ProgressNow

History and mission

ProgressNow was created in 2003 as a response to the libertarian Independence Institute. It has since grown a subscriber base of more than 350,000 grassroots activists in Colorado as of 2012. In 2006, ProgressNow began to expand its network outside of Colorado and has since created ProgressNow Partners Networks in 26 states.

The first chairman was Rollie Heath, a Boulder executive who gained office as the 18th district's state senator in 2008. Heath was followed by Dr. Albert Yates, the former president of Colorado State University. The founder of ProgressNow is Michael Huttner, a Brown University and University of California Hastings College of Law graduate and lawyer turned political strategist. The current executive director is Arshad Hasan, who previously led Democracy for America.

Its founding board members included Wes Boyd, founder of MoveOn.org, Rob McKay, chairman of the board of the Democracy Alliance and president of the McKay Family Foundation, Jared Polis, elected in 2008 as the U.S. Congressman for Colorado’s 2nd District, and Ted Trimpa (the current chair), an attorney and government relations expert.

The group co-sponsored a blogging workspace, 'The Big Tent', during the 2008 Democratic National Convention. In 2007, progressnow.org received multiple honors from the Golden Dot Awards (online political advocacy awards).

In 2010, the book The Blueprint: How Democrats Won Colorado, and Why Republicans Everywhere Should Care by Adam Schrager and Rob Witwer described ProgressNow as the "crown jewel" of the progressive investors' effort to flip the state.