Open Society Foundation Democracy Grantmaking

MEMORANDUM
TO: Aryeh Neier

FROM: Bill Vandenberg, for the Democracy and Power Fund
DATE: September 8, 2011
RE: Democracy and Power Fund, Docket III, September 19, 2011
We look forward to discussing with you the third 2011 Democracy and Power Fund docket on
Monday, September 19. The write-ups and a docket sheet are attached here.
As you know, the Democracy and Power Fund was established in 2008, with a mission to build
upon the foundation‘s long-standing commitment to investing in people of color, low-income,
immigrant, and youth communities to contribute to, and lead, open society advocacy. At the
Fund‘s core is a commitment to investing in multi-issue advocacy organizations, those which
transcend the limitations of siloed and single issue organizations, in order to confront the policy
challenges of the moment and of the future. The Fund supports some of the nation‘s largest and
most influential progressive institutions along with smaller and emerging organizations that
generate new ideas on economic and social policy, build large scale public engagement in
advocacy, and increase the non-partisan voter participation of marginalized communities in our
democracy. It is our philosophy that OSF‘s investments in U.S. civil society are maximized, and
the foundation‘s strategic impact is enhanced, when those who generate ideas are connected to
those who cultivate the continuum of civic engagement. When done effectively, this ensures that
good ideas are connected to those most directly impacted by economic and social injustice and
ensures that these ideas have the necessary public support to advance in this very challenging
policymaking environment.
In this docket, we bring 16 recommendations to you totaling $5.3 million, of which 90% is to
national organizations and 10% to state- and locally-based organizations in our demonstration
state of North Carolina. Two recommendations, to the Center for American Progress and the
Leadership Conference Education Fund (formerly known as the Leadership Conference on Civil
Rights Education Fund), are for ―anchor‖ grantees of U.S. Programs, long-standing grantees that
advance the priorities of multiple programs, campaigns, or special initiatives.
Our recommendations include a broad range of Democracy and Power Fund priorities, such as
the Roosevelt Institute‘s idea generation on economic policy, the League of Young Voters‘ work
to catalyze greater participation from Black and Latino youth in advocacy both before and after
elections, and the National Council of La Raza‘s plan to awaken its civic engagement ―sleeping
giant‖ and develop a plan to dramatically increase voter turnout from the fast growing Latino
community. Our recommendations include organizations that use a wide variety of engagement
strategies, reflecting the sophistication of advocacy campaigns that use multiple means to reach
different communities, including groups that: connect popular musicians to campaigns by
recruiting participation from their large fan bases; use traditional community organizing
strategies; and employ leading edge social media to reach millions of people each month.
You‘ll recall that in the summer of 2010 we presented our research and recommended funding
strategies for state-based funding to you. Since your endorsement of our strategies, we‘ve
carefully continued to build a strategic cohort of grantee organizations in North Carolina, now
approaching 12 groups. We remain convinced that our field research to identify the state as a
priority was a wise move, as the state offers the best possibilities for becoming the open society
anchor for the South. As the Board‘s city and state investment plans move forward, we‘ll seek to
ensure that North Carolina is given healthy consideration for it has become a laboratory of open
society victories on criminal justice reform, civil rights, expansion of voting access, and money
in politics.
A brief statistical snapshot of this docket reveals that 13 of the 16 recommendations are for
renewal grants, three are recommended new grantees, 11 are for general support, four are for
project funding, and one, the Center for American Progress, includes general support and three
project recommendations. The recommended new grantees include two promising engagement
groups, Action Institute NC and North Carolina Fair Share, that work to expand participation in
social justice advocacy from Black, Latino, and immigrant communities, and a third
recommendation, for the Leadership Center for the Common Good, a new national group seeks
to recapture the large and well-organized low-income African American and Latino base that
was lost with ACORN‘s demise. One recommendation, for the Generational Alliance, is for a
tie-off grant due to our concerns over its vision, leadership, and impact.
Reflecting our commitment to building connective tissue within U.S. Programs and bolstering
support to high performing organizations, four recommendations include co-funding from other
programs. This includes joint recommendations with the Campaign for Black Male
Achievement, Equality and Opportunity Fund, National Security and Human Rights Campaign,
and Neighborhood Stabilization Initiative. Last, but not least, due to the ongoing, Board initiated
program review process, the Democracy and Power Fund has elected to not make contingent
grants until we have greater clarity about the 2012 grantmaking budget.
Our Docket III recommendations include:
Idea Generation: Three recommendations for $3.2 million
Center for American Progress - $1.7 million over two years (co-funded)
Leadership Conference Education Fund - $1 million over one year
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute - $500,000 over two years
Voter Participation: Three recommendations for $825,000
Hip Hop Caucus Education Fund - $150,000 over two years (co-funded)
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League of Young Voters Education Fund - $375,000 over one year (co-funded)
National Council of La Raza - $300,000 over eight months
Engagement of Key Constituencies in Open Society Advocacy: Ten recommendations for

$1.275 million
Action Institute NC - $75,000 over one year (new)

Air Traffic Control Education Fund - $150,000 over two years
Center for Participatory Change - $75,000 over one year
Generational Alliance (Tides Center) - $100,000 over two years (tie-off)
Leadership Center for the Common Good - $100,000 over one year (new)
New World Foundation - $300,000 over one year
North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP - $250,000 over two years (co-funded)
North Carolina Fair Share Education Fund - $75,000 over one year (new)
North Carolina Latino Coalition - $75,000 over one year
School for Creative Activism - $75,000 over one year
Complete write-ups for our recommendations follow this memo. We look forward to discussing
these recommendations with you when we meet next week. Please let us know if there is further
information we may provide in advance of the docket meeting. Thank you.
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Democracy and Power Fund Grant Recommendations
Table of Contents
Docket III, September 19, 2011
Idea Generation
Center for American Progress ………………………………………....... 5
Leadership Conference Education Fund……………………………….... 14
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute ……….………………………. 19
Voter Participation
Hip Hop Caucus Education Fund ……………………………………..… 23
League of Young Voters Education Fund……………………….……..... 27
National Council of La Raza ………………………………………….… 31
Engagement of Key Constituencies in Open Society Advocacy

Action Institute NC ……………………………………………….….….. 37
Air Traffic Control Education Fund, Inc.………………………….…….. 41
Center for Artistic Activism …………………………………………….. 44
Center for Participatory Change ………………………………….…..….. 48
Generational Alliance ………………………………………………….… 52
Leadership Center for the Common Good ………………………………. 55
New World Foundation ………………………………………………….. 59
North Carolina Fair Share Education Fund ………………………..…….. 63
North Carolina Latino Coalition…………………………………….……. 66
North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP …………………….….. 70
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Grant ID: 20033625 (General Support)
20033626 (Housing Project)
20033638 (Anti-Hate Project)
20033744 (Re-shaping Islamophobia Debate Project)
Legal Name of Organization: Center for American Progress
Tax Status: 501(c)(3) public charity
Name of Fiscal Sponsor: n/a
Purpose of Grant: to provide general support to the Center for American

Progress and to provide project support for its
neighborhood stabilization activities, national security and
human rights program, and ―anti-hate‖ table
Grant Description: To provide general support and project support to the

Center for American Progress, the nation‘s most influential
progressive policy center and an important idea generator
and advocate on multiple open society priorities. The
Center for American Progress is a U.S. Programs ―anchor‖
grantee, conducting high level, politically influential
research and advocacy to advance progressive national
economic opportunity, educational reform, civil rights,
national security, and housing policy. It uses well-regarded
fellows and issue experts and maintains a robust
communications infrastructure to conduct its work. This
anchor grant recommendation includes general support and
project funding for three programs that advance housing
justice and foreclosure, exposing Islamophobia, and ending
xenophobia.
Previous OSI Support: $7,309,186

$3,950,000 from Progressive Infrastructure (2005-
2008)
$150,000 from Special Chairman‘s (2005-2007)
$110,000 from Justice Fund (2005-2006)
$24,991 from MENA (2007)
$2,150,000 from Democracy and Power Fund
(2008-2010)
$250,000 from Equality and Opportunity Fund,
Neighborhood Stabilization Initiative (2009)
$250,000 from National Security and Human Rights
Campaign (2009-2010)
$75,000 from Climate Change Initiative (2009)
$349,195 from Chairman‘s Grants (2010)
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Organization Budget: $36,482,544
Project Budget: $1,550,000 over two years for housing project

$199,669 over one year for anti-hate project
$446,000 for Re-shaping the Islamophobia Debate project
Major Sources of Support: The Humanity United Fund $2,000,000

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation $1,500,000
Carnegie Corporation of New York $1,500,000
Marisla Foundation $1,000,000
TomKat Foundation $1,000,000
Amount Requested: $1,000,000 over two years for general support

$250,000 over two years for housing project
$50,000 over one year for anti-hate project
$400,000 over two years for Islamophobia debate project
Is this a contingent grant? Yes, for housing project support only
Amount Recommended: $1,700,000 (including $1,000,000 from USP Anchor

Grants, T1: 21104 for general support; $250,000 from the
Equality and Opportunity Fund Neighborhood Stabilization
Initiative, T1: 24451 for housing project support; $50,000
from Equality and Opportunity Fund, T1: 24452, for anti-
hate project support; and $400,000 from the National
Security and Human Rights Campaign, T1:21132)
Term: 2 years, beginning November 1, 2011 for general support; 2

years, beginning November 1, 2011 for housing project
support; 1 year, beginning November 1, 2011 for anti-hate
project support; and 2 years, beginning December 1, 2011
for project support on Re-shaping the Islamophobia Debate.
Matching Requirements: n/a
Description of Organization
The Center for American Progress (CAP), founded in 2003, is the nation‘s largest progressive
think tank. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the first years of the Center‘s operation focused
on challenging the Bush-era conservative policies that prevailed in Washington by offering well-
conceived alternatives. Since 2009, CAP has had to adjust its orientation to find the most
constructive mode of operation with a progressive minded president who governs as a centrist.
Throughout its existence, CAP has combined progressive policy ideas with a robust
communications platform that gives the organization and its experts rapid response capacity and
a broad and influential reach for its positions. CAP‘s policy experts cover a wide range of issue
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areas and often work across disciplines to tackle complex, interrelated issues such as national
security, the economy, energy, and climate change.
CAP‘s policy ideas on a broad range of issues – lowering defense spending by $1 trillion over a
decade while maintaining national security strength, redeploying U.S. armed forces from Iraq,
extending learning time to boost student performance in public schools, expediting the end of
‗Don‘t ask, don‘t tell,‘ revitalizing the U.S. economy through increased energy efficiency, and
transitioning to energy sources that produce fewer greenhouse gases—all surfaced in
congressional legislation, in the 2008 presidential campaign, and in successful advocacy fights.
Building on that success and its original mission, CAP‘s strategic goals are to:
Offer bold ideas that challenge the political system to tackle the most important problems
facing our nation and the world.
Provide a sharp critique of the conservative agenda and its ideas.
Develop concrete proposals and advocacy strategies to advance a progressive policy
agenda in the current policy debate.
Create a clear public identity for progressivism based on its history, thought, and values.
Work with champions of progressive ideas, including both coalition partners and
policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels.
Build a lasting institution that is a model for the progressive movement and that provides
support to progressive organizations across our country.
CAP‘s staff and programs are organized into four policy teams, on energy, national security, the
economy, and broader domestic priorities, including education, immigration, and LGBTQ issues.
Details of relevant work in several areas of greatest OSF interest follow.
Economic Opportunity
CAP has acknowledged that ―we missed the economic change moment‖ with the general public
and that the White House and progressives ―don‘t tell a good story‖ on the economic crisis, its
origins, and a path out. To combat this, and stop the political bleeding for progressives and the
White House on the economy, in recent months CAP has placed a greater emphasis on
strengthening its economic program. It has added new, higher level staff, increased its work to
develop a compelling economic narrative, identified a complementary niche to the tax and
budget work of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and made up for lost time in
identifying its agenda and communicating it with the public. It will take on rising economic
inequality, quantify the importance of the middle class to generating economic growth, and draw
a clear line in the sand with conservatives by debunking the mythology that deep budget cuts
help the economy and job growth. To that end, CAP‘s leadership has worked through the
summer to advance a jobs plan that the White House can support. CAP is expected to be an
important credentialer and public advocate for the recently announced White House plan.
Description of Programs for which Funding Is Sought
This recommendation is for $1 million over two years for general support grant and three
separate project specific grants.
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Neighborhood Stabilization and Housing Finance Reform
Past support from Open Society Foundation‘s Neighborhood Stabilization Initiative has helped
CAP position itself as one of the nation‘s leading progressive voices in the debate over the role
of the federal government in supporting affordable housing options for lower income
homeowners and renters through:
1) A Housing Finance Working Group of leading experts from CAP and the broader
housing finance community, supported by staff to provide relevant information and
organize well prepared and tightly managed meetings.
2) A series of commissioned papers, analyses, private meetings, and public events on key
issues, informed and advised by members of the Housing Finance Working Group.
3) An expanded in-house capacity to produce issue briefs and other analyses of quickly
arising issues.
4) Public education about possible solutions and the deficiencies of alternative proposals.
With $250,000 over two years in renewed project support from the Neighborhood Stabilization
Initiative of the Equality and Opportunity Fund, CAP proposes to expand its current housing
finance reform campaign by:
1) Stabilizing communities with high concentrations of mortgage foreclosures through a

