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Five Nonpartisan Ways Religious Leaders Can Support the 2020 Election

Chris Crawford
/
September 4, 2020

This November, the United States will hold an election amidst a pandemic that has claimed over 180,000 American lives. Religious leaders can play a crucial role in ensuring a safe, accessible, smoothly-run election.

There are over 380,000 houses of worship in the United States and 228,000 religious nonprofits. Religious leaders are some of the most trusted leaders in their communities because of their ability to stay above the partisan fray. Throughout American history, religious communities have stepped up to protect access to voting, to care for our communities in the face of illnesses, and to bring people together. This year they can play a crucial role in ensuring an accessible election where every eligible voter can participate safely, in providing accurate information and resources about the election, and set an example on how to come together across differences.

Below are five nonpartisan, nonpolitical actions religious communities can take to support our democracy this fall.

1. Promote Working at the Polls this November

Our polling locations have relied on the service of older Americans, most of whom cannot work this fall because of the dangers of COVID-19. As our election system faces a shortage of poll workers, the enormous civic contributions of religious communities can be put toward preserving safe, accessible voting this fall.

In most states, poll workers are paid for their service. For religious community members who are out of work, serving as poll workers is a way to make money in these challenging economic times.

Take action: Encourage community members to sign up for Power the Polls. This organization makes it easy to sign up, and they have signed up over 300,000 people to date. Your denomination or house of worship can go further and become an official partner here.

2. Be a source of truthful information

Religious institutions are sources of trusted information in our communities. In a complicated election, they can step up in a sea of confusion and disinformation.

Take action: Promote and partner with National Voter Registration Day to register your members  and  Vote Early Day so members know how to cast their ballots before Election Day. Post links to “Election 411” or The National Association of Secretaries of State’s “Can I Vote?” guide fors easy access to accurate up-to-date information so they can:

  • Check voter registration status;
  • Find their polling location;
  • Request an absentee or mail-in ballot; and
  • Keep up with changing information related to the election.

Religious leaders should encourage their congregations to ease the burden on our election systems by requesting and returning ballots as early as they can, taking advantage of early voting opportunities, and make a plan to vote.

Many religious organizations distribute voter guides to their membership. These guides should incorporate nonpartisan information on how to vote in this year’s election.

3. Feed the hungry – people waiting in long lines to vote

Feeding people who are in need is a central tenet of many American religions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, religious communities have stepped up to provide food in their communities. On Election Day, some precincts will face long enough lines that people will be tempted to leave. Religious communities can take on the call to feed the hungry in a new way: providing food and water to people waiting in line to vote.

Take action: Raise funds for Pizza to the Polls, one of most efficient ways to provide food to people waiting in long lines at the polls. Talk to your local election officials about how your religious community can provide food and water for people at the polls, being sure to follow all local election laws.

4. Offer space as an early voting or Election Day polling location

No matter how much absentee voting is expanded, our communities will continue to need in-person polling locations on Election Day. Polling locations need to be ADA-compliant, large enough for voters to maintain social distancing, and able to meet the sanitation requirements set by local officials. Houses of worship often meet the standards for a polling place. While some local governments only allow government buildings to serve as polling locations, houses of worship can offer their space as a polling location in many others.

Take action: Call your local election officials to offer your space as a polling location. Read about how AME churches in Georgia are stepping up to serve as polling locations.

5. Model ways to overcome divisions in a polarized country

Public polling shows shocking levels of polarization in the United States. Religious communities are often made up of people from different backgrounds and political ideologies who still come together to take part in their religious rituals. Religious communities can be a model for how our country can come together across our differences and maintain support for our civil institutions no matter who wins the election.

Take Action: Learn more about how to build bridges and promote belonging:

  • The Better Arguments Project helps communities and organizations to bridge divides – not by papering over those divides but by helping Americans have “better arguments”.
  • One America Movement equips leaders with the skills to confront the challenges facing their communities by working together and engaging differences meaningfully.
  • Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation’s “Rebuilding Democracy” project provides an example of how religious communities can promote democratic ideals through their own rrituals and traditions.
  • Read these two excellent reports that describe how Christians can contribute to our democracy: Christianity and a Healthy Democracy by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and Christianity, Pluralism, and Public Life by The Trinity Forum.

Meeting this Challenge

Religious leaders and their communities can play a crucial role in meeting the unprecedented challenges we face in this election. All of the freedoms that we enjoy as Americans — including our religious freedom — depend on the integrity of our elections. Americans of all faiths and of no faith at all have a stake in ensuring safe, accessible voting and a strong system to receive and count those votes.

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New Report Shows Ways Funders Can Engage Christian Leaders to Promote Pluralism

Chris Crawford
/
April 10, 2020

As Christians prepare to celebrate Easter, they are facing a challenging environment in which church doors will be closed and families will be gathered over FaceTime and Zoom rather than in person. Some families have loved ones suffering from the novel coronavirus — and thousands are mourning a loss of someone they love.

But no matter the obstacles, faith leaders play an important role in strengthening community connections — not just within their own congregations, but within the wider world.

For the past three years, Democracy Fund’s Faith in Democracy initiative has engaged with and empowered faith leaders around building bridges, overcoming polarization, and promoting pluralism. As we have listened to leaders at the intersection of faith and politics, we have consistently heard that Christians in the United States have an opportunity to lead our country toward a future in which everyone feels like they belong. Making up roughly 70 percent of the population, Christian leaders and their organizations can often play a harmful role in driving polarization in our country, but they also have an opportunity to play an important role in efforts to overcome those divisions.

