Author Archives: Meredith Bird

Defend, Protect, Produce Project

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Type of Activity: Project
Grantee: Florida Rights Restoration Coalition
Amount: $150,000 in 2023

What is the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition?

Florida Rights Restoration Coalition Education Fund (FRRC EF), a fiscally sponsored project of Tides Advocacy, works to improve society by strengthening people and communities who have been most weakened by their interaction with the criminal legal system. This grassroots, membership organization is run by returning citizens (formerly convicted persons) dedicated to ending the disenfranchisement and discrimination against people with convictions, and creating a more comprehensive and humane reentry system that will enhance successful reentry, reduce recidivism, and increase public safety.

Why do we think this project is important? 

Recently, returning citizens who have the right to vote have been deliberately targeted for criminal prosecution for registering to vote. For this reason, the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition Education Fund protects over 700,000 returning citizens from attacks on their voting rights and ensures they are included in our democracy and become active citizens in their communities through the Defend, Protect, Produce program.

How is Democracy Fund Voice supporting Florida Rights Restoration Coalition Education Fund? 

In 2023, Democracy Fund Voice approved a one-year grant of $150,000 to Florida Rights Restoration Coalition to support their Defend, Protect, Produce project.

The Data Squad

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Type of Activity: Project
Grantee: The Data Squad
Amount: $125,000 in 2023

What is The Data Squad?

The Data Squad was founded in 2019 to bolster the data analysis capabilities of state-based pro-democracy organizations via training and network building.

The Data Squad promotes the strategic use of data in public policy advocacy and encourages diversity and inclusivity in non-profit data management by preparing educational materials and conducting trainings on data management tools and practices directed at individuals from varied backgrounds, demographics and life experiences, and by serving as a hub to connect those individuals with tax-exempt non-profit organizations that promote democracy, works to expand access to the ballot box, advocate for social and economic justice, and organize for positive social change.

Why do we think this project is important? 

Democracy Fund Voice supports work to strengthen and expand the movement for an inclusive, multi-racial democracy with a focus on POC power and leadership. The Data Squad’s work contributes to change toward supporting and increasing the capacity of grassroots power building organizations.

How is Democracy Fund Voice supporting The Data Squad? 

In 2023, Democracy Fund Voice approved a one-year grant of $125,000 to The Data Squad.

Movement Politics Accelerator

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Type of Activity: Project
Grantee: State Power Action Fund
Amount: $400,000 in 2023

What is State Power Action Fund?

State Power Action Fund (SPAF) is a 501(c)4 that supports innovative and effective public interest projects to eliminate poverty, improve living conditions for low-income Americans, strengthen public education, and increase participation in local, state, and federal elections.

SPAF achieves this mission through activities that support organizing and state-based power building, increases democratic participation, alleviates racism, improves conditions for low-income and working class people, and serves to better understand the impact of various public policies on reducing poverty. In addition, SPAF conducts training activities that equip organizations to undertake community engagement and civic action, and convenes coalitions of organizations working on similar issues to encourage broad, collective impact in states.

Why do we think this project is important? 

SPAF’s core goal with the Movement Politics Accelerator is to support the development of independent resource generation models for movement organizations. SPAF’s work represents the culmination of the pipeline that helps power-building organizations establish new and effective entities, develop operations hubs that create efficiencies and alignment in a state or region, and ultimately enable movement organizations to establish new businesses to supplement their traditional fundraising efforts and redirect cyclical, results-driven spending into lasting, movement-oriented power while disrupting the often extractive funder-grantee dynamics.

How is Democracy Fund Voice supporting State Power Action Fund? 

In 2023, Democracy Fund Voice approved a one-year grant of $400,000 to State Power Action Fund to support their Movement Politics Accelerator project.

SPLC Action Fund

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Type of Activity: Project
Grantee: SPLC Action Fund
Amount: $200,000 in 2023

What is SPLC Action Fund?

The SPLC Action Fund (SPLCAF) conducts policy advocacy at the state level in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Florida as well as advocacy targeting the federal government. This allows them to complement and reinforce state-level advocacy with federal advocacy on priority issues, such as countering hate and extremism, promoting voting rights, eradicating poverty, advancing criminal justice reform and other relevant areas of focus that advance racial justice and the human rights of all.

Why do we think this project is important? 

States in the deep south face some of the most difficult and longstanding abuses of power in the nation. Generations of legal and structural barriers aimed at limiting the civic participation of communities of color have created an environment where abuses are common and opportunities for accountability are rare. The impacts of these abuses are most often felt by Black communities, who are often prevented from meaningful participation in democratic governance in an attempt to depress their civic power.

SPLCAF responds to these challenges by serving as a catalyst for social and racial justice in the deep south. Through strategic litigation, issue advocacy, public education, investigations, and communications, SPLCAF advances racial justice policies and legal doctrines. Specifically, it is focused on voting and civic engagement, combating white supremacy, criminal justice reform, and poverty eradication.

How is Democracy Fund Voice supporting SPLC Action Fund? 

In 2023, Democracy Fund Voice approved a one-year grant of $200,000 to SPLC Action Fund.

Reset Tech Action

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Type of Activity: Project
Grantee: Reset Tech Action
Amount: $500,000 in 2023 over two years

What is Reset Tech Action?