national scattered-site rental program. CAP will advocate for the creation of an effective
national program to reuse foreclosed properties held by the government-sponsored entities
and Federal Housing Administration as affordable rentals. The core idea is to bundle
government-owned foreclosed properties into geographically concentrated portfolios of
rentable properties, and make these homes available for affordable rental housing, especially
in markets where rents are rising even as home values remain flat. CAP will produce written
materials to help educate policymakers about the opportunities and challenges associated
with the rentals, press regulators to use this opportunity to improve the stock of affordable
housing, and bring experts together to address the barriers that will need to be overcome if
the approach is to gain traction and benefit the most vulnerable communities.
2) Advocating for equity in the housing market transition. CAP will continue its public
education work on the consequences of various proposed structural changes to the current
housing finance system. Its ongoing work in this area includes: ensuring that proposed down
payment requirements do not shut out lower income borrowers from mortgage markets,
developing a proposal for Federal Housing Administration reform as part of a larger housing
system, developing new models for credit enhancement to finance multi-family affordable
housing, and advocating for full implementation of the historic consumer protections
included in the Dodd-Frank Act. At the same time, CAP is working to advance a larger
economic narrative which has, at its base, the principle that the promise of America is for all,
not just for some. In the next two years, CAP will fully integrate its housing finance reform
work within its broader ―case for a progressive economy,‖ closely linking housing equity and
fair credit opportunities to the nation‘s economic recovery goals, and bringing the full force
of its communications infrastructure to bear on current housing policy debates.
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The Anti-Hate Table
The Anti-Hate Table (the Table) was launched in 2009. At the time, few immigrant rights
advocates were effectively countering the messages and policy agenda of the nativist movement,
and those organizations working on the issue often operated separately and competitively.
Because of this gap, the anti-immigrant movement (led by the John Tanton Network) was
extremely successful in mainstreaming hateful rhetoric and misinformation on immigration.
Table leadership looked to create a network that strengthened relationships among immigrant
rights advocates and allies active in anti-hate work while developing collaborative strategies to
marginalize inaccurate anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Since its inception the Table has overseen coordinated campaigns and research aimed at
publicizing the underlying motivations of nativist groups and holding organizations and
individuals accountable for spreading misinformation. Strategies include exposing the racist ties
of the nativist movement, demonstrating falsehoods in nativist ―research,‖ exposing the
disciplined coordination and extensive leadership ties of anti-immigrant organizations, and
engaging the media to increase their understanding of the broader intentions of anti-immigrant
groups. Each Table member brings a specific set of skills and organizational capacities to the
network, while the Table‘s overall role is to facilitate collaboration among members. Members
include the following OSF grantees: Media Matters for America; Center for New Community;
American Immigration Council; and America‘s Voice Education Fund.
The Anti-Hate Table plans to:

organize four quarterly in-person meetings to ensure it focuses on identifying targets
develop a new set of member-only accessible online tools, including a searchable
database of research on the structures and strategies of nativist groups
increase the number of shared work projects completed jointly by table members
identify at least one new shared work project per quarter to be overseen by the Table
chair.
facilitate greater dissemination of products.
hire a deputy program director to manage shared work projects.
Re-shaping the Islamophobia Debate Project
CAP is seeking $400,000 over two years for its ―Re-shaping the Islamophobia Debate‖ project,
which aims to expose the networks and individuals that perpetuate anti-Muslim bigotry, correct
misinformation about American Muslims before it gains ground, and elevate an alternative
narrative. This project will build upon the findings of CAP‘s new report, Fear, Inc., The Roots
of the Islamophobia Network in America, which was released on August 26th and produced with
support from the NSHR Campaign. The report uncovered a closely coordinated network of
donors, media outlets, activists, scholars, and political and religious leaders who share research
and resources and disseminate false facts in their coordinated attacks on Muslims and Islam.
CAP has widely presented the findings of Fear, Inc. to advocates, members of the National
Security Council and others in government, and the media. CAP will continue its influential
work, using two complementary strategies, rapid reporting on its blog and in-depth investigative
research and reporting, to counter attacks on American Muslims as they arise and provide
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advocates, policymakers and allies with valuable tools they can use to shift the public‘s
perceptions of American Muslims in the long-term.
CAP also plans to produce five to ten research items or interviews per month for its website,
ThinkProgress.org, which receives over six million visitors per month.
In addition, CAP will produce several medium length reports and short analysis papers, as well
as three or four long, in-depth research reports. Because CAP reports are created and timed to
influence the debate, it is premature to determine the exact topics they will cover. However,
CAP is exploring several subjects that seem ripe for detailed investigation, which include:
examining the funders and their board members highlighted in Fear, Inc., tracking the
nationwide spread of local anti-Sharia ballot initiatives, and monitoring the connections of
political leaders who promote anti-Muslim rhetoric to the Islamophobia network. CAP will also
research the links between the Islamophobia networks in Europe and the U.S. and examine
which counter-strategies that have been effective in Europe could be useful here. Finally, CAP
anticipates producing more personality profiles for use by journalists, as it did for Andrea
Elliott‘s July 30, 2011, front page New York Times article on David Yerushalmi, ―The Man
Behind the Anti-Shariah Movement.‖
Rationale for Recommendation
U.S. Programs, drawing on its anchor grants budget line, recommends a general support renewal
grant of $1,000,000 over two years to the Center for American Progress in recognition of its
work to generate ideas and advance multiple open society priorities. CAP‘s influence, access,
broad expertise, political savvy, and strategic communications infrastructure gives it a position
and prominence that are unparalleled among progressive and open society aligned organizations.
Since there is broad familiarity with – and endorsement of – CAP‘s work on the U.S. Programs
Board, including via Aryeh Neier‘s participation on the CAP Board, and among our OSI-DC
colleagues, this rationale will focus in greater detail on the project specific recommendations.
Prior general support funding for CAP came from the Democracy and Power Fund. This grant
recommendation is CAP‘s first to be considered for support from the USP anchor grants budget
line. The primary USP liaison for CAP‘s grantmaking and the due diligence for this
recommendation is the Democracy and Power Fund.
The recommended grant advances the Neighborhood Stabilization Initiative‘s goal of stabilizing
communities hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis and its specific grantmaking priorities of: (1)
facilitating the reuse of foreclosed properties as affordable housing for low-income households
and particularly vulnerable populations; and (2) expanding sustainable credit options for lower-
income borrowers and borrowers of color.
In recent years, CAP has served as a hub of new idea development, analysis, and advocacy to
advance fairness and equity in the national housing finance system. This is a critical time for
CAP‘s leadership as competing choices for the future of housing finance are being defined in the
public debate. At stake is whether we as a country will continue down the path of further
geographic segregation and inequality of access to credit, or whether elected leaders and opinion
shapers will instead use this moment as an opportunity to expand access to opportunities to build
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assets through affordable housing or homeownership. CAP is playing a critical role in
challenging conservative policymakers and pundits who have largely captured this debate. It has
also published detailed empirical analyses refuting inaccurate and ideologically-charged claims
that government intervention in the housing market was responsible for the financial crisis.
Beyond defense and critique, CAP is offering innovative solutions that promote both equity and
growth in the housing market – twin elements of a fair and lasting economic recovery. For
example, CAP‘s proposal to convert already foreclosed homes owned by the government and
clustered in the hardest hit neighborhoods into energy-efficient, affordable rental homes has
tremendous potential. Government properties account for about half of all properties that have
been foreclosed upon and await resale nationwide, and they tend to be concentrated in lower-
income neighborhoods. The CAP proposal, if adopted, would be the first to systematically
address this growing stock of vacant properties, which is contributing to neighborhood decline
and geographic inequality. The proposal has recently been heralded by the Obama
Administration as a means to simultaneously minimize taxpayer losses, address the rising rental
affordability gap, improve neighborhood quality and create jobs.1
The proposed Anti-Hate Table project advances the Equality and Opportunity Fund‘s
overarching goal of supporting efforts to ensure justice and equality, prohibit arbitrary and
discriminatory government action, and lift barriers that prevent people from participating fully in
economic, social, and political life. Further, it advances the specific anti-violence advocacy
grantmaking priority of challenging backlash violence directed at EOF core constituencies. The
Anti-Hate Table has demonstrated its leadership in several projects over the past two years. In
2009, the Table oversaw a campaign on Suffolk County, Long Island, where anti-immigrant
rhetoric had led to consistent violence against Latino immigrants, including the murder of
Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorean immigrant. Table members released reports, coordinated media
action, and collaborated with local organizers to counter the aggressive anti-immigrant
sentiment. This effort led to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation of the Suffolk County
police, which is still in process. More recently, the Anti-Hate Table and its members worked
with The New York Times reporters to place a front-page article on a key leader of the anti-
immigrant movement, John Tanton, and his radical views on immigration.
These campaigns, along with others, have put the anti-immigrant movement on the defensive.
Still, nativist organizations enjoy substantial success in mainstreaming hateful ideas and rhetoric
into the public discourse involving immigration and immigrants. For this reason, continued
push-back on the organized nativist movement (specifically, the John Tanton Network) is vital.
This CAP recommendation will also advance a National Security and Human Rights Campaign
priority of combating racial and religious profiling of Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South
Asian (AMEMSA) individuals and communities in the name of national security.
With the recent release of its carefully researched and documented 130-page report, Fear Inc.,
CAP has given members of the AMEMSA community, advocates, policy makers, and journalists
the first clear map of the Islamophobia network and the insights necessary to start changing the
public dialogue. The ―Re-shaping the Islamophobia Debate‖ project will produce more reports
1
See Edward Wyatt, U.S. Seeks Ideas on Renting Out Its Foreclosure Inventory, NY TIMES, Aug. 10, 2011, at B2.
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of this caliber and amplify the impact of Fear, Inc., which has already reached policymakers and
advocates and which led to a scathing front-page report on David Yerushalmi‘s anti-Shariah
crusade in The New York Times. By exposing the small and tight-knit Islamophobia network,
CAP will discredit the false information that this network perpetuates and counter its attacks on
American Muslims.
When addressing issues of Islam and extremism, many journalists and policymakers lack the
knowledge necessary to weed out misinformation. CAP‘s widely circulated reports and highly
trafficked blog are necessary and effective tools to counter false information and educate the
public. CAP has assembled a cross-program team that includes experts on foreign policy,
national security, religion, the right wing, and the media, as well as investigators, researchers,
media watchers, and bloggers. Furthermore, CAP has formed strong ties with, and earned the
trust of, many of the progressive stakeholders working on this set of issues, including AMEMSA
leaders, interfaith leaders, researchers, academics, and journalists. CAP is sensitive not only to
short-term dangers of anti-Muslim rhetoric but also to its long-term dangers, including the
ammunition it provides to violent extremists who seek to portray America as at war with the
Muslims and Islam, the weakening of America‘s moral leadership at home and abroad, and the
undermining of America‘s national security interests.
Beyond each of the recommended projects, CAP warrants praise and occasional critique for its
work. It draws high marks from OSI-DC for its role as a convener to many Washington, DC-
based issue campaigns and advocacy coalitions and also draws well deserved, nearly universal
praise for its vast communications infrastructure. Each month, CAP draws six million visitors to
its ThinkProgress web-site and every day 75,000 advocates and opinion shapers receive its
ThinkProgress digest of progressive stories, priorities, and messages. This allows CAP to create
its own echo chamber, putting information in the hands of many, informing those who shape
opinions through traditional and social media, and offering its own experts and fellows for
regular visits to the cable news networks. CAP has done an impressive job integrating its
advocacy work with this communications infrastructure, moving seamlessly from its 8:45am
daily call for leading Washington, DC advocates to its advocacy and communications ―war
room‖ focused on the hot button issue of the day.
While we believe that, through its connections, revolving door of staff and fellows with the
Obama Administration, and solid work, CAP has effectively positioned itself with the ―inside
game‖ of the White House, it may be too cozy with the administration at times. When the
President appears to have lost his way on policies, ranging from the debt ceiling compromise to
the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to the recent decision to reject enhanced air
quality regulations, many progressives are dismayed by the administration‘s unwillingness to
stand up to the Tea Party emboldened conservatives. In instances like this, a more robust public
critique of presidential strategies or congressional Democrats from CAP could perhaps have a
great impact on the decisions made by the White House.
Beyond the earlier reference to CAP‘s acknowledgement of being late to develop and promote an
economic agenda, including one to combat unemployment and underemployment, other areas
where CAP‘s work may be less effective than it could include its dominant, Beltway-centric
policy vision, very much a product of its Capitol Hill rootedness and the culture of compromise
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and incrementalism, which nonetheless limits the boldness of its vision and the agenda it seeks to
advance. During a recent site visit, USP staff were disappointed about CAP‘s decision not to
place priority on criminal justice and drug policy reforms. Beyond some work on marijuana
policy (thanks, in part, to support from Peter Lewis), drug policy reform does not appear to be a
priority. When asked for an assessment of CAP‘s commitment to criminal justice reform, CAP
staff replied that the organization has ―struggled to find a specific niche‖ and the right person to
lead this work. For an organization that has such influence, access, resources, and alliances with
a broad range of advocacy organizations, CAP feels curiously timid about elevating criminal
justice reform as a priority. This is an area that warrants future conversation between OSF and
CAP.
CAP is headed by John Podesta, a former Chief of Staff in the Clinton White House. A capable
manager, savvy fundraiser, and exceedingly well connected DC operative, Podesta led the
Obama transition team and is largely responsible for CAP's prodigious scale-up. Although he
adopts a combative political posture against the right-wing, Podesta has also proven to be a
consensus builder and team player in interactions with other progressive advocacy organizations.
He is supported by an influential and experienced team, with a number of senior leaders who
have served in the Clinton and Obama administration. Since the USP site visit with CAP, staff
learned that Podesta may be transitioning out of his CAP leadership. A request to confirm or
deny this – and learn about any transition plans – was submitted to CAP and staff were told that
Podesta will stay on for another ―couple of years‖ and that a restructuring of the executive team
was occurring. Since this is in the early stages, and most CAP staff don‘t know this, we were
asked, and have committed, to keep this confidential.
Other senior leadership includes executive vice president, Sarah Wartell, one of the original
architects of CAP‘s business plan and the person who has overseen CAP‘s strategic planning and
operations since its founding. Prior to joining CAP, Wartell served in the Clinton White House
as Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Deputy Director of the National
Economic Council. Jennifer Palmieri, CAP‘s communications vice president, has served in a
number of high profile electoral campaigns and worked for prominent Capitol Hill elected
leaders. She is a primary architect of CAP‘s multi-pronged communications platforms.
Its many strengths and a few shortcomings noted, USP staff remain convinced that CAP is a one
of a kind organization that is well-run and making an impact despite heading into some
challenging political head winds. Staff are pleased to offer this recommendation for general and
project support for the Center for American Progress.
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Grant ID: 20033629
Legal Name of Organization: Leadership Conference Education Fund
Purpose of Grant: to provide general support
Grant Description: To support the Leadership Conference Education Fund,