At Democracy Fund, we wanted to understand more: where do common ground and aligned visions exist when it comes to engaging in politics through the lens of faith? Where do divisions persist? Most importantly, we wanted to know how we and our partners could support Christian leaders to make pluralism a priority in their ministries and in the ways they engage in public life.

Trinity Forum fellow Michael Wear and Wheaton College Professor Dr. Amy Black have conducted significant research around these questions. On February 24th, Trinity Forum released their report, “Christianity, Pluralism, and Public Life in the United States: Insights from Christian Leaders,” with financial support from Democracy Fund. Wear and Black interviewed a diverse group of more than 50 Christian leaders from across denominational, racial, and political lines about how they engage with our public institutions, and their views on the topic of pluralism.

In addition to providing a framework for religious leaders to engage in politics, the report also sheds light on how philanthropy and our civic institutions can empower Christian leaders to achieve the shared goal of a stronger, more pluralistic democracy.

The Mutual Benefits of Promoting Pluralism

While there are deep disagreements among Christians themselves in the United States — from theology to political leanings and policy stances — Wear and Black “were somewhat surprised to find such commonality” as it relates to pluralism and bridge-building.

They found that Christians have a shared moral language and vocabulary that span across denominations and perspectives. This framework as well as the way their houses of worship are rooted in their communities means that Christian leaders are in a unique position to conduct bridge building work at the local level. According to the report:

“One of the most resounding themes…was the importance of working at the local level. Although local communities are not immune from some of the negative effects of polarization, direct service and grassroots activism provide opportunities to work across political, racial, socio-economic, religious, and other differences.”

Funders have an opportunity to identify effective models of local bridge-building in Christian communities, invest in their long-term development, and use lessons learned to scale them across the country.

We are used to thinking about the ways in which religious pluralism can serve as a bedrock for better civic engagement, greater social cohesion, or desirable policy outcomes. While interviewees shared this sentiment, they also expressed something else: religious pluralism strengthens individual faith communities in their own right. Rather than supporting religious pluralism simply as a framework for policy advocacy or their own religious freedom, these leaders said that religious pluralism actually strengthens the practices of their individual faith communities. In other words, when individual Christian denominations seek to understand their neighbors from different faith traditions, they grow stronger in the knowledge and practice of their own faith.

This finding creates an important opportunity for both religious and nonreligious funders: investing in religious pluralism simultaneously strengthens our democratic institutions, creates a greater sense of belonging in our communities, and strengthens individual faith traditions.

Opportunities for Funders

With their report, Michael Wear and Amy Black have created a compelling framework for the ways in which Christian leaders, institutions — and funders — can strengthen American pluralism. Funders without a religious mandate often shy away from investing within specific faith traditions. But at Democracy Fund, we have learned that one of the best ways to support pluralism and belonging — which are critical to our democracy — is to invest in credible, influential faith leaders who can make the case for pluralism through values and language that resonate with their denominations. This report confirms that this leadership exists in America, and we know from experience that their efforts are under-resourced.

In 2020, faith leaders can play a crucial role in protecting our civic institutions when it is needed most — and funders should seize the opportunity to engage with faith-based communities to protect our democracy. Together, we can empower faith leaders to build stronger communities and a more inclusive America.

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From Strangers to Neighbors: Creating a More Inclusive America

Laura A. Maristany
/
March 17, 2020

​Last week, schools closed and many of us transitioned to a work-from-home schedule. In the same week, I celebrated my three-year anniversary at Democracy Fund, where I lead the Constructive Politics portfolio. It felt ironic that while I was celebrating three years of supporting an approach to building a more inclusive America, one where everyone can feel like they belong and has a seat at the table, the country was asked to practice extreme levels of social distancing to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Now, more than ever, I am sure many of us realize that feeling a sense of belonging requires a certain level of human interaction and connection. In fact, building connections with each other — through listening and learning in communities across the country — is the fundamental goal of the Constructive Politics portfolio. And even though we find ourselves in unusual times, Democracy Fund’s Constructive Politics grantees will continue to focus on developing long-term strategies that support opportunities for connecting, building, listening and work on creating more welcoming spaces to explore what unites us and help change the narrative of our national dialogue. We believe that long-term strategies to help foster an inclusive, multiethnic, multi-perspective democracy are key to defending and strengthening our political system. This couldn’t have been better exemplified by the current controversy around the U.S. government’s response to the coronavirus emergency.

While I believe our government has a key role to play, I have always believed that a heathy skepticism of institutional capacity to solve problems can be a good thing. Today, as I watch many Americans—including many of my friends—express skepticism about the government’s ability to respond effectively to this crisis, I feel somewhat validated in that belief. However, when healthy skepticism gives way to the deep distrust and polarization we see today, addressing division proactively is critical if we want to come up with effective solutions. This is as true for this crisis as it is for our work to mitigate polarization nationwide. From local politics to the highest levels of government, our inability to see our voices represented in our communities, policies, and institutions, fuels the distrust and polarization that is splitting our country apart. And this predicament is especially true for communities that have historically been underrepresented or outright excluded from participating in our system of government.

In late 2018, as former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan was finishing his last month in Congress, he shared some of his concerns about the extent to which polarization was weakening America’s institutions. In his 2018 analysis, Ryan asked: “How do you make inclusive, aspirational politics … strategically valuable? How do you make it so this is the winning thing, this is how you win elections?” Winning elections is certainly a powerful, perhaps the most powerful, incentive to embrace more inclusive politics, but the implications of his question reach beyond electoral politics.

