature-gathering firms
were charging $6 or $7 a signature by the
time the cycle was in full swing. Because Lift
Up California started early, it began collecting
signatures before demand drove up the costs
and paid less than $1 for each.
The initiative qualified for the ballot on
March 22, 2016. Lawmakers in California
recognized the inevitability of its passing,
spurring them to act. Legislation very similar
to the ballot language passed on March 31
and was signed into law April 4. Governor
Jerry Brown credited the initiative campaign.
In Washington D.C., grassroots campaigners
had a large coalition and deep infrastructure
that allowed them to move past legal
challenges to the measure and prepare to
collect signatures to qualify it in spring 2016.
Polling in support of the measure was nearly
90 percent, and that, plus the inevitability
that it would qualify for the ballot propelled
Mayor Muriel Bowser and the city council
to reach an agreement in June to raise the
minimum wage to $15.
“TFP’s involvement was
of the ‘let us know how
we can help’ mold. They
did not attempt to assert
control or undue influence.
Rather, they offered
insights and advice as
needed, and were clear
that TFP was supporting
the campaign leadership,
not attempting to override
the campaign’s strategy
or direction.”
– Carlo Caldirola-Davis,
Campaign Manager, Washington state
Using Data to Reach and
Mobilize Key Demographics
The fight to raise the minimum wage
disproportionately affects women and
people of color. Though women make up
50.8 percent of the population, 55 percent
of workers impacted by these successful
ballot initiatives are women. Similarly, in
California, Latinos make up 38.8 percent of
the population, but 55 percent of workers
affected by the minimum wage increase
were Latino.
Unfortunately, those most affected by the
measures were also the least likely to go far
enough down the ballot to vote on them.
To combat this, The Fairness Project for
the first time brought data and analytics
to grassroots state campaigns by creating
highly sophisticated modeling and targeting
tools that otherwise were unlikely to
have been available due to their cost and
complexity. The Fairness Project provided
state partners with data modeling typically
reserved for top of ticket campaigns.
Ballot activists in Arizona, Washington, and
Colorado used this data to find, reach, and
inform their most likely voters and preserve
this information for use in other social justice
work and in the next election cycle. These
models included:
• Support Model: Provides an individual-
level view of support for the ballot
measures that traditional polling cannot.
• Turnout Model: Predicts each individual
voter’s likelihood of voting in the election.
• Ballot Completion Model: Identifies
voters who may need extra attention
to ensure they vote on all the questions
on the ballot, not just President or U.S.
Senate and Congress. It can mean the
difference between winning and losing.
This model is unique to The Fairness
Project and is new to campaigns this year.
• Persuasion Model: Predicts a voter’s
likelihood of being swayed by a
persuasive argument – either for or
California Governor Jerry Brown:
“I guess what really
cemented this deal was...
quite frankly the specter
of the initiative.”
California Senate President
pro Tem Kevin De Leon:
“(T)here is a ballot initiative
that’s already qualified
and, short of any negotiated
deal, it goes to the ballot.
And all the polling that I’ve
seen…folks are supporting
a minimum wage increase
across the board.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser:
“I think that the ballot
initiative really propelled
everybody to act urgently,
and we want to thank people
for making us all think
clearly about what it means
to not have good paying
jobs in the District and be
able to afford to live here.”
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against – and helps the campaigns target
just the voters for whom the pro-measure
persuasion messaging will work.
• Get-out-the-Vote (GOTV) Model:
Predicts the efficiency of reaching out to
an individual voter with a GOTV message
so campaigns can focus their resources
on speaking with voters who both need
GOTV and are very likely to respond to it.
• Vote-by-Mail Model: Helps campaigns
predict who is likely to request a mail-in
ballot so they can time their outreach
to a specific voter based on his or her
propensity to return their ballot early.
This information is critical given that each
election, more and more voters cast their
ballots prior to Election Day.