formerly known as the Leadership Conference on Civil
Rights Education Fund, a Washington, DC-based multi-
issue advocacy organization that was established in 1969 to
provide public education and research for the national civil
rights community. The Leadership Conference Education
Fund is the 501(c)(3) partner to the Leadership Conference
on Civil and Human Rights, the nation‘s oldest and largest
coalition of civil rights organizations, and is a key advocate
in Washington, DC and partner to OSI-DC. Formerly
supported via the Democracy and Power Fund, the
Leadership Conference Education Fund is now recognized
as an ―anchor‖ grantee for U.S. Programs, advancing
several open society priorities, including judicial
nominations, immigrants‘ rights, economic opportunity,
confronting structural racism, and LGBTQ equality.

$375,000 from USJ- Re-entry (2000)
$328,500 from USP General Grants (2001-2003)
$200,000 from USJ-Policy & Research (2002)
$1,705,000 from Strategic Opportunity Fund (2004-
2008)
$929,400 from USP Independence of Judiciary
(2005)
$250,000 from USJ Racial Justice (2006)
$500,000 from Progressive Infrastructure (2006)
$400,000 from USP Immigration Innovation (2007-
2009)
$275,000 from USP Seize the Day (2009-2010)
$1,100,000 from Democracy and Power Fund
(2008-2010)
$1,000,000 from Transparency and Integrity Fund
(2009-2010)
$175,000 from Equality and Opportunity Fund
(2010)
14
$100,000 from Neighborhood Stabilization
Initiative (2010)
$25,000 from International Women‘s Program
(2010)
$2,000 from Domestic Grants (2011)
Project Budget: n/a
Major Sources of Support: Ford Foundation $1,750,000

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation $ 450,284
Rockefeller Foundation $ 300,000
Public Welfare $ 250,000
Tides/Convergence Partnership Fund $ 150,000
Amount Requested: $2,000,000
Is this a contingent grant? No
Amount Recommended: $1,000,000
Term: 1 year, beginning September 1, 2011
Established in 1969 to provide public education and research for the national civil rights
community, the Washington D.C.-based, Leadership Conference Education Fund (The
Leadership Conference) promotes policies that strengthen civil rights advocacy and social justice
reform. It serves as the 501(c)(3) partner of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human
Rights1, a coalition of civil rights organizations founded by A. Philip Randolph in 1950.
Through its initiatives focused on voting rights enforcement, fair and impartial federal courts,
and affirmative action protection, The Leadership Conference works on building an informed
public that will be supportive of the nation's growing diversity and pressing civil and human
rights issues.
With over 200 organizations in its national coalition, The Leadership Conference places its
initiatives within the framework of six program areas. The first area is Protecting the
Independence of the Judiciary, which monitors federal judicial nominations and educates the
public about the impact of federal courts on civil rights, due process of law, and other issues.
1
Following in-depth strategic planning, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights changed its name to include its
growing emphasis on human rights; the new name is The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
Likewise, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund is now The Leadership Conference Education
Fund.
15
The second program area is Ensuring Equal Opportunity, which defends strong civil rights
enforcement, affirmative action, expanded educational opportunities, disability rights, religious
liberty, fairness for indigenous peoples, and an end to discrimination against gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgendered Americans. The third program area is Building Stronger Families
and Communities, which supports policy and advocacy reform to strengthen family and medical
leave, encourages decent childcare and economic opportunity for all, access to health care for all,
and fair and effective law enforcement in every community, including action against hate crimes.
The fourth program area is Promoting Civic Engagement, which promotes and defends
democracy by supporting efforts such as the re-authorization of the Voting Rights Act,
promoting participation in the census, and encouraging Americans of every background and
generation to register to vote. The fifth program area is Reforming the Nation’s Criminal
Justice System, which takes aim at racial disparities in the criminal law and criminal justice
enforcement at the state and federal levels. The final program area is Guarding the Crossroads
of Civil Rights, Human Rights and Civil Liberties. This work involves education and advocacy
on matters of immigration, human rights and national security, and the global issues of inequality
and discrimination.
Looking ahead, The Leadership Conference will work on four major campaigns: jobs creation,
quality education for all children, LGBTQ equality, which had historic victories in 2010-11
despite an unfavorable policymaking climate, and immigrants‘ rights. In the criminal justice
field, in addition to taking a strong stand against state-mandated racial profiling in Arizona, The
Leadership Conference is working to ban the practice of racial profiling by federal and state law
enforcement agencies, to create tools to ensure compliance with the anti-profiling policies, and to
help victims of profiling to report complaints against police officers. To that end, The
Leadership Conference will raise awareness of the need for policy reform such as the End Racial
Profiling Act.
Additionally, The Leadership Conference will continue to advocate for federal funding and
policies to improve state juvenile justice systems and to keep children out of adult jails, to
address disproportionate minority contact, and deinstitutionalize status offenders. The
Leadership Conference will also work to promote pro-active, non-punitive strategies to reduce
youth gang involvement.
Description of Program for which Funding Is Sought
The proposal seeks general support.
U.S. Programs, drawing on its anchor grants budget, recommends a grant of $1,000,000 over one
year to the Leadership Conference Education Fund for general support in recognition of its
leadership in advancing multiple issues of importance to OSF, including racial justice,
immigration reform, criminal justice reform, civil liberties in wartime, media justice, and judicial
nominations. This recommendation reflects the importance of The Leadership Conference as an
organization whose work sits at the core of OSI‘s goals for an open society in the United States.
16
During the late 1960s, the growing complexities of civil rights law, social agitation and
significant policy reform gave rise to the need for strategic coordination among progressive
racial justice advocates to engage in research and public education to defend and promote equal
protection under the law. This led to the establishment of The Leadership Conference to build a
broad based coalition of national and local advocates to collaborate in social and economic
justice efforts to build an inclusive and just society. Its ongoing commitment for justice and
democracy remains true today and is increasingly important to protect the rights of vulnerable
minority groups in the United States in a time of conservative retrenchment, racialized attacks on
the President, economic anxiety, and Tea Party nativism. Recent demographic, political,
economic, and technological changes continue to alter the civil rights landscape and the public's
perception and support for racial justice. These challenges require new strategies and bold
leadership to ignite a coalition of actors to address pressing civil rights issues.
Given its unique position at the center of the civil rights community, and its relationship with the
Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, The Leadership Conference plays a pivotal
role in sharing different perspectives and advancing broader strategies to advance equal
protection under the law. The organization draws its expertise from a cross-section of more than
200 organizations and examines the impact of civil rights policy on a broad range of
constituencies. Given its broad knowledge of the civil rights field, policy makers, elected
officials, and opinion shapers regularly seek The Leadership Conference 's advice and counsel.
The Leadership Conference has played a significant role in successful policy reforms over the
last two years, including the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the Local Law Enforcement Hate
Crime Prevention Act, lowering the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentences and
removal of the mandatory five-year sentence for simple possession of crack, health care reform,
and the end of ―don‘t ask, don‘t tell.‖ In 2011-12 and in a very challenging time for civil and
human rights advocacy, The Leadership Conference will focus on expanding its economic
opportunity work, including leading a new jobs coalition to push funding for job creation and
workforce development programs, particularly those that are rooted in and support communities
of color that are most hard hit by unemployment and underemployment. Leadership Conference
staffers have already been advising the White House on what a strong jobs plan could look like.
The Leadership Conference‘s leadership remains as critical today as it did 30 years ago.
Following its in-depth strategic planning in 2009, The Leadership Conference board
unanimously approved a recommendation to return the leadership structure of the Leadership
Conference on Civil and Human Rights and The Leadership Conference to that of a single
President and CEO, with long-time counsel Wade Henderson filling that role going forward.
Henderson is extremely well-regarded and connected in Washington, DC and is the consummate
insider in the best sense of the word. He is seen as a very close and significant advocacy partner
by the OSI-DC office which calls him, with affection, ―one of a kind.‖ Karen McGill Lawson is
the capable executive vice president and chief operating officer for both LCCHR and The
Leadership Conference, and Nancy Zirkin is the long-serving lead lobbying strategist who draws
strong reviews for her connections, strategic advocacy, and persistence on Capitol Hill.
The Leadership Conference does still struggle to marshal the resources of its 200 national
coalition partners effectively when civil and human rights attacks flare up at the local and state
17
levels. It has built a strong field program to aggregate the resources of its national partners‘ state
and local affiliates in order to have greater impact outside of Washington, DC. A recent victory
in defeating an anti-affirmative action ballot initiative in Colorado, the first such defeat after
anti-affirmative action wins in California, Michigan, and Washington State, is evidence of an
effective partnership between the Leadership Conference at the national level and its state
partners.
The Leadership Conference is noted for its work to convene issue advocacy coalitions, foster
strategic collaboration, and to stay somewhat in the background while other groups grab the
spotlight. This selfless leadership is one reason why the organization is as well respected as it is
in the very competitive Washington, DC advocacy universe. As the organization‘s leaders grow
older, Wade Henderson seeks to move on from his position in the next few years. A key
challenge will be replacing its long-serving and extremely well-connected leaders with those
who can credibly build coalitions and maintain insider relationships while subsuming
organizational ego. USP staff anticipate that this could be a struggle for the organization as it
seeks to ―brand‖ itself for its post Henderson era and fundraise to build its infrastructure.
In a recent site visit, USP staff asked what the organization had done to anticipate such
challenges and were impressed by the response. The organization has convened a strategic
visioning process at the board and staff levels to clarify the timeline for leadership transition, to
plan effectively for it, and to anticipate the challenges and opportunities that come from such a
change in the organization‘s leadership and identity. USP staff are encouraged by this early
information about this process and believe that the organization is approaching the transition
carefully and strategically. USP staff are pleased to offer this anchor grant renewal
recommendation for the Leadership Conference Education Fund.
18
Grant ID: 20033694
Legal Name of Organization: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute
Purpose of Grant: to provide renewed general support
Grant Description: To support the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, a