Achieving the inclusive politics Ryan talks about requires a long-term commitment to building a truly inclusive democracy. In order to mitigate divisiveness and polarization, we must find ways to build bridges with our political leaders and institutions, as well as with each other. I’ve shared how elevating constructive voices, celebrating civility, and ensuring Congress looks more like America are important keys to achieving this goal. But trust is a very fragile construct. It takes time to develop and is very delicate to maintain. Strategies that aim to develop trust will take a long time, require experimentation, and will be equally difficult to scale. In part, this means that these strategies are high risk, full of uncertainty, and even after implementation they could take a long time to take root.

In spite of this uncertainty, at Democracy Fund, we’ve chosen to continue experimenting with approaches that tackle long-term challenges. We continue to believe that informed dialogue and principled compromise are essential to governing a large, diverse, and complex society like America. The COVID-19 pandemic plus the current climate of hyper-polarization continue to force us to focus on reactive strategies. Fortunately, we have partnered with social entrepreneurs who are rising to the challenge and experimenting with new ways to mitigate drivers of division over the long term. We have also chosen to partner across the political spectrum and especially with those on the right in this effort to create a more inclusive democracy.

The American Project on the Future of Conservatism at Pepperdine University, a multi-year program that brings together conservative leaders and scholars, has spent the last three years trying to assess divisions across the conservative movement with the goal of imagining its healthy future. The Project was one of the first Democracy Fund grantees to draw the connection between loneliness and polarization, calling for a renewed “Conservatism of Connection.” Conversations with conservative-leaning thought leaders since early 2017 have focused on how issues of loneliness, isolation, and lack of belonging appeared as the deeper engines of division within the conservative movement. These led to the development of the project’s Way Forward document and recommendations, and the creation of spaces for conservatives to continue to engage on issues around the future of the movement.

Since 2016, a growing number of organizations and movements are recalibrating their approaches to adopt new paths to consensus building. What these organizations have come to realize is that for people to feel like they belong, they must see themselves as co-creators of what the future of America will be. To this end, we are seeing organizations like The Inclusive Republic Series, an Aspen Socrates Program, and our Faith in Democracy cohort increasingly asking themselves how they can help build more inclusive policy making processes in the communities they work with.

Building meaningful connections across different communities is a necessary condition to reduce polarization, but this alone won’t be enough to solve the many policy challenges our country faces. From stopping the spread of Covid-19 to addressing climate change, Americans disagree profoundly on how to tackle these challenges. And even when there’s agreement, and decision makers buy into the proposed solutions, change is still hard. To tackle this challenge, organizations like Welcoming America are using the power of networks to identify more ways to create truly inclusive paths towards consensus building. Through innovative leadership development programs, Welcoming America leads a strategy aimed at making communities more prosperous by reinforcing their members’ sense of belonging.

Connecting with individuals who hold dramatically different views from the ones we are comfortable with requires a commitment to diversity of opinion, and, most importantly, a willingness to practice how to disagree constructively. The Better Arguments Project at the Aspen Institute was created to encourage Americans to engage with each other in better, more productive debates about core American ideals. In an era of deep divisions, the Better Arguments Project is based on the premise that American civic life doesn’t need fewer arguments; it needs better arguments.

Another grantee, Millennial Action Project, has been able to leverage their network of state legislators to create spaces for conversations among diverse community members with a spectrum of different perspectives through their Red and Blue Dialogues program. Along with members of their local State Future Caucuses, they’re bridging the divide to discuss the issues most important to young people across the country.

In addition, in an attempt to put the Constructive Politics Pluralism approach into practice, Democracy Fund has partnered with Welcoming America and the Better Arguments Project to bring together thought leaders interested in addressing root causes of polarization. We were able to co-create a space for collegial conversation that helped seed new ideas, relationships, and opportunities to address some of the complexities and challenges that we face in bridge building work. At the event last January, almost fifty grant makers representing different viewpoints came together under the auspices that creating a greater sense of we starts with us.

Make no mistake, this is hard work that requires a proactive long-term vision. One conversation at a time, our grantees are proving that making belonging everyone’s business inspires lasting change. By creating more welcoming spaces to explore what unites us, our grantees are working to change the nature of our national dialogue into a more inclusive one. I am grateful for their commitment to helping build a more inclusive America and a stronger democracy.

In this time of deep uncertainty, I’m reminded of what the future of a healthy democracy can look like if we build stronger bridges between people. As Eric Liu said recently, “the coronavirus may require us now to practice ‘social distancing’— but only in a physical, embodied sense. When it comes to the heart, the spirit, and the mind, coronavirus requires us more than ever before to practice civic love.”

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Op-Ed

Scaling Faith-Based Civic Engagement

February 11, 2020

Faith In/And Democracy is a pilot funding and learning initiative led by PACE to explore the ways faith and faith communities can support democracy and civic life. The following post is a reflection by The Democracy Fund’s Chris Crawford who offers a funder’s perspective on this pilot funding initiative.

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Announcing a New Fund for Investing in Faith in Democracy

Chris Crawford
/
June 3, 2019

Last year, I wrote a blog about Democracy Fund’s work to engage faith leaders and faith-based organizations in helping to strengthen our democracy. Since then, we continue to hunger for a more inclusive America in which our political system respects the dignity of every individual and serves the needs of the American people. To support this mission, we have continued to refine our approach and increase our investments in leaders and organizations across faith traditions that are promoting pluralism and reducing polarization in their communities.

Now, Democracy Fund is announcing an exciting new opportunity for organizations that are interested in exploring the ways that communities of faith can support democratic values and civic institutions, build bridges, and foster cooperation and civic engagement.

Democracy Fund and The Fetzer Institute have invested in a Faith In/And Democracy Pooled Fund that will be hosted and distributed by Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE).