The models were highly successful and
received high praise from the campaigns for
making their outreach more efficient, cost-
effective, and successful. The modeling had
an impact on all parts of the campaigns’
programs, including targeting, media buys,
and direct mail, which contributed to the
increased popularity of these down-ballot
initiatives. While ballot campaigns typically
anticipate approximately five percent fewer
votes than the top of the ticket in these
states, our partners reversed that trend.
The drop-off on the minimum wage ballots
this year was approximately 1.45 percent in
Colorado and Arizona. In Washington, more
people voted on the ballot initiative than on
the presidential race.
• Arizona: The models enabled the
campaign to run a program that ensured
a set of candidates in targeted legislative
districts incorporated the minimum
wage ballot initiative and minimum wage
messaging into their races. This included
targeting voters who supported the
minimum wage as the first issue but also
primed them with messages about their
own candidacies. The Arizona campaign hit
300,000 doors identified by the models.
• Colorado: The only campaign with
a strong opposition, the Colorado
initiative’s polls began to tighten
as Election Day neared. The ballot
completion model was particularly useful
for this campaign by helping identify
voters and increase the margin of victory
to more than 10 points, surpassing
expectations.
• Washington: The campaign reported
that The Fairness Project modeling was
an immediate upgrade to their field
organizing, offering a degree of accuracy
and efficiency the campaign had not
seen before and would not have had on
its own. The models will have an impact
on the entire progressive infrastructure
in Washington because every union in
the state now has information on voters
who support increasing the minimum
wage. This will allow them to continue to
organize around this and other economic
issues beyond the lifespan of the ballot
initiative campaign.
• Washington D.C.: The Fairness Project’s
efforts confirmed the campaign’s own
data work. Our funding allowed the
campaign to access top technology
like the VAN database, ensuring any
information captured through their
efforts would be available for use in
other campaigns and in election cycles to
come. Without these resources from The
Fairness Project, data collection would
not have been implemented from the
beginning of the campaign.
“Having an experienced
national communications
director helped us get
coverage for Raise Up
WA outside of our state.”
– Carlo Caldirola-Davis,
Campaign Manager, Washington state
PUTTING OUR
CHILDREN FIRST
Kazoua makes minimum wage as a cashier at
a grocery store in California. Her family lives
paycheck to paycheck and struggles every
month to cover the rent, bills, and groceries.
Recently the family’s car and air conditioner
broke down and they didn’t have the money
to fix it, making getting to work and living
comfortably a real challenge. She worries
constantly about how she’ll pay the bills and
afford food and other basics they need to live.
Mostly she worries about how to provide a
better life for her son, Maliki. Her husband
and she would love to move to a safer
neighborhood to escape the many burglaries
and other crimes where they live. They’d
love to send Maliki to daycare so he can
be around other children more and even
send him to college one day. Until the wage
increased, that all seemed impossible.
Earning $15 an hour, they can begin to
afford to dream.
PUTTING OUR
COMMUNITY FIRST
Ariana started working at Safeway in
Washington state ten years ago. Over that
time, she has met many coworkers like her,
struggling at or near the minimum wage. She
shared her thoughts, “When these people
work hard and play by the rules, they don’t
get ahead.” She sees firsthand how the
system is broken. Ariana and her coworkers
were unable to take time off when they or
their families were sick, forcing workers to
make difficult choices between caring for
their loved ones or exposing customers to
their illness.
That’s why she was a Citizen Sponsor of the
minimum wage and paid sick leave ballot
initiative. Now, she and her co-workers will
earn higher wages and can take time off to
care for themselves and their families.
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reporters, offering campaigns a chance to
shape the national narrative surrounding
their measures, identify their benefits, and
highlight their impact.
Building Business Support:
Fair Pay Today
From the very beginning, The Fairness
Project recognized the need to go beyond
the obvious base of voters to build support
for our ballot initiatives—especially in the
business community.
The Fairness Project collaborated with
private companies like Dr. Bronner’s (the
top natural soap brand in North America)
and business organizations like Businesses
for a Fair Minimum Wage to create a large
business coalition comprised of companies
committed to paying fair wages, like Organic
Valley, Stonyfield, Seventh Generation,
MOM’s Organic Market, and Maine Root.