New York-based multi-issue think tank that develops
paradigm shifting policies on the economy, regulation,
employment, and the financial sector. Through its high
level fellowship program, a one-of-a-kind network of 110
student-led campus based think tanks, innovative
programming, and publications, the Institute has made
lessons of the past – including many that were initiated by
its namesakes – relevant for understanding today‘s
economic challenges. This includes protecting and
expanding on the successes of programs such as Social
Security and the Fair Labor Standards Act. This grant
would advance Democracy and Power Fund strategies for
idea generation on economic policy and the engagement of
young people in open society advocacy.
Previous OSI Support: $719,200

$25,000 from Chairman‘s Fund (1997)
$300,000 from Seize the Day Fund (2009)
$294,200 from Democracy and Power Fund (2009-
10)
Project Budget: n/a
Major Sources of Support: Atlantic Philanthropies $500,000

MacArthur Foundation $400,000
Ford Foundation $150,000
Stoneman Family Foundation $150,000
Amount Requested: $600,000
19
Amount Recommended: $500,000
Term: 2 years, beginning November 1, 2011
The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute is a New York-based nonprofit that develops
paradigm shifting economic policy. The Roosevelt Institute advances its work by integrating
elite and grassroots strategies, including noted economic experts, such as Nobel winner Joseph
Stiglitz, and its student-led network of campus think tanks that connect student ideas and
activism to the political process. Since its formation, the Roosevelt Institute has been devoted to
sharing the ideals and achievements of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt with new generations.
Through programs, events, and publications, the Institute seeks to make lessons of the past
relevant for understanding today‘s challenges, including protecting and expanding upon the
successes of New Deal programs such as Social Security and the Fair Labor Standards Act.
The Roosevelt Institute‘s Economic Policy Project is a multi-platform, interdisciplinary effort

that engages established and new thinkers, organizers, advocates, media, and policy makers. In
early 2009, the Institute launched the Four Freedoms Center, a think tank for the development
and promotion of rigorous, progressive policy ideas and value narratives in the public debate in
this country. Roosevelt‘s focus is around the many issues that relate to building a broad‐based
and sustainable economic future for the people of the United States. The organization‘s
economic policy work is grounded in the recognition that the current global financial crisis
reflects years of unfettered deregulation, growth of undemocratic institutions, and rising
economic inequality alongside a decline in economic mobility. Roosevelt seeks to address the
lack of prominent new economic models by facilitating the development and advancement of
economic paradigms that include fairness and equity along with the increased engagement of
more Americans in order to rebuild the confidence that government can play a constructive role
in regulating markets and society.
The New Deal 2.0 (ND2.0) is a newly initiated Roosevelt effort that will be a one-stop blog for
current news and sharp analysis of the current fiscal crisis. Building off of the New Deal legacy
of Franklin Delano and Eleanor Roosevelt, the Institute‘s namesakes, New Deal 2.0 enlists the
country‘s leading thinkers to explore the questions at the heart of the economic debate and
engage in in-depth public conversations. Participants include: scholar john powell, Institute for
New Economic Thinking head Rob Johnson, Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners, Mark Schmitt,
former OSI staffer and editor of The American Prospect, Barbara Arnwine of the Lawyer‘s
Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and U.S. Programs board member and Center for
Community Change executive director, Deepak Bhargava.
Roosevelt Institute Campus Network
Since 2008, the Institute has been home to the Roosevelt Institute Campus Network, a collection
of some 110 campus‐based policy and leadership development chapters. Its diverse base of more
20
than 10,000 student members focus on advancing progressive values alongside concrete policy
solutions, informed by the creativity of the Millennial Generation. Chapters organize educational
events, foster debate and dialogue on campus, sponsor and teach for-credit policy courses,
establish extra-curricular working groups, engage with local policymakers, generate policy, and
promote student ideas for legislative impact. After experimentation with various models of
policy generation, from an emphasis on theoretical pieces and journal articles to analyses of hot-
button national political issues, the Campus Network has centered its efforts on what it calls
―Think Impact.‖ This approach emphasizes drafting policy with the potential for short-term
political action. The Think Impact model engages community members, local nonprofits, and
elected officials – from school boards to state legislatures – and promotes the writing of policies
that are tailored to the needs of their communities. The goal of Think Impact is to create a
positive impact in Network members‘ communities and encourage students‘ continued
commitment to social justice and open society advocacy by demonstrating the power of ideas in
practice. Some examples of this work include: an analysis of the potential for a publicly-
sponsored political news television station to fill the void created by now defunct newspapers in
North Carolina; development of a Vermont campus banking clinic that assists immigrants with
remittances; and the development of The Intersect Fund, a student-run micro-lending
organization at a Rutgers University campus in New Jersey.
Description of Program for Which Funding Is Sought
U.S. Programs, via the Democracy and Power Fund, recommends a renewal general support
grant of $500,000 over two years to The Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute for its effective
work to generate and advance ideas on economic policy and engage young people in open
society advocacy.
It is no secret that the United States is experiencing the worst economic crisis since the 1930s.
Yet the frameworks for public debate and the paradigms dominating policy discussions about
how to address the crisis are principally those that contributed to it – those promoted by
conservatives during the past 40 years that led to the deregulation of financial markets and
permitted unfettered profit for some and severe losses for many. Today, one in five Americans is
unemployed, underemployed or just simply out of work, a statistic that is even more dramatic for
Black, Latino, and young Americans. One in nine families cannot make the minimum payment
on its credit cards. One in eight mortgages is in default or foreclosure, one in eight Americans is
on food stamps, and more than 120,000 families are filing for bankruptcy every month. The
economic crisis has wiped more than $5 trillion from pensions and savings, has turned family
balance sheets upside down, and threatens to put ten million homeowners out on the street.
In this context, Roosevelt‘s work to explore what a future economic path for the nation could
look like and what social preferences and policies would be needed to put America on a
successful path are of critical importance. Roosevelt is a key player in advancing meaningful
financial regulatory reform, including pushing a broad-based coalition, Americans for Financial
21
Reform, to support a more aggressive agenda for reigning in market fundamentalism.
Roosevelt‘s work to reposition thinking on financial regulation occurs through its New Deal
blog‘s ―What Caused the Crisis?‖ framing. Its Four Freedoms Center fellowship program draws
many of the most prominent thinkers on economic and social policy, including Joseph Stiglitz.
The elevated profiles of its fellows, and their outside the Beltway orientation, give Roosevelt
unique reach beyond a more typical Washington, DC style think tank. (Note: Jonathan Soros is
a current fellow.)
Through its work to engage and integrate young people into the open society advocacy universe,
Roosevelt fills an important gap in the youth engagement ecosystem, where OSI has been a long-
time anchor funder and field builder. Traditionally, young people have been more engaged in
grassroots or direct action oriented strategies, and involvement in policymaking has not been
readily accessible to students and other young people. Consequently, many students interested in
social and public policy have struggled to gain access to a sometimes insular world of ideas.
Roosevelt bridges two quite disparate universes of progressive advocacy – its high level fellows
and its broad-based campus network – in a manner that is unique to OSF supported
organizations. Roosevelt‘s college campus based think tanks – funded by OSF since 2007 –
connect to the larger organization‘s national advocacy work and are a unique and effective model
for bringing young people into substantive policy advocacy efforts. The Campus Network is
well integrated within the organization, with board commitment, fellowship engagement with the
student leaders, and joint strategy setting on the Institute‘s policy priorities.
Democracy and Power Fund staff are excited about the trajectory of the Franklin and Eleanor
Roosevelt Institute over the past two years and regard the organization‘s ability to connect to
grassroots networks, build relationships and transfer knowledge on intricate policy issues, such
as financial regulatory reform, to be rare in the think tank world. The Institute‘s leadership, from
its board to staff, is effective and Andy Rich, its president since 2009, has done an admirable job
breathing new life into the organization. Rich, a former OSF U.S. Programs consultant and a
former chair of CUNY Graduate Center‘s political science department, has done noteworthy
work to strengthen the campus network and integrate it more deeply into the organization. He
has also made dramatic improvements to the Institute‘s funding, communications, and program
infrastructure.
In January, 2012, Rich will leave Roosevelt to take on leadership of the Harry S. Truman
Scholarship Fund. There is some concern that the organization‘s structure, particularly as it
relates to the senior fellows, may be shifting and becoming more rigid, leading to the discontent
of some of the fellows. We will monitor this closely but, for now, consider the organization to
be well-equipped to resolve this challenge. After discussions with Roosevelt board members and
staff, D&P staff are confident about the organization‘s ability to weather an executive director
transition and continue to generate critical ideas relating to economic policy.
22
Grant ID: 200336488
Legal Name of Organization: Hip Hop Caucus Education Fund
Grant Description: To support The Hip Hop Caucus Education Fund, a

Washington, D.C.-based national organization that works
within low-income urban communities to engage young
people of color to participate in elections, advocacy, and
service projects. The Hip Hop Caucus utilizes leading edge
and old fashioned outreach strategies to inspire non-
partisan voter participation and community engagement on
economic opportunity, energy and climate change, and
money in politics issues. This grant would advance a
Democracy and Power Fund goal to increase non-partisan
voter engagement and open society advocacy from people
of color and low-income communities.

$100,000 from the Democracy and Power Fund
(2010)
$50,000 from the Campaign for Black Male
Achievement (2010)
Organization Budget: $703,060
Project Budget: n/a
Major Sources of Support: Individual Donors $250,000

