Western States Center works to build a future where all people can live, love, worship, and work free from bigotry and fear. They foster leaders, organizations, collaborations, and initiatives that reduce disparities and advance equity; lift up the leaders of marginalized communities; and deliver accessible tools for community organizing and civic engagement.

The Governance and Judiciary project is part of the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. This project focuses on the erosion of confidence in democratic institutions; specifically, long-established guardrails that have protected the rule of law and the integrity of federal and state policy making, and the increasing hostility of federal courts to protecting civil and democratic rights.

The Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program’s Emergency Powers Project seeks to bolster checks on the use of emergency powers through legal research, developing reforms that limit emergency powers, preparing for potential invocations of emergency powers in the context of the 2020 election, and educating the public about these issues.

The Brennan Center’s Emergency Powers Project works to fix the legal framework for emergency powers by bolstering checks on the use of emergency powers through legal research, developing reforms that limit emergency powers, and educating the public about specific emergency powers, such as the Insurrection Act, which delegates a dangerous amount of discretion to the president.

The Governance and Judiciary project is part of the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. This project focuses on the erosion of confidence in democratic institutions; specifically, long-established guardrails that have protected the rule of law and the integrity of federal and state policy making, and the increasing hostility of federal courts to protecting civil and democratic rights.

The William J. Brennan Center for Justice is preparing for the possible invocation of emergency authorities and the threat they would pose to democracy and to the constitutional order. This grant will support the Liberty and National Security Program’s Emergency Powers Project. The project involves legal and empirical research, a bipartisan working group of academic experts and former government officials to identify scenarios and interventions, and implementation of intervention strategies.

To support the Win/Win coalition’s efforts around automatic voter registration implementation in Washington state.

Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security, and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS) is a platform to provide mentorship and partnerships with the goal of advancing the leadership and professional development of women of color in the fields of international peace and security, foreign policy, and national security.

This grant will provide general support for Women’s Policy, Inc. as they continue convening female leaders of Congress to build bipartisan relationships and increase congressional capacity. 

The purpose of the grant is to support the Womens Policy Inc whose mission is to bring women policymakers together to work across party lines on issues of importance to women and their families.

General support for Women’s Policy, Inc. 

Women’s Democracy Lab, a fiscally sponsored project of Panorama Global, radically reimagines what democracy looks like when Indigenous women and women of color are supported and can thrive in elected office. Their work illuminates challenges and experiments with solutions, aiming to rebuild political institutions in an inclusive and equitable model, and ensuring that they protect, support, and nurture Indigenous women and women of color in elected office.

The purpose of this grant is to provide general operating support for the Women’s Public Leadership Network (WPLN) to expand their programming to engage with other organizations in the female candidate development space; continue their non-partisan educational workshops, mentorship programs, and post-election educational seminars; and maintain the WPLN website and digital portal. All of these resources will inform and educate women about the process of running for elected office. 

To provide support for Women Influencers Network (WIN), a project of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF). This support will help WIN retain legal counsel and build out essential staff in order to provide education and training to women who are considering running for public office. 

This grant is to provide flexible funding support to the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale University Law School at Yale University, including support for the Media Freedom Information Access Clinic’s annual conference titled Access and Accountability 2018: A Conference for Transparency Advocates.

BrightLinesWatch is a project to track the potential corrosion of democratic norms through the expert opinion of domestic and international political scientists. The grant will also fund an international conference and a series of briefing papers using international experiences to better understand potential threats to American democracy.

To support research that can contribute to a convincing body of evidence that can inform stakeholders in media, industry, and government on how to most effectively design and regulate online spaces in a way that limits threats to democracy.

The Youth Engagement Fund, a fiscally sponsored project of NEO Philanthropy, brings together philanthropic and organizational decision-makers across the country to invest in youth of color organizations and leaders in the aforementioned priority states as catalysts in creating an inclusive multiracial democracy that is reflective of all people.