Reset Tech Action is a 501(c)4 organization with the long-term goal to support a “reset” of the relationship between media and democracy in the digital age to ensure that publics are more informed and less divided. Reset Tech Action seeks to neutralize the threats posed to democracy by digital media monopolies and restore the power of information technology as a force for effective self-government and progressive society.

Why do we think this project is important? 

Democracy Fund Voice supports Reset Tech Action’s work to: reduce threats to democracy created by large digital media companies that undermine security, safety, and trust in American elections; and to reduce the damage that conspiracy, hate speech and disinformation in digital media inflicts on American democracy.

How is Democracy Fund Voice supporting Reset Tech Action? 

In 2023, Democracy Fund Voice approved a two-year grant of $500,000 to Reset Tech Action.

re:power

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Type of Activity: Project
Grantee: re:power
Amount: $375,000 in 2023 over three years

What is re:power?

re:power is a 501(c)4 with a team of organizers, strategists, and technologists dedicated to building a liberated multi-racial democracy. re:power exists to build a critical mass of social justice movements and their leaders who embody the ideology and practice of liberatory organizing, an organizing practice that is pro-Black and grounded in community, collective action, and abundance.

Why do we think this project is important? 

Democracy Fund Voice supports movement-building work to improve training infrastructure, leadership development, and cohort based learning opportunities.

How is Democracy Fund Voice supporting re:power? 

In 2023, Democracy Fund Voice approved a three-year grant of $375,000 to re:power.

Protecting Elections and Government Accountability

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Type of Activity: Project
Grantee: Public Citizen Inc.
Amount: $800,000 in 2023 over two years

What is Public Citizen?

Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that works to address the growing power gap between everyday people and concentrated power in the hands of corporate and government actors. They approach this issue through a combination of congressional advocacy, litigation, research, and grassroots advocacy.

Why do we think this project is important? 

Democracy Fund Voice supports work that contributes to increased election funding, decreased internal and external election threats, as well as increased state and national accountability for government corruption. Public Citizen’s work includes the Protecting Elections and Government Accountability project. This grant supports the project’s work on corporate accountability, protecting our elections from subversion and defending the rule of law.

How is Democracy Fund Voice supporting Public Citizen? 

In 2023, Democracy Fund Voice approved a two-year grant of $800,000 to Public Citizen, Inc. to support their Protecting Elections and Government Accountability projects.

State Divergence & Aggression Project

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Type of Activity: Project
Grantee: Our American Future Action
Amount: $75,000 in 2023

What is Our American Future Action?

Our American Future Action is a 501(c)4 that advocates for creating good paying jobs, lowering the costs of prescription drugs, improving access to healthcare, investing in the clean energy economy and strengthening U.S. democracy.

Why do we think this project is important? 

Our American Future Action’s work includes a project that aims to assess and better understand two trends in state-level governance in the United States: the increasing divergence of state-level policies and the ways in which states are using their own policies to leverage power outside their borders. How we understand these trends will be crucial to our collective ability to strengthen democracy and weaken authoritarianism.

How is Democracy Fund Voice supporting Our American Future Action? 

In 2023, Democracy Fund Voice approved a one-year grant of $75,000 to Our American Future Action to support their State Divergence & Aggression Project.

 

New Left Accelerator

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Type of Activity: Project
Grantee: New Left Accelerator
Amount: $600,000 in 2023 over three years

What is New Left Accelerator?

New Left Accelerator (NLA) empowers progressive leaders to transform their ideas into impact. They accomplish this by running an accelerator program, providing technical assistance, and serving as a resource clearinghouse for promising, new, progressive organizations.

Why do we think this project is important? 

NLA believes that in order to create the change we want to see in the world, the entire progressive ecosystem must evolve to better support multi-entity power-building organizations led by the communities most impacted by injustice. NLA seeks to deliver multi-entity informed technical assistance and to develop a multi-entity praxis and resource hub that will serve as a central home for tools, training, resources, and knowledge specifically designed to address the most complex and common multi-entity strategic and operational needs of power-building organizations.

Democracy Fund Voice supports NLA’s work to strengthen movements and state ecosystems that use multi-entity infrastructure to build power.

How is Democracy Fund Voice supporting New Left Accelerator? 

In 2023, Democracy Fund Voice approved a three-year grant of $600,000 to New Left Accelerator.

New Georgia Project Action Fund

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Type of Activity: General Operating Support
Grantee: New Georgia Project Action Fund
Amount: $205,000 in 2023 over two years

What is New Georgia Project Action Fund?

New Georgia Project Action Fund (NGPAF) is a 501(c)4 that aims to increase the civic participation and voice of the New Georgia Majority — Black, Latinx, AAPI, and young Georgians — and other historically marginalized communities by building grassroots political power in support of progressive leaders, policies, and issues.

Why do we think this work is important? 

This grant supports the organization in its work to solidify its position as Georgia’s hub for voter engagement across the South. In 2023, NGPAF’s aim is to establish a sustained, year-round voter engagement effort that transcends election cycles. Their long-term vision is to become an enduring and influential force in Georgia, consistently empowering voters and serving as a model for similar initiatives throughout the South.

How is Democracy Fund Voice supporting New Georgia Project Action Fund? 

In 2023, Democracy Fund Voice approved a two-year grant of $205,000 to New Georgia Project Action Fund.