A Wisconsin political nonprofit funds the group offering Alaskans up to $250 to talk politics with family

A Wisconsin-based organizing group is trying to recruit Alaskans through Reddit to talk with their friends and family about the Permanent Fund Dividend, property taxes, cost of living and resource management, offering to pay "up to $250+" for their time.

The effort, called Alaska Neighbor Network, is a project of Organizing Empowerment Project, a nonprofit based in Monona, Wisconsin, that operates as Empower Project and describes its work as relational organizing for the progressive movement. Every page of the Alaska group's website says it is paid for by Organizing Empowerment Project.

The site lists three Alaska partners: the 907 Initiative, Progressive Turnout PAC and the National Education Association.

The recruiting post went up Friday on Reddit's r/AlaskaPolitics forum, from the group's own account and signed "James." It described the effort as a way to hear what regular Alaskans think, rather than politicians in Juneau, and said no experience was needed.

The sign-up page the post linked to describes the work as a get-out-the-vote role. On akneighbor.org, the group calls participants Community Mobilizers who reach out to friends and family "to talk about voting and elections" and make sure they have what they need to register. The site's FAQ lists voting rights, civil rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights and workers' rights as issues participants can influence. It says the group pays people because not everyone can afford to volunteer. The site does not list a pay amount.

Organizing Empowerment Project is a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, which is not required to publicly disclose its donors. It reported $15.2 million in revenue and $12.1 million in expenses in 2024, the most recent year for which its federal tax filing is public.

The Alaska site is one of several matching state sites, including ones for Florida, Iowa and Virginia. In a job posting last year, Empower said it planned to run paid programs in up to 22 states in 2026, recruiting people to talk with family and friends about elections and issues and paying them for it. It said it works with partners in each state to write the tasks participants are given. Its website says it trained and managed more than 47,000 people across 10 states in 2024.

Neither Alaska Neighbor Network nor Organizing Empowerment Project appears in Alaska Public Offices Commission filings. Neither organization is quoted; the published contact is [email protected].