COLOR : Defeating Colorado Proposition 115

Groundswell offers capacity-building support to our grantees with a focus on grassroots power building.

Durable grassroots power is about more than a single policy win, it requires strong organizations with the infrastructure to sustain and grow an organized base of people.

Whether it’s supported with political education, software, staffing, safer governance strategies, and upskilling, Groundswell Fund is thinking about the importance of process alongside impact.

The Groundswell Fund has been shifting tides at the state level. Just look at the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR). COLOR is a community-rooted organization that works to enable Latinx individuals and their families to lead safe, healthy, and self-determined lives.

In response to COVID-19, COLOR adapted its outreach strategy, experimenting with peer-to-peer texting and relational organizing as well as using Impactive as a text-message-based campaign engagement tool to connect with their base and activated a Spanish media advertisement strategy to engage Spanish-speaking community members in order to increase voter engagement.

In 2020, COLOR and other allies’ organizing efforts led to the defeat of Colorado Proposition 115, a 22-week abortion ban measure, with 59% of voters opposing the proposition. That’s a huge win!

Through their outreach, COLOR and their allies gained connection and consent of voters who would be impacted by this measure and both recorded and shared their stories during their political community-education webinars. This communications project helped to humanize the issue of abortion banning and fundamentally help voters understand the real impact that Prop 115 would have on families.