These companies embrace fair wages as
a good model for boosting business and
the economy by improving employee
retention and productivity and increasing
employees’ buying power. The Fairness
Project played a key role in bringing this
business coalition together and worked with
them as they made the compelling case
that well-run companies can pay fair wages
and thrive. Their public support for raising
the minimum wage included contributions
to the campaigns as well as special
product labels, in-store displays, social
media outreach, and product giveaways.
In Colorado and Maine in particular, this
coalition provided state campaigns with
valuable and visible business support for
the initiatives to counter opposition.
Developing these relationships made the
difference in diminishing the opposition
and neutralizing their arguments. Maine’s
campaign courted such a wide range of
small business buy-in that it discouraged
businesses opposed to the wage increase
from organizing against it.
4 STATES WILL VOTE ON RAISING MINIMUM WAGE
If all four ballot initiatives are approved, they could directly benefit roughly 2.1 million
workers, according to The Fairness Project, which partners with minimum wage
campaigns across the country.
AUMENTO AL SALARIO MÍNIMO VA
A LAS URNAS EN CUATRO ESTADOS
Es hora de que los políticos atiendan estos reclamos,
tomando en cuenta que muchos niños provienen de hogares
de bajos recursos, o sumidos en la pobreza en EEUU.
GOP POLS WON’T RAISE THE MINIMUM
WAGE — SO VOTERS ARE ABOUT TO
Fed up with legislative inaction, labor advocates are
putting wage increases directly before the voters.
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Overall Strategic Advice
Over the course of the campaign, The
Fairness Project’s team provided trusted
strategic advice to support state partners in
critical decision-making moments.
For example, The Fairness Project worked
with the Colorado campaign to confront a
possible onslaught of opposition ads worth
millions of dollars, when the campaign itself
had planned to spend under $1 million on
television. Because of the relationship The
Fairness Project developed with the campaign,
it was able to step in and work with the team
to reorganize their budget and bring another
million dollars into the campaign to produce
ads that countered the opposition.
“TFP provided the perfect
level of support to the
campaign. There were
weekly communications calls,
[TFP’s Executive Director]
participated in both Steering
and Executive Committee
calls, and he was diligent
about returning calls and
troubleshooting with
the campaign.”
– Carlo Caldirola-Davis,
Campaign Manager, Washington state
“We were able to do much
more precise targeting than
we otherwise would have.
Understanding our turnout and
roll-off universes were particularly
helpful in all of our field work.”
– Patty Kupfer,
Campaign Manager, Colorado
Enhanced Research
and Messaging
One of the more expensive needs at the
start of a campaign is polling, which can
run tens of thousands of dollars. Polls are
critical to testing the viability of a measure,
creating the ballot language to file with
a state or city, and creating a messaging
framework that attracts voters. When these
objectives are met, it allows campaigns
to build infrastructure early and start
attracting additional funding. The Fairness
Project’s early opinion research funding
gave campaigns in California, Arizona, and
Maine the data to determine whether the
issue was sufficient to build a strong base of
supporters and where to target their efforts.
Early polling allowed them to make informed
decisions as the campaigns developed.
Sharing Best Practices and
Strategic Advice
In past cycles, ballot initiatives often resided
in state-specific silos. Campaigns could
only learn from the experiences of the local
grassroots organizations immediately involved.
The Fairness Project also connected
ballot initiative campaigns with nationally
renowned communications and digital
strategists and organizers to help give them
the boost they needed to win.
In particular, The Fairness Project’s ability
to work with reporters and generate
social media attention created a national
spotlight on how the ballot initiatives
would play a major role in raising wages.
The Fairness Project worked with states to
elevate stories in the media that showed
the hardship of low wages on families,
communities, and business, and showed
clearly how ballot initiatives offered a
solution.
In the final weeks of the election, The
Fairness Project hosted press calls with
campaign representatives and national
The Fairness Project’s ability to provide strategic support and scale
resources across the country removed the barriers between these
campaigns to ensure the sharing of best practices.