Youth Engagement Fund $100,000
Taproot Foundation $ 55,000
Bank of America Foundation $ 50,000
UNITE HERE International Union $ 25,000
23
Amount Recommended: $150,000 ($100,000 from Democracy and Power Fund
T1:21115 and $50,000 from the Campaign for Black Male
Achievement T1:21122)
Term: 2 years, beginning January 1, 2012
The Hip Hop Caucus Education Fund is a Washington, D.C.-based national organization that
works within low-income urban communities to engage people of color, between the ages of 18
and 40, to participate in elections, advocacy, and service projects. The Hip Hop Caucus utilizes
cutting edge and old fashioned outreach strategies – from new media and large scale text
messaging campaigns to ―street teams‖ and barbershop outreach – to inspire non-partisan voter
participation and community engagement from the hip hop generation.
The Hip Hop Caucus works to improve the conditions of the communities in which it works by
linking young leaders to their policymakers. From non-partisan get out the vote activities to
working with elected leaders, Hip Hop Caucus builds bridges between communities that
traditionally have less access to the democratic process than more affluent communities.
Hip Hop Caucus has grown its email list by 31,000 people over the past two years, bringing its
total supporters to 688,000 across all 50 states. Among its supporters, 70% are under 40 years-
old and 60% are women. Hip Hop Caucus seeks to grow and strengthen the civic knowledge,
consciousness, and skills of its primarily African American base and to foster opportunities for
its supporters to work together to achieve their civic and community goals.
By organizing young people of color in urban communities around issues that affect their lives,
the organization seeks to end urban poverty and create a generation of young activists working
for change in their communities and beyond. A recent example includes the organization‘s
leadership in the Gulf Coast Renewal Campaign. Through this coalition, Hip Hop Caucus
brought Katrina survivors to testify before the U.S. Congress, successfully worked in alliance to
push for extended housing provisions, and opposed the bulldozing of homes without notice.
Hip Hop Caucus‘s three priority issues are 1) ongoing voter participation, 2) climate change,
green jobs, and building the green economy, and 3) confronting money in politics. In 2008, a
major election year, the organization registered 49,000 new voters and made over six million
voter impressions. In 2010, the Caucus registered 12,300 new voters, and made 43,000 GOTV
contacts in North Carolina, Florida, and Pennsylvania. Last year, the organization broadened its
media and communications work from an exclusive focus on African American outreach to
include targeted Latino media outreach.
Hip Hop Caucus leads, via a partnership with Green for All, the ―Green the Block‖ campaign to
link climate change, urban workforce development, and anti-poverty work, with a special
emphasis on young Black men. The campaign focuses on education and awareness, legislative
24
advocacy, grassroots organizing, and youth activism. Part of its outreach strategy includes
targeting historically Black colleges and universities and Hispanic serving institutions, the
colleges and universities with the greatest numbers of Latino students. The campaign features
celebrity endorsements and youth-targeted workshops, materials, and messages and has focused
efforts on reaching non-campus youth to ensure that the implementation of a green economy
works for, involves, and specifically benefits those communities most affected by climate change
and the economic downturn.
While the Hip Hop Caucus‘ seven-member staff is small for a national organization, the
organization has a sizable number of highly engaged volunteers who serve as state team leaders.
The team leaders receive regular trainings, participate in weekly conference calls with the
national staff, and work with leaders in other states to plan campaigns, identify communities in
which to work, and address membership advocacy priorities.
The Hip Hop Caucus is seeking general support.
U.S. Programs, via the Democracy and Power Fund and the Campaign for Black Male
Achievement, recommends a renewal grant of $150,000 over two years to the Hip Hop Caucus
Education Fund for general support in recognition of its work to expand non-partisan voter
participation among African American and other youth constituencies and to expand the
engagement of young people in open society advocacy.
Hip Hop Caucus‘s work advances the Campaign for Black Male Achievement‘s goals of
promoting youth organizing, civic engagement and leadership development, expanding 21st
century family wage work opportunities, and utilizing strategic communications as strategies to
improve the life outcomes of Black men and boys.
Hip Hop Caucus is one of few organizations among U.S. Programs grantees that engages young
people in civic participation who are currently disconnected from higher education and high
schools. It does this via effective use of social media and grassroots, on the ground organizing.
The current field of national youth civic engagement and leadership organizations largely
focuses on mobilizing young people who are on college campuses, thereby missing a large
percentage of low-income youth of color. Studies show that youth who volunteer, vote, and take
part in other civic engagement behaviors are more likely to complete high school and college
compared to similar teenagers who are not so engaged. And yet, low- or moderate-income youth
are largely underserved by civic engagement outreach efforts and opportunities.1
The Caucus is also working with its constituents to address pressing issues affecting their lives in
the near and long term and has made green jobs a priority in order to ensure that low-income
1
Hyman, James B. and Levine, Peter. (2008, December). The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning
and Engagement Working Paper #63: Civic Engagement and the Disadvantaged: Challenges, Opportunities and
Recommendations.
25
communities and communities of color share in the benefits of a new clean energy economy. A
recent report from The Ohio State University‘s Kirwan Institute showed that while 18% of newly
stimulus-created jobs are in the construction industry, African Americans make up only 5.7% of
that sector, despite constituting up 13% of the U.S. population. The organization knows that
more proactive work needs to be done at the policy and community level to ensure that new
economic opportunities involve all members of the community, especially at a time when young
Black men, in particular, have stratospherically high unemployment and underemployment rates.
The Caucus is working to raise awareness within its constituency about the need for and benefits
of a clean energy economy, and to furnish individuals with the tools, skills, and capital to be
successful leaders in a new economy.
The Hip Hop Caucus Education Fund is a young organization. The creator and president of Hip
Hop Caucus, Reverend Lennox Yearwood, is a minister and social activist who is originally from
New Orleans and is now based in Washington, DC. Yearwood, a former community and labor
organizer, has been able to inspire new voters and musical celebrities alike to partner with the
organization. Up until now, Hip Hop Caucus has operated with little support from major
foundation donors but has creatively and successfully partnered with larger organizations such as
The Alliance for Climate Protection, National Wildlife Federation, and the Gulf Coast Wetlands
Restoration Project to subsidize its work. These partnerships have resulted in $322,000 in
funding for Hip Hop Caucus‘s advocacy work on climate change and the green economy. While
Yearwood is a capable leader, the organization has struggled at times to find its focus. Through
participation in a recent convening on Black youth civic engagement that was co-organized by
the Campaign for Black Male Achievement and the Democracy and Power Fund, USP staff
believe that Hip Hop Caucus is on track and identifying its specific niche for both advocacy and
voter participation.
While mobilizing young voters often requires different strategies than those used to reach older
constituents, lower-income, people of color, and less formally educated youth require even more
specifically targeted strategies and outreach. Through known messengers such as popular
musicians as well as through far reaching social media networks, Hip Hop Caucus is able to
reach young people that other voter engagement networks are not.
26
Grant ID: 20033655
Legal Name of Organization: League of Young Voters Education Fund
Tax Status: 501(c) (3) public charity
Grant Description: To support the League of Young Voters Education Fund, a

national nonprofit, non-partisan voter engagement and
multi-issue advocacy network that builds the power of
young people of color and low-income young people. The
League of Young Voters operates nationally and via its
local affiliate groups in six states, developing large scale
voter engagement drives and engaging local members and
community allies in ongoing advocacy on youth violence,
criminal justice reform, jobs, and access to education. This
grant would advance Democracy and Power Fund goals to
catalyze youth engagement in open society advocacy and
expand the voter participation of Black, Latino, low-
income, and youth constituencies.

$800,000 from Progressive Infrastructure (2005-
2008)
$925,000 from Democracy and Power (2008-2011)
Project Budget: n/a
Major Sources of Support: Ford Foundation $365,000

Rockefeller Brothers Fund $150,000
Nathan Cummings Foundation $ 75,000
State Voices $ 50,000
Maine Initiatives $ 25,000
27
Amount Recommended: $375,000 (including $300,000 from Democracy and Power
Fund, T1: 21113 and $75,000 from the Campaign for Black
Male Achievement, T1:21122)
The Brooklyn-based League of Young Voters Education Fund (―the League‖) empowers young
people nationwide to participate in the democratic process and create social change on the local,
state, and national levels. The organization focuses on non-college youth and youth from low-
income communities and communities of color. The League of Young Voters Education Fund
seeks to make political engagement relevant by meeting young people where they are, working
on issues that affect their lives, and providing them with tools, training, and support to become
serious catalysts for change in their communities. Founded in 2003, the League maintains state
affiliates in Maine and Wisconsin and local chapters in Tallahassee, Houston, Columbus, and
San Francisco.
The League‘s long term strategy is to build an inspired, engaged, and effective culture and
community around youth participation. To do so, the League employs an integrated youth civic
engagement model that combines best practices from community, campus, and cultural
organizing with sophisticated voter engagement techniques. During election cycles, it runs
targeted data-driven, neighborhood-based voter contact and turnout programs.
Beyond election season and throughout the year, the League organizes its members and
coalitional allies around issues that make sense to young people. By focusing on relevant local
issues like inner city violence, the rising cost of college tuition, youth un- and under-
employment, and improving public transportation, the League engages and mobilizes new and
―drop off‖ voters, those who voted in the last presidential election but are the most likely to sit
out off-year and municipal elections.
The League of Young Voters Education Fund has employed a two pronged approach to reaching
and engaging young people: ―on the ground‖ community organizing efforts and those that occur
via use of new media or online organizing.
Key objectives of the League‘s ―on the ground‖ community organizing strategy are as follows:
Expanding its reach to young people who are not currently in college.
Strengthening the leadership pipeline from non-college youth and improving the
leadership skills of volunteers and leaders.
Increasing 2012 voter turnout in its target precincts in the six states by 5%.
The League hopes to reach its objectives through a number of strategies such as its State Based
Apprentice Program, launched in 2010 in Atlanta, Columbus, Houston, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh,
and Tallahassee. The State Based Apprentice Program consists of a team of young leaders who
28
have received training in census outreach, voter registration, and get out the vote work. In 2011,
a number of these leaders have continued as stipended staff, supporting the growth of the
League‘s presence in the states listed above. In 2012, the League may add North Carolina and
Mississippi.
In order to discover the next group of young leaders the training team has traveled the country
holding week long ―Tunnel Builder‖ training institutes, a mix of leadership development, civic
engagement, and discussions of issues that affect youth locally. In each institute, the League
trains 25 young people, with the goal of finding those most invested in effecting change in their
neighborhoods. The identified candidates will then take part in a national institute to select those
young people who are ready for a full-time role in the State Based Apprentice Program in 2012.
This system was implemented successfully at the local level in Milwaukee through a program
that is supported by a Campaign for Black Male Achievement grantee, Beyond the Bricks.
League of Young Voters leaders in Houston are running a similar program this summer, seeking
out candidates that will eventually become team members in its largest voter registration effort to
date. The State Based Apprentice Program team there will team up with Project Vote to register
over 80,000 new young Black and Latino voters.
Beyond its on the ground voter engagement work, the League was an early adopter of social
media organizing tools and has gained traction through recent online engagement efforts. These
include:
Working with several hip hop and political publications and organizations to present
―Roadmap to Progress: State of the Union 2011,‖ an event that streamed live online and
reached an audience of over 9,000 people.
Launching youngvoterlive.com, a site that plays host to interactive conversations with
bloggers, rappers, and celebrities about issues that affect youth.
Launching a web-site that allows users to upload their voter guides, www.theballot.org,
to quickly look up their city and find a discussion about issues and candidates. In 2010,
with a last minute push starting in late October, the League reached 150,000 voters on
Election Day alone. In the past, this site was run by the League‘s political action
committee. To reach a broader base of voters in 2012, the League plans to run the site in
an exclusively non-partisan fashion via its 501(c)(3).
U.S. Programs, via the Democracy and Power Fund and the Campaign for Black Male
Achievement, recommends a renewal grant of $375,000 over one year for general support to the
League of Young Voters Education Fund in recognition of its work to catalyze youth
engagement in open society advocacy and to expand non-partisan voter participation from Black,
Latino, low-income, and youth constituencies.
29
The League fills an important niche as one of the only national, non-partisan voter engagement
organizations that focuses on young people of color who are not primarily based on college
campuses (despite gains in college enrollment, still only about a third of young people between
18-24 are enrolled in college full-time). It has capably engaged tens of thousands of young
people in elections and in advocacy to push for federal funding for summer youth jobs and
efforts to stop youth violence and reduce barriers to college access. In 2012, the League‘s work
will be especially important as the enthusiasm of young people for the 2008 election has waned.
The League will play a key role in articulating the importance of the election for its young
constituents and connecting their lives with the important choices that the ballot provides.
Additionally, the League is an important early warning system on the impact of the conservative
new state voting access laws, which will likely inhibit youth participation. In this summer‘s
Wisconsin recall elections, the League tracked how new voter identification laws were impacting
its constituency, vitally important information that could support future voting rights litigation.
The proposed grant to the League also advances CBMA‘s priorities of (1) strengthening
leadership development and civic engagement of black males; (2) investing in promising
practices and model organizations that advocate to improving life outcomes for black men and
boys in the Campaign‘s target-region of Milwaukee, WI; and (3) supporting advocacy and
organizing efforts that empower black males.
We believe that the League‘s multi-year and locally-driven strategic model is an important factor
in building the trust, skills, and power necessary not only to increase young voter turnout in the
short term but also to leverage long-term change from a new generation of engaged young
leaders. The League works across silos and social networks, and is committed to collaboration,
working with ally organizations (and current grantees) including the United States Student
Association and Black Youth Vote!, to build greater youth advocacy impact.
The League‘s issue-driven work overlaps with many priorities of U.S. Programs, including work
that addresses juvenile incarceration and education access. In Wisconsin, the local League
worked to close gun sale loopholes and to reduce violence amongst youth of color. In Maine, its
state affiliate won state legislation that would keep young people in state for college with a
pledge to reduce their student loans if they stayed in state after graduating. In Portland, Maine,
the League led a 2010 referendum campaign to allow non-citizens with school aged children to
vote in school board elections. The campaign was narrowly defeated.
The League is led by Robert ―Biko‖ Baker. Well respected in the youth engagement field, Baker
began his career with the League as an organizer in his hometown of Milwaukee. From the
perspective of D&P staff, Baker embodies the spirit and energy of the League‘s work and has the
experience and background to understand the perspectives of its constituents. Baker is, however,
stretched thin and, following a series of organizational cutbacks that began following the
departure of the League‘s founding executive director in 2008, has placed a heavier emphasis on
internal operations. Nevertheless, Baker regularly participates in Campaign for Black Male
Achievement convenings and calls, and both CBMA and D&P staff often check-in to assess how
the organization is handling its operations, achieving stability, and performing at a level that
these challenging times – and its constituents – demand.
30
Grant ID: 20033647
Legal Name of Organization: National Council of La Raza
Purpose of Grant: to enable the National Council of La Raza to integrate

