How It Works

Feed Our Democracy is all about community.  Since Community begins with conversation, we’re here to encourage and empower you and people like you to come together in small groups to expand your social circles, talk about issues you care about and proactively participate in effecting change.

What Should my #FeedOurDemocracy event be about?

You may choose to host a dinner to raise funds for a candidate or cause or host an evening of letter writing to your local representative where dessert is served.  You can host a potluck, a brown bag lunch.  Whatever suits your needs and budget.

What your Feed Our Democracy get-together looks like is up to you.

Feed Our Democracy Events are about turning concerned community members into effective activists — and using small group gatherings to effect lasting change.

Check out our ToolKits for all the basics on how to host a kick-ass Feed our Democracy Event.

How do I get Involved?

Host a dinner, coffee, brunch,  or any type of get together. You could do it on your own, but we recommend stepping out of your social circle to co-host a small gathering with another friend/acquaintance or newly-made acquaintance.

What should my Gathering Look Like?

Your get-together can be a potluck, sit-down, buffet, a picnic, snacks, or dessert….  whatever works best for you.  Here are some TOOLKITS that make it extra easy to host exactly the kind of party you want.

Research shows that a co-hosted evening where each host invites 5-6 of their friends – so not everyone knows each other — is optimal.  Or if you’re solo-hosting, invite five friends, and ask each of them to bring a friend you don’t know.  The total group should be 8-10 guests with an additional two hosts (of which one is you) for a total group size of 10- 12.

What is the Goal of my Gathering?

At a minimum, it is to build community, build awareness, advocate and to fundraise for something that matters to you. A candidate, a cause, a speed bump, new playground equipment for your neighborhood…whatever mobilizes and energizes you to be involved.

The secondary goal is to get people you invite to host their own events.  It’s called the snowball effect.  And it can be very powerful.

Click here for a list of ideas and organizations you might like to support, or that might inspire your own ideas.

Am I required to raise money?

It’s not a must. But, it would be awesome to use your gathering as an opportunity to raise funds in any amount to support causes or candidates that are aligned with and care about. A good benchmark for how much to solicit from your guests could be to ask your guests to contribute what they would normally spend on a night out for dinner. For example, you could have a suggested minimum donation of $25 or $30, or even $5.

Please note that Feed Our Democracy doesn’t raise money directly, but we have lots of links to worthy causes in our Resource section.  There are all kinds of rules about raising money for political candidates.  If that’s what you choose to do, let us know in the sign-up form and we’ll set up a fundraising page for you to make it easy and legal.

What do we talk about at our get-together?

Thanks to our partners, we’ve got some great ice-breaker questions to help you get to know your fellow activists. We’ll also provide you with information on how to find and contact your local representatives, techniques for talking about difficult issues and more.

What Happens after my gathering?

We hope your guests will be inspired to host their own get-togethers and continue to build strong community networks of activists. Also, after your dinner, we’ll ask you to fill out a short questionnaire.  We’ll tally up how much money you raised, letters you wrote, signs you made…and share the results of all of the FoD events in one big tally so you can see how your event made a difference as part of a bigger movement.

Where do I sign up?

We thought you’d never ask! Here you go!