We actively care about democracy, human rights, and an uncorrupted government that serves all Americans.
We progress these values by assigning one clear, easy-to-follow action to our followers each month that can be done in one hour or less.
We consult with all credible activist organizations to identify the one most effective action against current attacks on democracy and human rights.
Each monthly email briefly explains the current issue, then provides clear and concise step-by-step guidance. We never send you more than one email a month.
Our representatives pay attention to our phone calls more than any other form of constituent communication. We pick the most vital issue of the month, explain it concisely, and give you a script.
Through Vote Forward and Postcards to Swing States we send letters to Democratic voters in swing states and encourage them to vote. These letters can increase voter turnout by 3.4 percentage points.
Founder of The Efficient Activist, Vanessa Valiente, like many busy Americans, was overwhelmed by too much information and too many calls to action. She wanted concise, curated, and consistent activist “homework” that would allow her to contribute meaningfully without adding stress to her already full plate.
“If you are not a full-time activist,” explains Vanessa. “You don’t have the time to sift through all the calls to action, and a lot of these amazing organizations are constructed by and for full-time activists. So, folks that are overwhelmed or overbooked end up doing nothing about national causes, even though they very much would like to participate in civic engagement.”
After searching for a solution and finding nothing that met her needs, she realized there was a gap in the political engagement space. “Someone needed to create one easy-to-follow assignment for busy people who only have an hour a month for political activism.”
As a lifetime activist and two decades as a personal stylist, Vanessa’s ability to curate information is unmatched, so she created The Efficient Activist. Each month, The Efficient Activist team sorts through all the action items each credible activist organization releases and then selects the one action that will make the biggest impact with the least amount of effort. This is political activism for busy people.
Your donation helps purchase supplies for our letter writing events and funds our team. Please note, The Efficient Activist is in the process of becoming a 501(c)(4) entity. Donations to a 501(c)(4) entity are not tax deductible.
Thank you so much for actively caring!
An activist works to make political or social change. Political and social change occurs when laws, policy, and regulations are enacted, enforced, altered or eliminated. So an activist spends their time working with congress people to construct or support laws or policies; or an activist spends time working with fellow citizens to gain public support for the change they seek. Public support leads to voter turnout.
An efficient activist is strategic in how they spend their time and resources to create political or social change. They choose to participate in activism that produces the biggest gains towards the change they seek.
An activist is anyone who regularly participates in activism. If you want to become an activist, you just need to find the form/s of activism that you can participate in regularly. Here are our favorite forms of activism that you can do as often as you like:
Subscribing to The Efficient Activist is the easiest answer to how to become an activist. We assign monthly activist homework that can be done in 1-hour or less. If you do your homework each month, you definitely qualify as an activist.
Inspiring your community to join your activism is the best way to make the BIGGEST impact on political change. Text, email, call or meet up with like-minded friends and family to perform the calls to actions that you have already done.
Currently, what we need more than anything is to spread the word. You can do this by:
Unfortunately, no. We are currently in the process of becoming a 501(c)(4) because we are a social welfare organization that engages in political advocacy, therefore a 501(c)(4) donation is not tax deductible. (Donations are only tax deductible if donated to a 501(c)(3) charity organization.)
Hi! I’m Vanessa Valiente, founder and CEO of The Efficient Activist. I am a regular person who won’t stand by while injustice occurs and quality of life is attacked. I am very busy, but I refuse to passively care about democracy and human rights. Instead, I ACTIVELY care. I know that preserving democracy and protecting human rights can only occur if millions of us join together to fight for it. In short, I’m you. And I hired smart people to help me run this bad ass organization that makes activism easy for busy people like us.
The Efficient Activist is in the process of becoming a 501(c)(4) organization. We provide busy Americans with 1-hour of activist homework each month. Our goal is to preserve democracy and protect human rights. No overwhelm, no guesswork, just clear steps that fit into your busy schedule. Because America’s democracy cannot thrive (or survive) without consistent civic action.
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