The Way to Win Action Fund (WWAF) is an affiliate of Way to Win, a left-of-center activism hub which also manages the Way to Lead PAC and Way to Rise, a left-of-center strategy group which directs funding from donors and institutions to local activists and political organizations. WWAF funnels resources from state-level organizations to political campaigns to build up the influence of left-of-center constituent groups. ¹

Parent Organization

Way to Win is an organizational strategy hub for left-of-center organizations which works to identify key elections that the Democratic Party needs to win to gain control of legislative bodies. The organization also directs the efforts of donors and other left-of-center organizations towards these key campaigns. Since its founding in 2018, Way to Win has published detailed, data-based reports that explain key elections and encourage support from grantmakers and activists. ²

The organization has pushed for activists to build stronger nonprofit institutions that will influence the Democratic Party and move it further left, rather than allowing the Democratic Party to direct the nonprofit base of support. The organization claimed that after winning the 2020 elections it was vital that left-wing activists win “the battle for the soul of the Democratic party” against its more centrist members. ³

Notable Expenditures

During the 2020 election season, Way to Win Action Fund spent just over $530,000 on political campaigns. Almost the entirety of this amount went to Hawkfish LLC, the digital marketing company which former New York City mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg founded in 2019. The firm, which was run by former executives of the tech firms Facebook and Foursquare, was known for its secretive business conduct during its brief existence, and was shut down in February 2021 after failing to secure a contract with the Joe Biden presidential campaign. The remaining $3,000 went to a Minnesota political action committee. ⁴

That year, WWAF also provided grants to nearly 100 miscellaneous organizations across the United States. Top grantees included the New York chapter of the Working Families Organization, a nonprofit affiliate of the far-left Working Families Party, which received more than $2.6 million. The Tides Advocacy Fund, which helps left-of-center donors confidentially allocate resources to activist groups, received just over $1 million. The Black Voters Matter Fund, which helps register and mobilize black voters and has also received grants from the Open Society Foundations, received nearly $1.2 million. The Campaign for Community Change, an activist organization based in Washington, D.C., received close to $2.5 million, and the Tennessee-based pressure group Organize for Justice received more than $1.4 million. ⁵

Leadership

Victoria “Tory” Gavito is the executive director of the WWAF. ⁶ She is also the co-founder and chief executive officer of the group’s parent organization Way to Win. She previously founded and ran the Texas Future Project, an initiative to grow Democratic Party power in the state which has received support from the Texas AFL-CIO, an influential labor union, and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a major abortion provider and promoter. ⁷

Financials

Contributions to the WWAF more than doubled between 2019 and 2020, going from less than $12.3 million to more than $28.3 million. The fund did not disclose its donors that year. ⁸ However, the philanthropic and activist organization Democracy Fund Voice, a project of prominent Democratic donor Pierre Omidyar, is known to be a backer of the WWAF: In 2021, Democracy Fund Voice gave the WWAF at least $250,000. ⁹

1. Way to Win. Accessed May 23, 2022. https://waytowin.us/
2. The Plan to Win. Accessed May 23, 2022. https://plantowin.info/
3. Beyond Trump Report: A Theory of Political Transition.” Plan To Govern. December 10, 2020. Accessed May 23, 2022. https://plantogovern.us/beyond-trump/
4. Way to Win Action Fund PAC Expenditures: 2020. OpenSecrets. Accessed May 23, 2022. https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/way-to-win-action-fund/C90019878/expenditures/2020
5. Way to Win Action Fund Incorporated 2020 Internal Revenue Form 990. Accessed May 23, 2022. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/825528039/202121489349300502/full
6. Way to Win Action Fund Incorporated 2020 Internal Revenue Form 990. Accessed May 23, 2022. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/825528039/202121489349300502/full
7. “Meet the Team.” Way to Win. Accessed May 23, 2022. https://waytowin.us/team
8. Way to Win Action Fund Incorporated 2020 Internal Revenue Form 990. Accessed May 23, 2022. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/825528039/202121489349300502/full
9. “Way to Wind Action Fund.” Democracy Fund Voice. Accessed May 23, 2022. https://democracyfundvoice.org/way-to-win-action-fund/