PACE has issued a Request for Proposals for organizations from around the country to apply for grants to support their important work. Organizations selected for grants will be a part of a learning community that explores important questions facing our democracy:

  • How do communities of faith, religion, and/or spirituality prepare and train leaders to support democratic values and civic institutions?
  • What would it look like to have an effective multi-ethnic, religiously pluralistic democracy?
  • How can intra- and interfaith dialogue lead to actions that enhance civic life?
  • How do leaders reach “beyond the choir” to include participants who are not comfortable with or amenable to talking across difference?
  • How does faith intersect with other identifiers such as race, class, and gender, and how do those identities taken collectively influence participation in civic life?
  • What means, methods, and tools have faith, religious, or spiritual communities used successfully to bridge difference and foster cooperation and civic engagement?

This project is an important step in the development of the Faith in Democracy portfolio at Democracy Fund. After an initial round of investments in 2017 and 2018, we are excited to begin partnering with other funders to increase our impact in this important space. We are hoping that this partnership with our friends at The Fetzer Institute can serve as an example of how foundations can pool their resources to experiment, learn, and make change together.

A year ago, I wrote that Democracy Fund is interested in supporting bold leaders who are working to unify Americans and pr­­omote our shared values, and that we hope to experiment with and scale models to further strengthen and improve our democracy. The Faith In/And Democracy Initiative at PACE will identify and support those exact leaders around the country. As PACE makes their initial investments, we will be sure to share inspiring stories, lessons learned, and invitations to join this important work.

If you know an organization that PACE should consider, please encourage them to apply by clicking here.

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As We Wait for Attorney General Barr to Release the Mueller Report, What Foundations Should Do

Joe Goldman
/
April 12, 2019

Attorney General William Barr’s summary of the Mueller report — and anticipation for the report itself — have captivated the interest of the American people and a divided Congress, with jubilation from the president’s supporters and disappointment from his critics.

But the success of the special counsel’s investigation should not be measured by those whose political interests are best served. Rather, its completion should go down in history as a victory for the rule of law — that is, as long as the full report and supporting documents are released to the public.

Congress and the American people must have the opportunity to understand the truth of what happened to be in a better position both to protect future elections and to restore faith in our democratic norms.

Foundations are in a unique position to pave the way forward by investing in causes that further both of these goals.

Integrity of the Ballot Box

There are two core priorities philanthropy can support to protect the tenets of our democracy.

First, we must protect the integrity of our elections. The health of our democracy requires public trust in our electoral systems. The Mueller investigation — both through its current indictments and what will presumably be laid out in the report — should help us get to the bottom of how a foreign power interfered with the 2016 election.

Thanks to the investigators’ efforts, we will have the product of more than 2,800 subpoenas, nearly 500 search warrants, more than 230 orders for communication records, 13 requests of foreign governments, and approximately 500 interviews with witnesses to learn from.

The American public must demand to see the report so we can identify opportunities to bolster our election system. This would allow foundations to invest in work that promotes election modernization, development of data-driven policies, and advancements in new technologies that help reduce barriers to voting. In addition, we need to work with nonprofits seeking to strategically provide secretaries of state and local election boards with the resources to maintain the system’s integrity. Without the partisan distraction of alleged collusion, leaders from both parties can get serious about protecting our democracy from manipulation.

An Independent Justice System

Second, we must protect the rule of law and the independence of our justice system. It is easy to forget that months ago, it was unclear whether the special counsel would be allowed to complete his investigation. We should all be grateful for efforts made over the past two years to protect the independence of the investigation, despite unrelenting pressure from the president and his allies.

Once the report is provided to Congress, it will have its own constitutional responsibility to exercise oversight, thoroughly investigate the underlying evidence, and consider appropriate policies for the future. The attorney general’s conclusion that there is insufficient evidence to establish that the president committed a crime by obstructing justice is not the end of the matter. Only by digging into the facts can the public be sure justice has been served.

New York State’s Inquiry

Foundation leaders also must defend continuing investigations by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York and elsewhere to ensure they are able to complete their work without interference. These investigations, equally representative of the rule of law at work, are looking into deeply important questions related to the integrity of our government — including potential conflicts of interest. They must be allowed to continue unimpeded.

For philanthropy, investing in nonprofit work that protects this oversight is a crucial way to protect our democracy. Remember that Robert Mueller’s 22-month investigation convicted five associates of the president’s and indicted 34 people on nearly 200 criminal charges. The special counsel’s job was not to attack or convict Donald Trump. It was to uncover the truth and ensure justice is done. The special counsel has been able to complete his investigation, and by working together to support and galvanize programs and organizations that uphold our constitutional norms, we can still achieve our goal of a strengthened, vibrant democracy.

 

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Celebrating Women Who Are Making Democracy Stronger

March 26, 2019

By Anne Gleich, Jessica Harris, and Jessica Mahone

—-

In the first presidential proclamation celebrating women’s contributions to United States history, President Reagan observed: “American women of every race, creed and ethnic background helped found and build our Nation in countless recorded and unrecorded ways … Their diverse service is among America’s most precious gifts.”

As pioneers, teachers, mothers, soldiers, journalists, inventors, lawmakers, laborers and so many other roles, women have and continue to make vital contributions to American economic, political, and social life. Throughout our history, women have not only advocated to secure their own rights of suffrage and equal opportunity, but were also early leaders in the abolitionist, temperance, mental health, labor, and social reform movements, as well as the modern civil rights movement. It is not hyperbole to say that the United States has been transformed by these generations of women, and our democracy has been strengthened through their courage, creativity, and persistence.