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Digital Supporter List-Building
The Fairness Project built an email list on the national level of more than 150,000 supporters that
included supporters in each target state. After cultivating the list on the national level, TFP provided
the Arizona and Colorado campaigns with lists of local supporters as they got off the ground.
The Fairness Project also provided campaigns with best practices on mobilizing supporters
through email to ensure communication was as effective as possible.
Just Getting Started
There is no doubt that 2016 was a profoundly difficult year for those who support progressive
change. But The Fairness Project was able to buck the trend by utilizing ballot initiatives to achieve
sound economic policies that will continue to bring critical improvements to the lives of working
Americans. Starting in January 2017, millions of workers saw bigger paychecks, and that will
continue for years to come. By putting solutions to our broken economy directly before voters, The
Fairness Project is helping to tip the scale of power in favor of working families and clearing a path
forward for economic fairness. This model, which unites a national team with effective, grassroots
organizations to share resources and expertise, is a game-changer.
The Fairness Project is looking forward to going beyond minimum wage, building on the success
of 2016 and taking to heart the lessons learned this cycle to work even more effectively and
with even more states and localities in 2017, 2018, and beyond. Together, we will bring positive
economic change on a massive scale to American workers and their families.
Minimum wage hikes in four states show path
for labor under Trump
4 states just voted to hike their minimum wage
Minimum-Wage Hikes Go Straight
to the Ballot Box
This Election Could Add More to Your
Paycheck—If You Live in These States
Voters could give 2 million workers
a raise on Election Day
Strong Digital Strategy
and Support
From the very beginning, The Fairness
Project developed a strong digital presence,
building a national audience of more than
150,000 subscribers on email, 80,000
users on Facebook, and 32,000 followers
on Twitter that allowed the organization to
amplify each state’s messages.
In addition to helping communicate with
supporters, The Fairness Project’s digital
reach helped hone messaging by learning
what talking points and content activated
key audiences across the country through
email and social media.
The Fairness Project also arranged and paid
for state campaigns to get advice from the
best talent from President Barack Obama’s
groundbreaking 2008 and 2012 digital
operations that enabled them to maximize
their online impact with minimum expense.
The Fairness Project often filled in gaps
for state social media and email outreach
efforts until the campaigns could support
their own channels. In Colorado, for example,
the state’s campaign did not have a digital
manager until weeks following their launch.
The Fairness Project stepped in to develop
social content to attract online supporters.
The Fairness Project also saved campaigns
time and money by providing the most
cutting-edge tools for managing websites,
an important yet often-neglected campaign
tactic to communicate with supporters.
“We were late in the game
bringing on our social media staff
and Sandra from The Fairness
Project was a huge help in getting
us through until then, drafting and
making graphics for us.”
– Patty Kupfer,
Campaign Manager, Colorado
The Fairness Project created a powerful
customizable website designed around
common needs, but tailored each site
to the specific requirements of the state
campaigns. The Fairness Project team
provided ongoing web support and training
to ensure the campaigns best utilized these
tools and were able to build upon online
momentum to capture potential volunteers.
• Arizona: This state’s campaign launched
later than many others, not until summer
2016. But with The Fairness Project’s
help, the campaign launched its website
quickly, working to immediately collect
information on potential supporters.
• Colorado: The campaign manager was
hired after the campaign launched
and was immediately swamped with
developing the messaging plan and
handling operational concerns. The
Fairness Project stepped in to quickly
build a website that allowed the manager
to focus on getting the rest of the
campaign off the ground.
• Washington D.C.: Despite support
from nearly 90% of likely voters, the
campaign suffered an early setback from
a baseless lawsuit. Once the campaign
began collecting signatures, it needed
a proper website quickly to collect new
supporters through digital outreach. The
Fairness Project team was able to get the
campaign’s website online in time for the
launch.
“We would not have had a
website without The Fairness
Project. This platform proved
to be quite successful as both
a repository and reference
point for our messaging.”
– Suzanne Wilson,
Campaign Manager, Arizona
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