Democracia-USA, a non-partisan voter engagement
organization, into its civic engagement program
Grant Description: To support the National Council of La Raza‘s development

of a non-partisan voter engagement program for the
nation‘s Latino community in 2012. This project grant will
enable NCLR to thoughtfully and thoroughly integrate
Democracia USA, one of the nation‘s strongest and most
effective Latino voter participation organizations into its
overall civic engagement program. The National Council
of La Raza has previously served as the of La Raza has
previously served as the fiscal sponsor for Democracia, a
Miami-based national voter engagement group, but will
now fully absorb its operations. With an effective merger
and subsequent development of a large-scale, strategic, and
rigorous plan for Latino voter engagement in 2012, NCLR,
formerly a voter participation ―sleeping giant,‖ can become
a voter powerhouse, aggregating Democracia‘s voter
registration strength in the field with NCLR‘s historic base
of 300 largely direct service local affiliates. This grant is in
addition to OSF‘s existing NCLR general support funding
and would advance the Democracy and Power Fund‘s goals
to catalyze large scale, non-partisan voter engagement
among the most marginalized communities, in this instance
the increasingly powerful Latino community.

$975,000 from Equality and Opportunity Fund
(2011-2013)
2009)
$650,000 from USJ – Immigrants‘ Rights (2004-
2011)
$300,000 from USJ – Re-entry (2000-2002)
31
2011)
$285,000 from USJ Policy & Res/Public Ed (2002)
$200,000 from USP Immigration Innovation (2007)
$200,000 from Seize the Day (2009-2011)
$200,000 from Neighborhood Stabilization (2009 –
2011)
$175,000 from US Programs General (2001-2003)
$100,000 from Government Pol Dev (1999)
Project Budget: $1,200,000

Four Freedoms Fund $250,000
Term: 8 months, beginning July 1, 2011
The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy
organization in the United States, works to improve opportunities for Latinos. Through its
network of nearly 300 affiliated community-based organizations, NCLR reaches millions of
Latinos each year in 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. Founded in 1968, the
National Council of La Raza is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization headquartered in
Washington, DC. It serves all Latino subgroups in all regions of the country and has operations
in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Antonio, and San Juan,
Puerto Rico. NCLR has been the fiscal sponsor for of Democracia U.S.A.
The National Council of La Raza is requesting support to assist it in integrating with Democracia
U.S.A. (D-USA), a Miami-based Latino voter registration, civic engagement, and leadership
development organization, in a thoughtful and thorough manner. The grant will support merger
related expenses that NCLR is absorbing, along with the development and launching of a 2012
voter participation plan that is strategic and large-scale in its engagement of Latino communities
across the nation.
32
Voter Registration, Education and Mobilization
Since its inception in 2004, Democracia U.S.A. has registered more than 400,000 new Latino
voters, 30 percent of whom are young voters aged 18-29 and 55 percent of whom are women. In
2008, Democracia registered 138,605 new Latino voter registrants, including 72,969 in Florida,
34,196 in Pennsylvania, 9,978 in Nevada, 5,782 in Arizona, 14,590 in New Jersey, and 1,090 in
Colorado, surpassing its original goal by more than 30,000 applications. The Latino electorate
was increased by 11 percent in Nevada, ten percent in Pennsylvania, six percent in Florida and
New Jersey, two percent in Arizona, and more than one percent in Colorado, where Democracia
only conducted a two-week voter registration along with in-state allies. Additionally, in 2008
Democracia educated and registered more than 43,500 new Latino young voters.
Democracia U.S.A. commissioned Bendixen and Associates, among the most prominent Latino
pollsters, to conduct a poll of registered voters to ascertain the turnout rate of voters that it
registered. The poll found that ―95 percent of Democracia U.S.A. registrants were able to vote in
the 2008 presidential election.‖ In the voter registration field, a number this high reveals a very
effectively managed, detail oriented operation.
In 2010, the organization registered 102,661 voters, of which 94.3% were successfully matched
to official voter files, another very high rate of accuracy that reflects Democracia‘s attention to
detail and its ability to conduct large-scale work while maintaining quality and integrity. This
contrasts with the voter registration work of some organizations that place priority on volume
without integrity, leaving many people who thought they had registered off of the voter rolls. In
2010, Democracia produced approximately 20% of all voter registration applications that were
gathered by progressive organizations and, reflecting the lower numbers overall for voter
registration in 2010, applications submitted by the organization represented 62% of all newly
registered voters in Florida, 50% in Nevada, 36% in Pennsylvania, 25% in Texas, and 20% in
Colorado. Democracia then turned its attention to its get out the vote program, where it
distributed thousands of literature pieces at Latino households and key community locations and
focused more narrowly on voter turnout of 39,185 infrequent voters. To conduct the work,
Democracia trained more than 400 canvassers and volunteers to serve as effective messengers on
the importance of getting out the vote in the 2010 midterm elections.
Leadership Training
After the elections, and as part of its efforts to create an empowered Latino community, D-USA
engages its canvassers and activists in Leadership Academy trainings that it provides during off-
election years. Academies run for a full-day once a week for nine weeks. The trainings are
structured through a series of modules that include topics such as public speaking, introduction
to government, laws and lobbying, campaigns and organizing, communications and media, issue
briefings, and personal leadership development. Participants, who usually come from the low-
income communities where Democracia conducts its voter engagement work, make the
commitment to participate in these sessions even though some have steady day-time jobs. To
compensate for the loss of income that participants incur during the rigorous nine weeks of
training, Democracia compensates participants with a $100 stipend per session completed.
Democracia U.S.A. and National Council of La Raza Merger
33
Democracia had long been a fiscally sponsored project, first with the People for the American
Way Foundation and, since 2008, with the National Council of La Raza. It has operated
independently, with separate offices, supervisory structures, fundraising, and program
development processes and had enjoyed a degree of programmatic success despite its internal
management, particularly fiscal management, being less than ideal. Earlier this year, NCLR
called the question with Democracia, stating that its revenues were insufficient to cover its
operations, including its staffing, field offices, and programmatic expenses. This sparked a very
contentious process to identify whether and how Democracia would be able to survive. The
organizations‘ principals, Janet Murguia, NCLR‘s President, and Jorge Mursuli, Democracia‘s
Executive Director, worked through this process with their staff but, in the spring, reached a
stalemate, largely over funding but also about how an integration of Democracia could occur
with NCLR. At that time, key allies in the voter field, including Center for Community Change
executive director, Deepak Bhargava, and in the voter funding field, including OSF, Carnegie
Corporation, and the Ford Foundation (the three leading Latino voter engagement funders and
supporters of both Democracia and NCLR) were asked to join in the merger conversations.
OSF staff participated in this process over a period of three months and recommended that
Democracia‘s work was important to continue, in some form, because its scale, rigor, and
expertise would be difficult to recreate in time for the all-important 2012 election. At that time,
the merger conversations began to make forward progress, resulting in a staff integration plan, an
emergency plan for stabilizing Democracia‘s finances, and discussions about the real political
power that could emerge from such a merger. The merger has now occurred, Democracia‘s
Mursuli has moved to a consulting role, and a senior NCLR staffer will oversee all civic
engagement operations, working closely with key Democracia staff who were asked to join
NCLR‘s staff. The potential political and programmatic benefits of this merger are significant
and D&P staff are encouraged by early reports of the merger. D&P staff remain closely engaged
in all aspects of this delicate process. A strategic planning process for a large-scale 2012 voter
engagement program is now under development.
U.S. Programs, via the Democracy and Power Fund, recommends a grant of $300,000 over eight
months to the National Council of La Raza for its integration of Democracia USA and for the
development of a strategic, large-scale, and rigorous plan for non-partisan Latino voter
engagement in 2012. Staff make this recommendation in recognition of Democracia‘s and
NCLR‘s important work to enhance civic engagement, including large-scale voter participation,
in Latino communities across the nation.
Latinos are the fastest growing demographic in this country but also have the lowest level of
relative voter representation of any group. In 2008, Latino eligible voters accounted for 9.5% of
all eligible voters, up from 8.2% in 2004, but accounted for only 7.4% of the record 131 million
people who voted, a 22% decline from the 9.5% potential turnout. In 2010, Latino voters were a
rare bright spot in an election that was otherwise dismal for progressives. Latino voter
participation in California, Colorado, and Nevada was widely credited with stopping the wave of
victories catalyzed by the Tea Party in key U.S. Senate races; and, demonstrating the
community‘s bipartisan tendencies, several key elections were won by Latino conservatives,
34
including new Latino Republican governors in New Mexico and Nevada and the U.S. Senate
election of conservative firebrand Marco Rubio from Florida. Consequently, the Latino
community, now over 16% of the nation‘s population, is very much a target for investment for
politicians and interest groups of all political stripes.
Widely recognized since 2006 as one of the highest quality large scale civic engagement
organizations, Democracia aims to improve the participation of Latinos in the democratic
process through voter empowerment, leadership training, and civic participation within the
Latino community. Democracia is working in a wide national field and filling a gap where
historically there has been a lack of funding and infrastructure. As this has been a priority, the
Democracy and Power Fund has increased its investment in Latino civic engagement by more
than 100% since 2008 through groups that include NALEO, Voto Latino, Presenté, and others.
Despite its good name recognition and reputation, Democracia was still a relatively small
organization, with only 30 total staff, including only 10 full-time field staff covering six states
and four regional offices. Its capacity was complemented by limited support from its fiscal
sponsor, National Council of La Raza.
NCLR is the nation‘s largest and most influential Latino advocacy organization. It has an
unparalleled profile for Latino groups in Washington, DC, is known for its effective advocacy on
Capitol Hill. The organization has an interesting and intricate structure, with its tradition of
corporate funding and its 300 largely direct service based local affiliates that often receive
government funding. Despite the complexities of balancing the interests of service agencies and
corporate donors with a robust and high quality federal advocacy program, NCLR has great
impact on many issues of concern to OSF, including immigration reform, economic opportunity,
educational justice, housing justice, criminal justice reform, and efforts to combat structural
inequality.
NCLR has long been a ―sleeping giant‖ in the civic engagement field, with only 10% of its
affiliates conducting any relevant voter participation (registration, education, and mobilization)
work. While it saw the benefits of Democracia‘s work and welcomed it as a fiscally sponsored
entity, it did little to integrate Democracia into its overall operations. While the merger of NCLR
and Democracia was forced due to a tough financial situation, D&P staff are now very
encouraged by the way in which the merger has caused LCLR to re-imagine its role in
galvanizing Latino voter participation.
Democracia‘s core strength is in field-based voter registration, conducted via door to door work
or site-based efforts at public transportation stops, community events, and high volume
pedestrian traffic locations. Through this, it projects that it can register upwards of 150,000
voters in the 2012 elections. NCLR‘s core strength is in its advocacy, name recognition, and
network of locally rooted affiliates. Many of the 300 affiliates are direct service agencies that
have a deep connection to their clients and communities and who could, with investment and
training, complement their work with civic engagement. NCLR estimates that through a more
robust civic engagement plan for its affiliates, it could likely register at least 100,000 new voters
in 2012, perhaps more. Thus, the combined numbers for voter registration for the 2012 election
could be 250,000 at a minimum, which would place NCLR in the upper ranks of progressive
35
nonprofit voter registration groups and give it a sizable base from which to conduct voter
education, mobilization, and protection work in the final weeks of the 2012 election.
With the rising political power of the Latino community, now more 50 million strong in the U.S.
and expanding beyond its traditional centers of California, Florida, New Mexico, and New York
and into states such as Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, it is essential that there
is effective organizational structure through which civic engagement can occur. The tremendous
potential of the merger of Democracia with the National Council of La Raza at such an important
time leads us to make this recommendation.
36
Grant ID: 20033645
Legal Name of Organization: Action Institute NC
Grant Description: To support the Action Institute NC, a Charlotte, North