As we commemorate Women’s History Month at Democracy Fund, we also want to take some time to celebrate our incredible women-led and women-focused grantees who today are continuing this long tradition of public service and leadership.

Women are leading efforts to improve our elections and make sure every vote counts.

At Democracy Fund, we believe that voting is the cornerstone of our democracy. Through our Elections Program, we are proud to support many innovative American women who are leading efforts to ensure our elections are free, fair, accessible, and secure.

Tianna Epps Johnson, founder of the Center for Technology and Civic Life, is building free and low-cost tech tools to help local election officials better engage with their communities and modernize elections. Electionline, run by Editor-in-Chief Mindy Moretti, is providing news and information about election administration and reform across all 50 states and has created a hub for elections officials to network, learn from each other, and collaborate on ways to improve the voting process.

When it comes to accessibility, many Americans still face barriers that prevent them from participating in the election process. Michelle Bishop and the National Disability Rights Network are educating election officials, equipment vendors, advocates, and the public on the need for fully accessible elections. Terry Ao Minnis, Democracy Fund Senior Fellow and Director of the Census and Voting programs at Asian Americans for Advancing Justice, is working to ensure a fair and accurate Census so that all Americans receive the resources and assistance they need to participate in our democracy. And Whitney Quesenbery and Dana Chisnell at the Center for Civic Design are bringing user experience principles to the design of forms and tools that will make voting easier for all voters. Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg at CIRCLE at Tufts University and the historic League of Women Voters, under the leadership of Virginia Kase, are innovating new ways to inform and engage women voters across the political spectrum.

Jennifer Morrell, a former Colorado election official, is working with state election officials to develop and implement new testing and auditing procedures to ensure votes are counted correctly, and results are reported accurately. And Mari Dugas and the Cyber Security Project and Defending Digital Democracy has published several playbooks to help campaign and election officials defend themselves against cyberattacks and information operations aimed at undermining trust in the American election system.

Women from both sides of the aisle are working together to create a Congress that looks more like America.

Even though we just saw a historic election cycle where a record-setting number of women ran for elected office and won, we still have a long way to go until women are fully represented in the United States. That is why, through our Governance Program, Democracy Fund is proud to support many leaders and organizations that are working to equip women with the skills they need to participate in politics, run for office, and lead once elected.

ReflectUS, a nonpartisan coalition working to increase the number of women in office and achieve equal representation across the racial, ideological, ethnic, and geographic spectrum, is fostering collaboration among seven of the nation’s leading training organizations to help equip more women to run, win, and serve. The Women’s Public Leadership Network aims to increase the number of women under consideration for political and government-related appointments and is growing a network and support system for conservative women who are interested in running for elected office or participating in our political system. Latinas Lead, a new program from The National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators, helps current Latina state legislators scale the leadership ranks in their State Capitols, as well as recruit potential Latina candidates for state-level office.

Once women are elected, the National Foundation of Women Legislators provides resources and opportunities to develop leadership skills and build professional and personal relationships across the aisle through regular conferences, state outreach, educational materials, and more. The Women’s Congressional Policy Institute, lead by Cindy Hall and a bipartisan board of female former legislators, has been bringing women policymakers together across party lines to advance issues of importance to women and their families for over twenty years. With our support, they have also launched several programs to foster women’s leadership on Capitol Hill through the Congressional Women’s Caucus and the Women Chiefs of Staff Program. We are also supporters of the Congressional Women’s Softball Game— a yearly event to foster bipartisan relationships between women Members of Congress and their counterparts in the D.C. Press Corps.

Women journalists are holding our leaders accountable and creating opportunities for the next generation of reporters.

Women play a vital role in holding leaders accountable once they’ve been elected. Although the majority of journalism and communications graduates are women, the majority of newsroom workers, particularly leaders, are men. Holding leaders accountable to all Americans requires a news industry that is inclusive and represents all communities, which is why, through our Public Square Program, we are proud to support organizations and leaders that are working to change America’s newsrooms and create new resources to inform and serve their communities.

By pioneering innovative new methods that newsrooms can use to better listen to and collaborate with the communities they serve, Bettina Chang at CityBureau and Sarah Alvarez and an all-woman staff at Outlier Media are rethinking how journalism is done. The Obsidian Collection, led by Angela Ford, is working to promote the importance of Black media in the United States, preserve the stories of Black communities through archiving, and build a blueprint for future generations in Black media.

Founded by Nikole Hannah Jones, The Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting is dedicated to increasing the number of and retaining reporters and editors of color in the field of investigative reporting by providing low-cost regional trainings in the use of advanced technology, open records laws, advanced interviewing techniques and other investigative techniques. The Ida B. Wells Society partners with organizations such as the National Association for Black Journalists, Investigative Reporters and Editors, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to provide access to journalists and aspiring journalists of color who want to sharpen their investigative reporting skills and broaden their professional networks.

Take the Lead’s 50 Women Can Change the World in Journalism training program harnesses the collective power of women in journalism to build a more just and equal world, advance their careers, and work together to re-envision journalism. According to co-founder Gloria Feldt, Take the Lead’s goal is “nothing less than gender parity by 2025.”

Women are leading efforts to combat hate in America and build bridges across our divides.

Like many who care about the health of our political system, we at Democracy Fund have been alarmed by increasing tribalism and extremism across the United States, including the implementation of policies targeting immigrant and minority communities and the rise in hate-crimes against communities of color, and Jewish, Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities. We’re partnering with leaders and organizations that are working to ensure the resilience and safety of targeted communities through our Special Project on Fostering a Just and Inclusive Society.

