El Paso County Democratic Veterans Initiative

Ensuring that all Veterans, Active Duty Military and their families are supported and cared for. El Paso County, Colorado, is one of the top 5 counties in the US for Veteran and military concentration. We bring all of the other organizations together, so that there is one spot to view all services.

We are reaching out to Veterans, Active Military and their families via TV, digital, direct mail, events and print media, that we are here for them. We are currently (2020) being supported for these more aggressive communication options through a major donor in Denver, Colorado. He donated $5000 in January to allow us to test several ideas during the Presidential ballots and the caucuses. Once the results are analyzed, we will be presenting this to him with a specific proposal to increase Democratic voter turnout in the 2020 elections in El Paso County, Colorado and have a preliminary agreement for him to support these efforts.

Our efforts to help Veterans, active duty military and their families is a function of increasing membership (i.e. a voting block when talking the Congress or the VA). We have increased membership by 642% over the last 6 months and would easily be over 100% but for the Coronavirus. Our goal is to be over 2000 by the November election. Although our communication ads help, it is basically events that drive membership.

The Chair's background is in marketing. He is using this experience to increase the group's profile, negotiate free and deeply discounted media buys and using the expertise of a Grammy and two time Emmy winning graphic artist (working pro bono) to insure our communications are visually dominant.

In 16 months, we have grown from zero to 801 members, launched our website (updated daily), were included in two publications with very low cost communication ads and have participated in dozens of events. Our website is receiving over 1000 visits per month and our Chair is being identified by both the state and county Democratic party and local media, where he is often asked to submit opinions or be interviewed. Additionally, he is often called to voice opinions on Veteran issues for the Colorado Legislature.

Our communication testing has shown us where we should be investing our dollars relative to increasing membership and getting out the Democratic vote here in El Paso County, Colorado.