Carolina-based organization that uses grassroots education,
training, organization and mobilization to confront and
reduce the root causes of poverty, underdevelopment, and
social and economic inequality in North Carolina. Action
NC‘s campaigns include protecting the economic safety
net, expanding health access and implementing health care
reform, protecting immigrants‘ rights, and advancing
voting rights and non-partisan voter engagement. This
grant would advance a Democracy and Power Fund state-
based goal to enhance the advocacy impact of organizations
in states facing rapid demographic shifts and that work in
people of color, low-income, and immigrant communities,
particularly in the Fund‘s demonstration state of North
Carolina.
Previous OSI Support: n/a
Project Budget: n/a
Major Sources of Support: Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation $135,000

Ford Foundation $100,000
Unitarian Universalist/Veatch $ 40,000
Health Care for America Now $ 30,000
Social Security Works $ 20,000
37
Term: 1 year, beginning October 1, 2011
Action Institute NC (AINC) is a Charlotte, North Carolina based organization that uses
grassroots education, training, organization and mobilization to confront and reduce the root
causes of poverty, underdevelopment, and social and economic inequality throughout the state.
Action NC‘s campaigns include protecting the social safety net, expanding health care access
and implementing health care reform, protecting immigrants‘ rights, improving public education,
and advancing voting rights and non-partisan voter engagement.
Incorporated in March 2011, Action Institute NC is a 501(c)(3) organization. Its sister 501(c)(4)
organization, Action NC, has members for whom the Action Institute provides training and
technical assistance. Action Institute employs a variety of traditional neighborhood organizing
techniques to build lists and membership, including door-to-door canvassing, site-based
petitioning and surveying, and attendance at public events where they can petition.
Action NC‘s membership is comprised mostly of African Americans (60%) and Latinos (35%)
and its leadership development prepares its members to be in a stronger position to influence
policy choices that have far-reaching economic and social consequences for themselves, their
families, and their communities.
Statewide, Action Institute has led coalitions on health care reform and implementation, the
protection of Medicare and Medicaid, and the protection of Social Security from privatization
threats. It was also a convening organization of the Alliance for Fair Redistricting and Minority
Voting Rights, a coalition of community groups and non-profits participating in the redistricting
process at the state legislature. It has also actively participated in efforts to stop several
legislative measures to disenfranchise voters, most notably voter identification legislation that
was introduced in 2011. Action Institute is an active partner in the work of Together NC (a
North Carolina Justice Center-led alliance that is supported, in part, by OSF) to modernize the
state‘s revenue system and create a more progressive tax structure. It is also an active participant
in expanding the grassroots base of the Coalition for Responsible Lending.
Locally, Action Institute‘s work takes place in Charlotte, the state‘s largest city, and in Durham,
a historic center of state activism, particularly on criminal justice and racial justice issues. In
these cities, Action Institute works in low-wealth communities to develop a broader base of
grassroots leaders capable of planning and executing campaigns, working with coalition partners,
representing positions effectively to public and private officials and in the media.
In Durham, its two community chapters have worked on a host of neighborhood issues that affect
the quality of life of the mostly low-income persons who reside in Action Institute‘s targeted
neighborhoods, including a ―ban the box‖ campaign to reduce employment discrimination
against persons with felony convictions. In Charlotte, Action Institute has organized four
immigrant apartment complexes and won victories against abusive landlords and property
38
managers. Currently, it is fighting to change a discriminatory local ordinance that has driven
Latino lunch truck vendors out of business and to have the city council include translation
services at its meetings. It has also worked closely with the local NAACP to oppose
discriminatory public school closures in African-American neighborhoods and has also held two
public meetings where community members aired their complaints about anti-immigrant 287g
and ―Secure Communities‖ enforcement. Action Institute is working with Mecklenburg County
law enforcement officials to establish policies and procedures to protect against racial profiling
and is advocating for the county to opt out of the federal Secure Communities program.
The recommendation is for general support.
U.S. Programs, via the Democracy and Power Fund, recommends a grant of $75,000 over one
year to Action Institute NC for general support in recognition of its work to expand the open
society advocacy impact of Black and Latino communities in its fast changing state. With this
grant, Action Institute would join a cohort of organizations working to strengthen the open
society advocacy infrastructure of North Carolina, a demonstration state for the Fund.
As Democracy and Power Fund staff detailed in its June 2010 memo summarizing its strategies
for North Carolina and Texas, its two demonstration states, North Carolina has a robust tradition
of in-state funding for legislative advocacy. Indeed, it has several organizations that are known
nationally for their effective legislative work. What has been lacking in the state, as confirmed
by advocates and peer funders alike, is a strategy to ensure that large numbers of state residents
are engaged in advocacy efforts. The state had a tough election in 2010 and now, for the first
time since 1898, has a conservative majority in both chambers of the legislature.
D&P staff believe that, without investment in efforts to engage large numbers of Black, Latino,
low-income, and young people in advocacy and voting, the state will begin to take a sustained
turn in an anti-open society direction. This would be especially troubling since the state has long
considered itself to be a ―progressive‖ southern state. Recent open society successes, including
the Racial Justice Act on death penalty prosecutions, public financing for judicial elections,
universal pre-voter registration for teenagers, and anti-bullying legislation to protect gay and
lesbian youth show that the state has great potential to model a different vision for southern
public policy than that which typically comes from state capitals south of the Mason Dixon line.
From D&P‘s due diligence, Action Institute NC provides critically needed organizing and
leadership development and builds effective Black/Brown alliances, much needed in a state that
has had a very rapid rate of Latino population growth over the past decade. The organization is
led by Pat McCoy, a long-time organizer and advocate who began his career in 1977 in Durham.
McCoy has spent 21 years organizing with Carolina Action and the former North Carolina
ACORN and has served in a number of leadership capacities at the state, regional, and national
levels. In 1992, he graduated from Northeastern University School of Law and spent seven years
doing trial and post-conviction work in capital punishment cases. He returned to ACORN in
39
Washington, DC in 1999 and has been organizing ever since. McCoy has been active in anti-
death penalty activism and served on the boards of People of Faith Against the Death Penalty (an
OSF grantee via the Criminal Justice Fund) and Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation.
Following the demise of ACORN in 2010, McCoy formed Action NC and the Action Institute to
fill a void in the state‘s social justice organizational community.
This year North Carolina saw a significant change in the state legislature, with many new officeholders
and the aforementioned conservative majority in both chambers. Many of the legislative proposals
being advanced, including voter identification, cuts to public programs that serve the most vulnerable,
and attacks on public education and higher education funding, could have a devastating impact on
people of color, low-income, and immigrant families and communities. This past year, post-2010
election, has been a wake-up call for many advocates in North Carolina about the need for greater
community engagement beyond the State Capital. D&P staff are pleased to make this recommendation
for this promising emerging organization.
40
Grant ID: 20033701
Legal Name of Organization: Air Traffic Control Education Fund Inc.
Grant Description: To provide renewed general support to the Air Traffic

Control Education Fund, a San Francisco-based
organization that connects musicians, with large bases of
supporters, to activists, advocacy organizations, and
campaigns to advance open society. Air Traffic Control
provides coordination, capacity building, and consulting for
artists to produce stronger relationships with social change
advocates on issues such as building a green economy,
advancing immigrants‘ rights, and rebuilding New Orleans.
This grant would advance a Democracy and Power Fund
goal to utilize arts and culture as a vehicle to inspire
broader public engagement in open society advocacy.

2009)
$11,060 from Strategic Opportunities Fund (2009)
Organization Budget: $876,819.88
Project Budget: n/a

Nathan Cummings Foundation $100,000
McKay Foundation $50,000
Wallace Global Fund $40,000
Term: 2 years, beginning January 1, 2012
41
Air Traffic Control Education Fund (ATC), based in San Francisco, California, helps musicians
lend their talents and their high profile positions to social change by connecting them to activists,
organizations, and issue campaigns. Established in 2005, ATC has served as a trusted team of
leaders who provide resources and tools that help musicians and their managers create more
effective social change collaborations with each other and with social justice organizations. ATC
researches ways to increase and leverage the positive impact of musicians who engage their
audiences in social change. It helps connect artists to advocacy organizations and advises both
parties on ways to use concerts, festivals and online social networks such as Facebook to engage
fans and youth in activism.
Air Traffic Control‘s priority issues include:
The New Orleans recovery, especially the five year anniversary of the flooding, post-
Katrina, and the British Petroleum oil disaster
The financial crisis and recovery around the recession through working with housing and
homeless advocacy groups
Non-partisan voter registration and getting out the vote in 2012
Immigration reform, in particular the music community‘s response to Arizona‘s
discriminatory State Senate Bill 1070.
Climate change, including engaging fans and artists in reducing carbon emissions
Enhancing the sustainability of non-corporate community radio by conducting interviews
with high profile artists in order to help draw attention and listenership
Humanitarian relief advocacy and fundraising recommendations to catalyze artist and fan
engagement around the natural disasters in Haiti and Pakistan
In the past two years, Air Traffic Control has grown its organizational and membership capacity
by doubling its network of musicians and managers from 250 to over 500; increasing its web site
traffic to two thousand visits per month; and playing a critical role in expanding artist initiated
fundraising for social justice organizations. For the latter, Air Traffic Control has launched a
program to help raise and direct funds from artists and their fans more efficiently, including
ticket surcharges, working with online music sales platforms to enable software to accept
donations, and producing earned income events and products. In 2010, the organization raised
$164,765 for grassroots partners and directed another $100,000 in donations to a variety of
organizations, including the Gulf Restoration Network, The Innocence Project, Free Press,
Sustainable South Bronx, and the Illinois Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.
ATC documents successes on its website, encourages public discussion through press outreach,
and acts as a clearinghouse for information about activism in the music community. Resources
that it provides that are most utilized by musicians include those on voter registration, critical
voting populations, political and geographical strategies related to touring, and information on
local and national voter protection, voter registration, and get out the vote campaigns.
42
U.S. Programs, via the Democracy and Power Fund, recommends a renewal grant of $150,000
over two years to Air Traffic Control for general support in recognition of its innovative work to
use art and culture to engage artists and their fans in open society advocacy.
Air Traffic Control provides a unique niche among D&P grantees in that it reaches musicians
who have the potential to have much greater reach than typical advocacy campaigns. For
example, via the fan bases of musicians with whom it works, Air Traffic Control affiliated
performers who have joined its campaign in New Orleans have reached more than 46 million
listeners. The organization has also documented that many of the lesser known artists with
whom it works have email lists in the tens of thousands while the emails lists of more prominent
artists are in the millions. While the email lists of these artists does not constitute a typical
organizational membership base nor, by themselves, lead to social change, the use of key
―influencers‖ such as musicians is an important layer in creating social change. Because of the
way that music reaches people, the connection that many musicians have to their fans, and vice
versa, is often much deeper than that which an advocacy organization has with its constituents
and members. Utilizing this power, Air Traffic Control is able to marshal greater public
engagement on issues such as immigration, climate change, and New Orleans displacement.
Based on D&P staff due diligence, Air Traffic Control is the only organization of its kind and it
serves as a model for campaigns and other organizations to more effectively use art and culture
as an innovative tool for activism and advocacy. It offers indispensable services to high profile
artists who need tools for engagement as well as strategic advice to advocacy organizations and
issue campaign leaders. Air Traffic Control is staffed by experienced leaders who are trusted
and respected artists and activists themselves. Its founder and executive director, Erin Potts,
began her career by creating and producing the highly successful Tibetan Freedom Concerts in
conjunction with popular hip-hop group the Beastie Boys. This was a path breaking effort that
engaged hundreds of popular musicians, raised millions of dollars to support activism, and
mobilized tens of thousands of highly committed young activists through its partnership with
Students for a Free Tibet. Through Air Traffic Control, this success can now be replicated,
perhaps on a smaller scale, for a number of campaigns. D&P staff are therefore pleased to make
this recommendation.
43
Grant ID: 20033704
Legal Name of Organization: Center for Artistic Activism, LLC
Tax Status: Limited Liability Corporation (LLC)
Name of Fiscal Sponsor: School for Creative Activism
Purpose of Grant: to enable the School for Creative Activism to strengthen

advocacy on criminal justice reform, economic and racial
justice, and immigrants‘ rights through the use of art and
culture
Grant Description: To support the School for Creative Activism, a project of

the New York-based Center for Artistic Activism, an
innovative thought partner on utilizing art and culture to
strengthen open society advocacy and an effective trainer in
cultural organizing strategies for social justice
organizations. The School for Creative Activism will,
through multi-day training sessions for OSF grantees,
support the development of creative cultural strategies that
benefit ongoing advocacy on criminal justice reform,
economic opportunity, racial justice, and immigrants‘
rights. This grant would advance the Democracy and
Power Fund‘s goal to utilize art and culture as an
innovative means to enhance participation in open society
advocacy.