Grantees like Sherrilyn Ifill at the NAACP-LDF, Kristen Clarke at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Marielena Hincapie at the National Immigration Law Center, and Aarti Kohli at the Asian Law Caucus are leading efforts to protect those whose civil rights and safety are endangered in this volatile political moment. Purvi Shah and Movement Law Lab are incubating projects that combine law and community organizing to protect, defend, and strengthen racial justice movements. To inform national conversations, Meira Neggaz and Dahlia Mogahed at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding provide case studies and data on the day-to-day challenges many Muslims face, as well as actionable recommendations for breaking the structural barriers that hinder the American Muslim community from full inclusion and participation. And Samar Ali is leading the Millions of Conversations campaign to engage communities across the country in changing the narrative about Muslims in America.

In this blog, we could only highlight a few of the remarkable women leaders whose whose organizations, programs, and projects Democracy Fund is proud to support. We hope you’ll take some time to explore the complete list below. By working to improve our elections, hold our government accountable, combat hate, and open doors for the next generation, these women are making their mark on American history right now—and our democracy will be stronger because of them.

ELECTIONS

Bonnie Allen, Chicago Lawyers’ Committee

Pam Anderson, Consultant for Voter Centric Election Administration

Michelle Bishop, National Disability Rights Network

Mitchell Brown, Capacity and Governance Institute

Jamie Chesser, National States Geographic Information Council

Dana Chisnell, Center for Civic Design

Kristen Clarke, Lawyers Committee for Civil RIghts

Lisa Danetz, National Voter Registration Act Compliance Consultant

Mari Dugas, Belfer Center Cybersecurity and Defending Digital Democracy

Tiana Epps Johnson, Center for Technology and Civic Life

Rebecca Green, William & Mary Law School eBenchbook

Astrid Garcia Ochoa, Future of California Elections

Kathleen Hale, Capacity and Governance Institute

Karen Hobert Flynn, Common Cause

Shanna Hughey, ThinkTennessee

Sharon Jarvis, Moody College of Communications, University of Texas

Virginia Kase, League of Women Voters

Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, CIRCLE at Tufts University

Kate Krontiris, Voter Turnout consultant

Nsombi Lambright, One Voice

Susan Lerner, Common Cause New York

Amber McReynolds, Vote at Home

Gretchen Macht, RI VOTES at University of Rhode Island

Mimi Marziani, Texas Civil Rights Project

Terry Ao Minnis, Asian Americans for Advancing Justice

Mindy Moretti, Electionline

Jennifer Morrell, Risk-Limiting Audits consultant

Katy Owens Hubler, Common Data and Elections Process Model consultant

Katy Peters, Democracy Works

Wendy Quesenbery, Center for Civic Design

Ashley Spillane, Impactual

Wendy Underhill, National Conference of State Legislatures

GOVERNANCE

Erica Bernal, NALEO Educational Fund

Danielle Brian, Project On Government Oversight

Louise Dube, iCivics

Mindy Finn, Empowered Women

Sylvia Golbin Goodman, Andrew Goodman Foundation

Rosalind Gold, NALEO Educational Fund

Dr. Mary Grant, Edward M. Kennedy Institute

Cindy Hall, Women’s Congressional Policy Institute

Cherie Harder, Trinity Forum

Marci Harris, PopVox

Dr. Carla Hayden, Library of Congress

Audrey Henson, College to Congress

Lorelei Kelly, Beeck Center

Sheila Krumholz, Center for Responsive Politics

Frances Lee, UMD Interdisciplinary Polarization Research

Dr. Carolyn Lukensmeyer, National Institute for Civil Discourse

Tamera Luzzatto, Pew Safe Spaces Project

Maya MacGuineas, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

Angela Manso, Staff Up Congress, NALEO Educational Fund

Meredith McGehee, Issue One

Darla Minnich, National Issues Forum Institute

Joan Mooney, Faith and Politics Institute

Jennifer Nassour, ReflectUS

Beth Simone Noveck, NYU GovLab

Michelle Payne, Congressional Sports for Charity

Rachel Peric, Welcoming America

Lisa Rosenberg, Open the Government

Laura Rosenberger, Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund

Sonal Shah, Beeck Center

Suzanne Spaulding, Defending Democracy Initiative, Center for Strategic and International Studies

Michele Stockwell, Bipartisan Policy Center Action

Jody Thomas, National Foundation for Women Legislators

Sarah Turberville, The Constitution Project at POGO

PUBLIC SQUARE

Sarah Alvarez, Outlier Media

Bettina Chang, City Bureau

Heather Chaplin, The New School for Journalism + Design

Meredith Clark, University of Virginia/ASNE Diversity Survey

Sue Cross, Institute for Nonprofit News

Gloria Feldt, Take the Lead

Leslie Fields-Cruz, Black Public Media

Angela Ford, The Obsidian Collection

Martha Foye, Working Narratives

Lackisha Freeman, WNCU

Sarah Gustavus, New Mexico Local News Fund

Elizabeth Green, Chalkbeat, American Journalism Project

Andrea Hart, City Bureau

Hadar Harris, Student Press Law Center

Rose Hoban, NC Health News

Deborah Holt Noel, UNC-TV Black Issues Forum

Janey Hurley, Asheville Writers in the Schools

Paola Jaramillo, Enlace Latino North Carolina

Nikole Hannah Jones, The Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting

