Type of Activity: General Operating Support
Grantee: Vote Mama Action Fund
Amount: Updated to $350,000 in 2023
What is the Vote Mama Action Fund?
The Vote Mama Action Fund is a 501(c)4 organization working in partnership with the 501(c)3 Vote Mama Foundation to achieve gender equity by breaking down barriers for working mothers to run for elected office, winning universal childcare for all Americans, and expanding the use of campaign funds for childcare for all candidates running for office. Specifically, the Vote Mama Action Fund advocates to pass family-friendly legislation and legislation that removes the barriers mothers face while running for office.
Why do we think this work is important?
Less than 5 percent of congressional representatives are mothers of children under eighteen. While anyone taking care of children will face difficulties when it comes to the full-time job of campaigning, women are fifteen times more likely than men to be responsible for a majority of childcare. From this cultural pressure to logistical hurdles, like a lack of affordable childcare while candidates are campaigning, there are extraordinary barriers that must be overcome if women with children wish to run for office. Research indicates that removal of those barriers will strengthen the representation of working families across the country, lead to the passing of more family-friendly legislation, and help our society to better prioritize children and families.
The first steps of the Vote Mama Action Fund are launching a movement to codify the use of campaign funds for childcare at all levels of government in all fifty states by 2023, and expanding awareness of the use of campaign funds for childcare to empower mothers to run for office and win. Since piloting their movement, the use of campaign funds for childcare has been approved in seventeen states. Vote Mama Action Fund is currently partnering with legislators and candidates in ten states, with a goal of expanding campaign funds for childcare to twenty-seven states in 2021.
How is Democracy Fund Voice supporting Vote Mama Action Fund?
In 2023 an amendment was approved to increase the amount of the grant by $175,000 for a total of $350,000.
In 2022 an amendment was approved to increase the amount of the grant by $75,000 for a total of $175,000, with an extension of the grant period to September 2023.
In 2020, Democracy Fund Voice approved a grant of $100,000 over two years to Vote Mama Action Fund.