Accomplishments

• The montpirg leadership fund is creating positive, tangible change: the most important thing the montpirg leadership fund does is train new and rising leaders. beyond knocking doors, phone calling, petitioning, or field trips - this work is the longest lasting and most critical. each year, we train three classes (spring, summer, fall) of interns who learn the leadership skills to create change in their community, state, nation and world. we work on the major issues facing montana which includes educational efforts to protect our environment, expand voting rights, protect consumers, and more. leadership development: to accomplish this goal, the montpirg leadership fund has built a robust internship and volunteer program. our work is focused on giving young montanans the grassroots organizing skills to step up, take charge, and lead on the issues facing our state. these tools not only help them achieve their goals as an intern but are transferable to the work they will do as they continue to engage in our movement for years to come. they learn these skills by engaging in hands-on work on campus and across the state. during their time with our organization, they will learn skills such as street canvassing, door knocking, phone calling, event organizing, and campaign planning. in addition to the work they do in the field these young leaders are trained in campaign management, fundraising, communications, lobbying, running for office and much more through weekly classes. our current interns dedicate at least 10 hour per week over a semester to learning new skills which they put to use on real campaigns to move montana forward. they immerse themselves fully in a campaign and are each assigned individual projects in which they must use their newly acquired skills to complete. our methodical, tested, and detailed internship program builds new organizers any campaign, non-profit or business would eagerly pursue. our interns and volunteers have gone on to be elected officials, non-profit leaders, business executives, and successful presidential campaign managers. this year we recruited and trained 21 interns. our amazing volunteers completed 268 shifts throughout the year on top of the work of our staff and interns. the 6-mill levy: making higher education affordable for all montana students: this year the montpirg leadership fund completed the largest campaign our organization has ever engaged in. we were chosen as the field leaders for the crucial effort to renew the six mill levy, a statewide initiative which provides 10% of the funding for all montana colleges and universities. starting in may we launched canvass teams in missoula, bozeman, billings, great falls, helena and havre with a team that became over 30 people strong. early polling on this ballot issue proved this was going to be a fight for every vote, and we were ready for that battle. by the end of the campaign our team surpassed our goal and knocked on 234,378 doors in 21 cities and towns across montana. we also completed 129,659 calls/texts to persuade and turnout voters. this led to us identifying the support level of 48,934 montanans so we knew who to get to the polls on election day. all of these efforts resulted in a dramatic increase in the victory margin for the 6-mill levy. in 2008, this initiative only received 56% of the vote. in 2018, because of our field work, the initiative received 63% of the vote - a 7% increase! in the process of passing this hugely successful referenda, we trained dozens of young leaders as canvassers, interns, and volunteers. many of our team have already gone onto other organizing jobs and political positions on state and national campaigns. voter engagement: empowering young voters: we also registered thousands of students to vote in one of the most difficult political climates our nation has ever experienced. despite the cynicism that dominated the 2016 elections, we saw students show up at a record pace in 2018. we registered 2,417 young montanans to vote so they could have a voice in our elections and collected 487 ballots so a stamp never held anyone back. in addition to our work to turn out voters for other campaigns, we made 8,920 phone calls and knocked on 3,293 doors of young voters so no one was left out on election day. defending our outdoors: protecting clean water for future generations: this year we successfully collected 6,183 signatures to qualify a ballot initiative to protect clean water across montana. unfortunately, the initiative was not approved by voters, but the work we did still raised the issue and boosted awareness of the issues facing our rivers, lakes, and streams among many montanans. over the summer our team knocked 5,670 doors in support of the initiative. near election day our team sent 10,633 texts to turn out voters and made 2,000 phone calls. the montpirg leadership fund knows that creating change is only possible by setting tangible goals and measuring your progress. below you will see the progress we have made for our outdoors, youth engagement in our democracy, and much more. these real numbers represent the hard work done by incredible montpirg leadership fund volunteers, interns, and staff in the last fiscal year. 6 mill levy:- 50 ltes- 3,158 volunteer doors- 234,378 6-mill doors- 43,292 doors positve ids- 129,658 calls/texts- 231,087 total doors- 48,934 total positive idsvoter registration and engagement:- 2,417 total voter registration- 1,716 voter registration - absentee- 3,293 gotv door knocks- 8,920 gotv phone calls- 487 ballots collected clean water ballot initiative:- 6,183 signatures gathered- 5,670 doors knocked- 2,529 positive ids- 996 pledges collected- 8 ltes- 10,633 texts sent volunteers and interns:- 268 volunteer shifts- 21 interns Expenses $0.