One Arizona is a left-of-center voter registration and mobilization group in Arizona. It claims to have registered more than 600,000 voters in the state since 2018, 70 percent of whom it said voted in the 2020 elections. ¹

While it is nominally nonpartisan, One Arizona receives significant amounts of funding from left-of-center foundations and other Democratic-aligned donors to engage with traditionally Democratic constituencies among Arizona’s Latino, Black, Native American, Asian American, and other ethnic minority communities. ¹

It is not related to the One Arizona program to distribute funds from opioid lawsuit settlements to municipal governments in Arizona. ²

Founding

One Arizona was founded as part of the left-of-center backlash to an Arizona immigration law that the New York Times characterized as “the nation’s toughest bill on illegal immigration.” ^{3 1}

In 2010, Arizona passed SB 1070, the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act. ³ The law created a state requirement for immigrants to carry their immigration certificate with them at all times, mirroring a federal law that says every adult immigrant to the United States “shall at all times carry with him and have in his personal possession any certificate of alien registration or alien registration receipt card issued to him.” ^{4 3} The Arizona law also directed law enforcement to attempt to determine individuals’ immigration status during lawful stops, detentions, or arrests if there was probable cause to believe that the person was an immigrant. ³ It also banned “sanctuary cities” and created legal penalties for people who employed or sheltered illegal immigrants in Arizona, as well as for immigrants who worked without legal authorization. ³

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that many of the law’s provisions unconstitutionally preempted federal immigration laws, but ultimately upheld the state’s authority to have police officers investigate individuals’ immigration status during their interactions with law enforcement. ⁵

Critics branded the law as the “Show Us Your Papers Act” and Democratic politicians and Democratic-aligned organizations encouraged public anger against the law to mobilize voters and supporters. ^{3 6} One Arizona was founded in this environment as a nominally nonpartisan voter registration group that focused originally on traditionally Democratic Party-aligned Latino communities in Arizona. It has since expanded its voter registration and mobilization targets to include Black, Native American, Asian American, and other ethnic minority communities. ¹

Programs and Partners

One Arizona’s primary role is to operate voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts among Democratic-aligned ethnic minority communities in Arizona. It was also active in promoting participation in the 2020 U.S. Census, Arizona’s 2021 legislative redistricting, and other policy topics. ¹

A 2017 case study by One Arizona funder NEO Philanthropy credited One America with registering enough Latino voters to have an impact on Phoenix’s municipal elections and “found that One Arizona’s voter engagement efforts have consistently increased turnout, are changing the way Latino and other citizens view democracy and take part in it and are nurturing a new generation of collaborative activist leaders.” ⁷

One Arizona works with a number of left-of-center partner organizations, including the Arizona chapters or affiliates of organizations including Planned Parenthood, Mi Familia Vota, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), All Voting is Local, League of Conservation Voters (LCV), Poder Latinx, New American Leaders, VoteRiders, ProgressNow, and Puente Human Rights Movement. ⁸

Funding

In 2017, left-of-center fiscal clearinghouse NEO Philanthropy published a case study that identified NEO’s Four Freedoms Fund and left-wing immigration advocacy funder Unbound Philanthropy as One Arizona’s “two leading funders” during the organization’s first five years in operation. ⁷

One Arizona has received major funding from the Democratic Party-aligned Voter Registration Project and its Voter Registration Project Education Fund. ⁹ One Arizona received $2,264,531 from the Voter Registration Project in 2016, $342,031 in 2017, $1,417,230 in 2018, $83,018 in 2019, $722,338 in 2020, $58,986 in 2021, $665,126 in 2022, and $242,154 in 2023. ⁹

One Arizona has received $1,787,000 over five grants from the Open Society Foundations, a private grantmaking foundation created and funded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros. ¹⁰

In 2022, One Arizona received $1.7 million from the Telescope Fund, a left-of-center grantmaking fund that is associated with the New Venture Fund (NVF), which is managed by Arabella Advisors. ¹¹

One Arizona has also received funding from major left-of-center donors including the Tides Foundation’s Movement Voter Fund, Ford Foundation, Park Foundation, Grove Foundation, Libra Foundation, and Arizona Community Foundation. ^{12 13 14 15 16 17}

1. “About Us.” One Arizona. Accessed February 14, 2025. https://onearizona.org/about/.
2. “One Arizona Distribution of Opioid Settlement.” One Arizona Distribution of Opioid Settlement. Accessed February 14, 2025. https://www.one-arizona.com/.
3. Archibold, Randal C. “Arizona Enacts Stringent Law on Immigration.” The New York Times, April 23, 2010. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/politics/24immig.html.
4. “8 U.S. Code § 1304 – Forms for Registration and Fingerprinting.” Cornell University Legal Information Institute. Accessed February 14, 2025. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1304.
5. “Arizona v. United States,” U.S. Supreme Court 11-182, 567 US _ (2012). https://www.oyez.org/cases/2011/11-182
6. Preston, Julia. “Immigration Advocates Rally for Change.” The New York Times, May 1, 2010. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/us/02immig.html.
7. Chasteen, Michelle. “Case Study: Successful Coalition Building and Data-Driven Approaches in Arizona Advance Immigrant Rights.” NEO Philanthropy, December 7, 2017. https://neophilanthropy.org/case-study-successful-coalition-building-and-data-driven-approaches-in-arizona-advance-immigrant-rights/.
8. “Our Coalition Partners.” One Arizona. Accessed February 14, 2025. https://onearizona.org/partners/.
9. “Voter Registration Project.” ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Accessed February 14, 2025. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/264802468.
10.  “Open Society Foundations – Awarded Grants, Scholarships, and Fellowships.” Open Society Foundations. Accessed February 14, 2025. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/grants/past?filter_keyword=one%2Barizona.
11. “Telescope Fund, Form 990, Schedule I – 2022.” ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/862577635/202313149349302361/IRS990ScheduleI.
12. “State Victories: Voting Rights & Funding Breakthroughs.” Movement Voter Project, September 28, 2023. https://movementvoterfund.org/blog/state-victories-voting-rights-public-funding-breakthroughs/.
13. “Grants Database.” Ford Foundation. Accessed February 14, 2025. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/?search=one%2Barizona.
14. “Grants Awarded.” Park Foundation. Accessed February 14, 2025. https://www.parkfoundation.org/grantees/one-arizona/.
15. “Return of Private Foundation – 990-PF – 2021.” Grove Foundation, 2022. https://grovefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/FY21-990.pdf.
16. “One Arizona.” Libra Foundation. Accessed February 14, 2025. https://www.thelibrafoundation.org/grantee-partners/one-arizona.
17. “Arizona Undocumented Workers Relief Fund.” Arizona Community Foundation, October 18, 2022. https://www.azfoundation.org/ways-to-give/give-by-impact-area/latino-philanthropy/arizona-undocumented-workers-relief-fund/.