Today, Daily Kos celebrates 20 years as the nation’s largest online news and activism hub.
After two decades, Daily Kos bears little resemblance to its beginning as a blog written by one frustrated veteran, writing under a pseudonym in his off hours. But the platform’s success, growth, reach, and impact since its founding have transformed it into a vastly different organization than it was in the beginning. With a staff of over 90 people, an affiliated polling company (Civiqs), affiliated nonprofit news organization (Prism), and expansion from political blogging into progressive fundraising and philanthropic spaces, Daily Kos two decades in isn’t just the blog that survived: It’s become an essential part of our nation’s progressive infrastructure. Our embrace of growth and change is a core aspect of why Daily Kos is thriving and continuing to expand as other luminaries of blogging’s heyday have faded away.
Daily Kos’ mere survival is a remarkable success story in and of itself, but Daily Kos has done so much more than maintain its presence as the internet’s premier home of progressive news and activism for 20 years. Daily Kos has evolved into the nation’s largest online progressive media and activism hub, providing the left with not only a space to share their stories and connect with folks across the country, but also to have real impact on politics and policy.
The online organizing tools developed by Daily Kos transformed the platform from a place to share and read news and opinions to a catalyst for activism, fundraising, and more. Daily Kos uses its resources and reach to support the wider progressive movement in myriad ways, including:
- Raising more than $50 million for the progressive movement, including tens of millions of email signups for over 1,000 organizations and campaigns
- Building grassroots progressive infrastructure via email list-building for other organizations via our 3.15 million-subscriber email list
- Democratizing election data by calculating statewide candidate performance in state legislative and congressional districts and making it publicly available for free
- Endorsing and raising millions of dollars for hundreds of Democratic candidates in under-resourced races, from Congress all the way down the ballot to secretaries of state and state legislatures
And Daily Kos is continuing to expand its work to support progressive causes. In recent years, we launched our Black Solidarity Grants (which have disbursed $250,000 to date), and we’re partnering with a new nonprofit, the Democratizing Philanthropy Project, to dramatically change the grassroots fundraising landscape for progressive nonprofits by giving organizations addressing the systemic issues facing our nation the ability to build a powerful, lasting revenue stream and network of engaged activists and donors they can rely on.
The media landscape has drastically transformed over the past 20 years, and Daily Kos continues to keep pace, most recently with its successful weekly podcasts, The Brief and The Downballot.
And via Markos:
Twenty years ago, I could never have imagined how this little humble personal blog would both transform and become a transformative agent within progressive politics. And while I’m incredibly proud of what this organization and its incredible staff have accomplished since 2002, the work we do to support progressive activism and politics has never been more essential than it is now. This anniversary is a tremendous milestone, but our nation is in a fight for its very soul, and Daily Kos continues to meet the challenges of this battle every day as we persist in our pursuit of a more progressive and equitable future.