Mollie Kabler, Coast Alaska

Regina Lawrence, Agora Journalism Center

Sally Lehrman, Trust Project

Joy Mayer, Trusting News Project

Stefanie Murray, Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University

Tamiko Ambrose Murray, Asheville Writers in the Schools

Amy Niles, WBGO

Angie Newsome, Carolina Public Press

Suzanne Nossel, Pen America

Erika Owens, OpenNews

Tracie Powell, Democracy Fund Senior Fellow

Angelique Powers, Field Foundation

Kristy Roschke, News Co/Lab at Arizona State University

Melanie Sill, Senior Consultant for North Carolina Local News Lab

Sheila Solomon, Senior Consultant for Chicago

Michelle Srbinovich, WDET

Talia Stroud, Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin

Katie Townsend, Reporters Committee for Press Freedom Litigation Program

Naomi Tacuyan Underwood, Asian American Journalists Association

Mary Walter Brown, News Revenue Hub

Nancy Watzman, Colorado Media Project

Journalism and Women Symposium

JUST & INCLUSIVE SOCIETY

Samar Ali, Millions of Conversations

Rachel Brown, Over Zero

Kristen Clarke, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights

Marielena Hincapie, National Immigration Law Center

Sherrilyn Ifill, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

Aarti Kohli, Asian Law Caucus

Dalia Mogahed, Institute for Social Policy and Understanding

Meira Neggaz, Institute for Social Policy and Understanding

Catherine Orsborn, Shoulder to Shoulder

Purvi Shah, Movement Law Lab

Shireen Zaman, Rise Together Fund (formerly Security and Rights Collaborative)

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

Shari Davis, Participatory Budgeting Project

Rachel Kleinfeld, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Melissa Rodgers, Immigrant Legal Resource Center

Prof. Susan Stokes – Bright Lines Watch, University of Chicago

Back to Ideas
Op-Ed

Op-Ed: Trump’s Emergency Declaration Threatens Philanthropy’s Core Values

Joe Goldman
/
February 20, 2019

In November, I joined with 40 other foundation leaders to call on our colleagues across philanthropy to respond to unprecedented threats facing our democracy—threats to the independence of the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and to the rule of law generally.

Less than three months later, our country is facing a new constitutional crisis that demands our leadership and resolve. We must not accept President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to secure funding to build a wall on our Southern border. He is blatantly taking a page straight out of the authoritarian playbook and his action must not stand.

The President’s declaration demonstrates his disregard for our Constitution and his willingness to circumvent our system of checks and balances. Declaring an emergency when none exists sets a dangerous precedent for the rule of law. It is the quintessential example of the executive branch appropriating power to itself. Just as we cannot allow any president to weaken the independence of our system of justice, we must also not allow this president to unilaterally achieve his policy goals at the expense of the Constitution’s promise of parity between the co-equal branches of our government.

Read more from Joe Goldman at The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Back to Ideas

New Rules and Select Committee Create Opportunity for a More Effective Congress

Chris Nehls
/
January 14, 2019

Last week, the congressional reform community scored some major wins: new rules in the House of Representatives to support ethics and transparency, and the creation of a Select Committee with real potential to promote further reforms.

New Rules Lay the Foundation for New Results

The set of rules that the House of Representatives adopts each Congress often sets the tone for the next two years of legislating. Judging from the rules the House adopted in the first few days of this session, the 116th Congress is positioning itself to aggressively address challenges to its legislative capacity.

Current House rules tilt control of the chamber in ways that make it much harder for members to find bipartisan consensus on key problems that voters sent them to Washington to tackle. The select committee will examine ways that changes to how committees operate and how bills proceed to final passage can empower individual members to inject their expertise in the process and negotiate across the aisle. The Congressional Institute and Bipartisan Policy Center Action (a grantee of our sister organization, Democracy Fund Voice) have explored extensively what such changes could look like.

New Committee Promises Change and Accountability

The House overwhelmingly approved the creation of a Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress in a remarkable bipartisan vote of 418-12. This committee, to be chaired by Rep. Derek Kilmer of Washington, will suggest changes to House rules and procedures to encourage more bipartisan cooperation on bills and allow members to have more of an impact on the legislative process. It will also look into how Congress can adopt better workplace technology to become more innovative and examine challenges to recruiting and retaining a diverse and highly talented workforce. Membership on the committee will be split evenly between Democrats and Republicans.

Building Congressional Staff Capacity

Although changes to procedural rules may open new avenues for bipartisan legislation, the effects of these reforms will be limited as long as the working conditions, capacity, and resources of congressional staff remain stagnant. Fortunately, the broad mandate of the Select Committee allows it to address these foundational issues as well. As Democracy Fund grantees have highlighted, the level of support the institution provides its most essential personnel has reached crisis status. In a 2017 Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) survey, only 6 percent of congressional senior staff said they were “very satisfied” with the technological infrastructure of the Congress in supporting members’ duties and only 15 percent were very satisfied with the level of knowledge, skills, and abilities of fellow staff.

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Our grantees like the Congressional Management Foundation (CMF), the Legislative Branch Working Group, and Demand Progress have demonstrated how low pay, inadequate professional development opportunities, and high turnover can lead harried staff to rely increasingly on the perspectives of lobbyists and advocacy groups to inform legislation. Demand Progress, Lincoln Network, and TechCongress have noted that Congress suffers from a lack of staff with scientific and technical expertise—which might amount to just a handful of employees—to make sense of highly complex policy areas touching on nearly every aspect of American society. OpenGov Foundation and Lincoln Network, meanwhile, have explored how the information technology and digital communications systems serving congressional offices are inadequate for the world’s most powerful legislative body.

As the Select Committee begins its work, its members can rely on Democracy Fund grantees for impartial expert information on the state of congressional legislative capacity and ideas for modernizing the institution. Lincoln Network and Demand Progress, for example, have teamed up with a bipartisan coalition of civil society organizations, think-tanks, and academic experts to launch Future Congress, a resource hub to help improve the institution’s understanding of science and technology.

