The Democratic Socialists of America is funded by our membership. This ensures that DSA members are in full control of the organization, not corporations and wealthy donors. By paying dues, DSA members self-fund our own tools of liberation. As a dues-paying member of our Portland Chapter, you have the right to vote in chapter meetings, including but not limited to our General Meetings, which are our highest decision-making body.
How To Join
Joining DSA is a bit of a process, and we admit, it can feel cumbersome. We’ll do our best to outline what you need to do and what to expect.
First, you must join DSA at the national level. Go do that, then come back here!
There are two tasks you have to take care of when you join nationally:
- Select your dues amount and payment schedule
- Select your local chapter (Portland, in our case).
There are multiple options for how to handle dues. You choose the amount and the frequency. There are four basic parameters for dues:
- Annual dues: convenient option; all funds go to National DSA. At the local level, we do receive support in various ways from the national organization.
- Monthly dues: when you select this option, our chapter will receive a portion of your dues, and the rest goes to National DSA. This affords a bit more local control over how your dues are spent, and we encourage you to select this option.
- Solidarity dues: This option reflects a percentage (your choice) of your own income. We highly recommend it if you can!
- Dues waiver: if you are experiencing financial hardship, DSA will not turn you away. You may request a dues waiver and still retain full membership rights for a period of one year.
Note: DSA is a 501c(4) organization and as such, dues are not tax-deductible.
Now that you’ve taken care of that:
Work with Us Locally
Once you have joined at the national level, arranged your dues option, and selected your chapter, our chapter will receive notice that you have joined us, and this process takes time. But there are all kinds of thing you can do in the meantime!
At present (April 2026), Portland chapter receives updates of member rolls from national about once a week. Here at home, once we receive updates of newly joined members from our comrades at the national level, we then initiate communications with you via email. Expect to receive a welcome email from us within 2-3 weeks of the day you signed up at the national level.
That’s a long time! We know. So there are a few things you can do TODAY regardless of whether all this internal membership data has percolated through all the various systems.
Come to a meeting! All of our General Meetings, and most other meetings, are open to the public. See our chapter calendar here. We welcome and encourage prospective members and new members who are in the process of joining!
Come to a social! All are open to the public, and most are hosted in public spaces. Find social events on our chapter calendar as well.
Join Discord! If you have a Discord account, visit this link to join our vibrant chapter Discord server: https://portlanddsa.org/discord. If you don’t already have a Discord account, sign up here: https://discord.com.
Come to an orientation meeting! All are open to the public! Orientation meetings are held about every two weeks on weekends. Find the next one on our chapter calendar.
Do a 1-1 onboarding call! Get some direct personal advice for how to apply your skills and abilities from any one of our seasoned organizers. This is a GREAT way to get an introduction to the chapter, how we operate, and figure out how you can find your footing in our organization.
Get email updates! We send out a monthly email to members only, with updates from all around our chapter, and a weekly email to our community at large. Sign up for our local mailing list whether you are a current member, a prospective member, or a community supporter!
Our Endorsement
Please visit the Getting a DSA Endorsement page.