Fostering a Congress That Looks More Like America

The rules package also created a new Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which will develop and implement a plan to address Congress’ long-standing challenge of recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce, especially among senior staff. As Democracy Fund grantee the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies recently demonstrated, less than 14 percent of top-level congressional staff are people of color. This lack of diversity presents an urgent legislative capacity issue, as Congress lacks staff perspectives that reflect the demographic composition of the nation.

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion can look to the Staff Up Congress initiative, a project of the Joint Center and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, for best practices in developing a pipeline of diverse candidates and hiring and promoting in an inclusive manner. The Joint Center is holding the freshman class of the 116th Congress accountable by tracking new hires of staff of color to senior positions.

The Select Committee and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion are just two aspects of a broader package of reforms that will strengthen ethical and transparent conduct of House members. The rules package also establishes a whistleblower office for congressional staff, strengthens institutional support for ethics investigations of members, and forces members to pay out of their own pocket for employment discrimination lawsuits.

Change in Washington requires patience and preparation to be ready to seize opportunities for reform when they arise. The rules reform package validates our strategy of long-term investment in organizations that provide a vision of what a modern Congress should be. In partnership with congressional stakeholders, those organizations are poised to begin a historic undertaking in the new Congress, strengthening its ability to fulfill its constitutional obligations and restoring public trust in the institution.

Back to Ideas

Constructive Oversight in the Newly Elected Congress

Lara Flint
/
November 27, 2018

Earlier this month, the Project On Government Oversight sponsored the first-ever Oversight Summit, convening experts from nonprofits, think tanks, Congress, and the executive branch to share best practices and strategies for improving oversight of and by the federal government. The Summit featured organizations across the political spectrum working to support meaningful oversight, transparency, and accountability efforts—including Democracy Fund grantees like the R Street Institute, the Levin Center, the Partnership for Public Service, and many others.


At Democracy Fund, we ground our work in a framework of principles we developed to describe the attributes of a healthy democracy. Under that framework, constitutional checks and balances and respect for the rule of law are critical to protecting Americans against abuses of power by their government. Co-equal branches of government and our federal system both serve as checks, and civil society plays a critical role in holding those in power accountable to the Constitution, the law, and the people they represent.As expected, a topic that arose repeatedly was the incoming 116th Congress and its oversight powers and priorities. As is often the case under one-party rule, Congress has not leaned into its role as a check on the executive branch over the past two years. Despite a range of issues crying out for meaningful oversight, Congress largely did not engage, instead giving in to the hyper-partisanship that pervades our political system (though with some exceptions). Congress’ lack of institutional resources has further hamstrung its ability to fulfill its constitutional role to conduct oversight. With a president whose rhetoric and actions fundamentally threaten democratic norms, however, the stakes are high, and the need for effective oversight can no longer be ignored. While the 116th Congress has a full agenda, the incoming House leadership has promised oversight of the executive branch will be a top priority.

Our framework also emphasizes that political leaders bear an uncommon burden to act with integrity. Their words and actions should reflect democratic values, the Constitution, and the dignity of every individual.

As Democracy Fund’s Betsy Wright Hawkings outlined at the beginning of the 115th Congress, “For those who care about values-based leadership, rules matter—starting with the rule of law. And that is what oversight is—enforcement of the rules.” These principles apply regardless of who holds power.

So how should the new Congress exercise its oversight responsibilities? Some have debated whether the House should aggressively pursue investigations. I think that is the wrong question.

There is no shortage of oversight to be done—the hurricane recovery effort in Puerto Rico; separating children from their parents at the border; government officials using their positions to enrich themselves rather than serve the public good; or foreign attempts to influence our elections. All of this oversight is sorely needed.

Instead, the question is whether the House will ground that oversight in a methodical effort to make our government work better for the American people, or whether Democrats will approach its investigations as an opportunity for partisan retribution. Will the new House majority reach across the aisle—even if they expect to be rebuffed? Or will they go it alone from the beginning? Will they reflexively issue subpoenas, or deploy them as a last resort?

Strong oversight efforts can be aggressive and constructive. As former congressional oversight staffer Kris Kolesnik said during the Oversight Summit, “all oversight begins and ends by putting politics at the door.” The administration should absolutely be asked tough questions by members of Congress—but those members must also remember why they are asking these questions in the first place: to uncover and fix wrongdoing and make our government better, not to score political points.

This will take hard work, and unfortunately we know that Congress is under-resourced to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities under Article I—another theme raised frequently during the Summit. That is why Democracy Fund has invested in organizations that provide bipartisan oversight training to congressional staff; help ensure that government actions are transparent to the American people; and conduct their own investigations of government wrongdoing.The importance of this was underscored by Senator Carl Levin, a keynote speaker at the Summit and veteran of countless bipartisan oversight investigations during his decades in Congress. At the Summit Senator Levin awarded the first ever Carl Levin Award for Effective Oversight to South Carolina State Rep. Weston Newton, the Republican chairman of the Legislative Oversight Committee, who has worked across the aisle to make government work better in South Carolina. Rep. Newton explained how oversight should transcend party affiliation: “Whether an agency is doing its job properly or not should not be something that either party has the franchise on asking the questions [about]…nor should the party in power be afraid to ask the questions and expose the shortcomings of those agencies.”

Even with these challenges, by all reports the incoming House majority is poised to breathe new life into Congress’ role as a check on the executive branch. Done right, this is a critical component of our democratic system, it will protect against abuse of power, and it will make our government work better.

Democracy Fund is a foundation working to build an inclusive, multiracial democracy that is open, just, resilient, and trustworthy.

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