$45,000 from Democracy and Power Fund (2010)
Organization Budget: n/a
Project Budget: $75,000
Major Sources of Support: n/a
44
The Center for Artistic Activism, LLC was created as an alternative publishing house that
specializes in collective authorship, workshop series, and the integration of narrative and image
with contemporary political struggles. The LLC provides a platform for its founders, established
cultural professionals and social justice strategists, to reach out to various communities and
organizations to assess how they could more effectively engage their constituents on social
justice issues.
Description of Project
The School for Creative Activism is a participatory workshop infusing community organizing
and civic engagement with culture and creativity. Working directly with organizers and
community actors, the School for Creative Activism leverages the strengths of activism and art
through a curriculum that is designed to:
teach cultural tactics and creative strategies employed effectively by organizers in the past
recognize and draw upon the cultural resources and creative talents residing within
individuals, organizations, and communities
collectively run scenarios and plan campaigns that utilize culture and creativity
build a network of organizers and artists using a model of creative organizing that can be
more effective in a media-saturated and spectacle-savvy world.
The School for Creative Activism is a new project, established in 2010, but draws upon and
extends the success of the College of Tactical Culture, an initiative run at New York City‘s
Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology during the summer of 2009. The initiative brought
together artists, activists, urban planners, designers, and technologists to share skills and
brainstorm creative tactics for social change and civic engagement. The School for Creative
Activism will bring together OSF grantees engaged in community organizing from multiple
funds and initiatives in two to three multi-day workshops. These will include:
discussions of what cultural organizing is and how it can be effectively employed to more
successfully advance social justice
a history of the use of culture as an organizing tactic
skill sharing where participants study the ways they have used and may in the future use
cultural organizing
tests where participants will be challenged, post-workshop sessions, to develop new
cultural organizing projects for the benefit of ongoing advocacy campaigns.
The School for Creative Activism is now in its second year. With support from OSF, the School
developed a new cultural organizing curriculum and ran two weekend workshops in early 2011,
one at the Stone Circles retreat center in Mebane, North Carolina, and the other at the Eyebeam
Center for Art and Technology in New York. Each workshop recruited candidates through a
competitive application process, which narrowed the participants down to 15 per training
session. The trainings engaged a diverse pool of organizers from a wide range of local, state, and
45
national organizations, including many OSF grantees. Participants left the trainings with
workplans for the integration of creative cultural organizing tactics into existing advocacy
campaigns.
year to support the School of Creative Activism in recognition of its work to utilize cultural
organizing as an innovative means to inspire public participation in open society advocacy.
The Democracy and Power Fund supports a wide range of organizations that utilize many
approaches to engaging people and communities in open society advocacy. The Fund supports
congregation-based engagement and community organizing, constituency-based work, and issue
specific advocacy. As D&P staff assesses what strategies appear to be working in a time of great
political and economic challenges and information overload for many, the role of art and culture
in inspiring people to become active in advocacy is increasingly important. Creativity taps into
an expertise that many people possess but often do not think of applying to the "serious business"
of politics. Even if most of us don‘t compose symphonies or paint majestic landscapes, we may
listen to music on our iPods, perform songs in our congregations, upload videos we‘ve made to
YouTube, assemble scrapbooks with our friends, and watch TV or read books before we go to
bed. ―I‘m not political‖ is a phrase one hears often; it is much rarer, however, to find someone
who does not identify with some form of culture or creativity either as a participant or fan. As
such, culture has the capacity to act as an access point that advocates can use to engage people
who may be otherwise alienated from typical calls to civic participation. Some would argue that
cultural creativity is often the possession of those – youth, people of color, low-income people,
immigrants, and the LGBTQ community – that are most marginalized from formal spheres of
politics, law, and education.
From the spectacle of the Boston Tea Party, to the ―strategic dramaturgy‖ of the Civil Rights
movement, to the media-savvy of ACT-UP, culture has been used across the centuries in political
activities to reach and engage a broad public. As activism has become more specialized, residing
in the areas of law and policy, social justice advocates have lost their ability to effectively
translate and connect advances (and threats) to democracy to a broader public.
Creativity is essential to good advocacy as it keeps activists from clinging to stagnant tactics that
may no longer be effective. Tens of thousands of people marched in the streets protesting the
American War in Iraq, but broader public sentiment began to turn against the war when the
mother of a dead soldier staged an encampment outside of the President's vacation home. When
the Iraq Veterans Against the War decided to protest, they didn't stage a sit-in and they didn't
march on the Capital. Instead they acted out the same military operations they did in Iraq and
Afghanistan on the streets of U.S. cities. This moving performance by veterans – street theater
for the 21st century – captured the attention of both passersby and the media.
The School of Creative Activism is run by Stephen Duncombe and Steve Lambert. Duncombe
has over two decades of experience as both a teacher and an organizer with a PhD in sociology
from the CUNY Graduate Center. He has taught in the City and State Universities of New York
46
and is currently a professor of media and politics at New York University. While at SUNY, he
received the prestigious Chancellor‘s Award for Teaching. He also co-founded the multi-issue
community activist group, the Lower East Side Collective in the 1990s. Lambert, who holds an
MFA from the University of California at Davis, teaches creative activism in Hunter College's
graduate InterMedia Arts program and teaches a variety of courses at Parsons: The New School
for Design. A research fellow at the Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology OpenLab, he is the
founder of the Anti-Advertising Agency and the lead developer of Add-Art, a Firefox browser
add-on that creatively and subversively replaces online advertising with art.
As skilled teachers and long-time activists, Duncombe and Lambert developed a new curriculum
to challenge social justice activists to more strategically use culture as a vehicle to inspire
broader and deeper engagement in advocacy campaigns. They tested their curriculum at the two
sessions for OSF grantees earlier this year and, based on participants‘ feedback, an outside
evaluator‘s report, and the School for Creative Activism‘s own evaluation, they received positive
reviews. Activists working to advance criminal justice reform, immigrant‘s rights, racial justice,
LGBTQ equality, and economic opportunity all found the training to be helpful in developing
cultural organizing strategies that have begun to strengthen their campaigns. Duncombe and
Lambert also heard suggestions for improving the curriculum and allowing participants to design
cultural organizing campaigns while at the training. For the next series of sessions, participants
will study the ways in which cultural creativity has been employed for raising awareness,
building organizations, influencing advocacy, and drafting policy.
While this is a somewhat non-traditional recommendation for the Democracy and Power Fund,
the current advocacy predicament – open society advocates seem to be stuck between the real
and faux populism of the Right while still unable to effectively pressure a president whom they
fundamentally like but who has not lived up to expectations – makes this a calculated risk. With
more organizations and campaigns exploring engagement strategies beyond the predictable
approaches, these small breakthroughs can provide broader lessons to open society advocates.
With that in mind, D&P staff are pleased to offer this recommendation for the School for
Creative Activism.
47
Grant ID: 20033646
Legal Name of Organization: Center for Participatory Change
Grant Description: To provide general support to the Center for Participatory

Change a multi-issue support organization working across
the 25 counties of Western North Carolina and with
Appalachian, Black, Latino immigrant, and Native
American (Cherokee) communities. Each year, the Center
for Participatory Change supports up to 50 grassroots
groups that work for racial, social and economic justice.
The Center strengthens the advocacy impact of its partner
groups, placing priority on work in communities that have
been marginalized from mainstream political and economic
systems, particularly those in low-wealth communities of
color. This grant advances a Democracy and Power Fund
strategy to invest in promising local and statewide open
society organizations in North Carolina, a demonstration
state for the Fund.

(2010)
Project Budget: n/a
Major Sources of Support: Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation $70,000

Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation $60,000
Ms. Foundation $30,000
48
The Center for Participatory Change (the Center) is a grassroots support organization working
across the 25 counties of Western North Carolina. The Center‘s mission is to help local residents
recognize their own power, work together, and transform their communities. Its goal is to
support groups of people living in low-wealth and marginalized communities as they develop the
capacity, confidence, and collective power needed to move themselves, their families, and their
communities out of poverty.
Each year, the Center supports 40 to 50 grassroots groups and networks working for racial, social
and economic justice. It places priority on work with people and groups that have been
marginalized from mainstream political and economic systems, particularly those in low-wealth
communities of color. Of the groups CPC supported over the past three years, approximately
43% have been Latino, 24% African American, 17% multiracial, 10% European American, 3%
Cherokee and 1% Hmong; this is notable in a rural part of the state that is only 20% people of
color. Around 75% of the core leaders in these groups are women and most of the groups are
small with budgets between $5,000 and $75,000. These leaders and groups are the Center‘s
constituency, and its work is driven by and accountable to these grassroots partners.
The Center for Participatory Change undertakes the following activities:

Community organizing: both taking the lead on organizing efforts, especially around
immigrants‘ rights, and supporting grassroots groups in their own organizing efforts.
Grassroots leadership development: providing capacity building, skills training,

encouragement, and networking opportunities to African American, Latino, Cherokee,
Hmong and white Appalachian grassroots leaders.
Supporting the development of grassroots groups and organizations: from the initial
organizing stages to long term sustainability, helping grassroots groups build strong and
resilient organizations so that they can carry out effective projects and programs for racial
and economic justice.
Supporting cooperative business development: enhancing the sustainability of small

grassroots groups that are comprised of low wealth individuals by supporting and
organizing worker-owned businesses, from initial business plans to decision making
structures to pricing and marketing.
Resource programs: including The Western North Carolina Self Development Fund, a
micro-grants program, and a VISTA Program where the Center sponsors and trains 15
VISTA volunteers annually who are placed with its partner organizations.
49
The work that the Center provides looks different for each of its partners. For example, its work
with a well-established African American community center facilitated a six-month strategic
planning process. Its work with a new immigrant women‘s cleaning cooperative helped it to
organize the workers, write a business plan, develop budgets and salaries, and work with
customers. A consistent core principle of the Center‘s work is that the people in the group direct
and control their own work.
Beyond its local leadership in immigrant‘s rights advocacy and its connections to statewide
alliances, the Center for Participatory Change prioritizes economic justice work. It does this
because the south is the least unionized region of the United States, and North Carolina is the
least unionized state in the country. Violations of workplace safety, hiring, overtime, and wage
laws are standard practice for many businesses, and even for entire industries. Although the
recession provides a convenient excuse for employers to reduce pay, cut benefits, and ignore
poor working conditions, economic improvement depends upon fairly treated and fairly paid
workers. The Center for Participatory Change‘s primary partner in this work is Just Economics,
a local group that won a living wage ordinance in the city of Asheville in 2008. In 2011, the
Center will support advocacy efforts to extend that policy to businesses that contract with the
city and pursue a similar living wage policy in nearby counties.
This proposal seeks general support.
over one year to the Center for Participatory Change for general support in recognition of its
work to build local and statewide open society advocacy capacity.
As part of its current three-year strategic plan, the Democracy and Power Fund identified
building local and statewide open society advocacy capacity as a priority. Following the
completion of a nine month process, the Fund determined that North Carolina and Texas would
be its demonstration states. D&P staff make this recommendation with the expectation that it
will strengthen the advocacy capacity in an area – rural Western North Carolina – that is
particularly underserved and underfunded. In particular, this region is geographically and
culturally aligned as much with Appalachia as the South and is made up of some of the most
socially and economically distressed counties in the state.
The Center for Participatory Change is the only entity in the western part of the state that
provides targeted technical support to organizations and community-run businesses. The
enhanced capacity that the Center provides to the several dozen groups will result in more
effective state-level advocacy from Western North Carolina organizations on issues that include
the state budget crisis, immigrants‘ rights, and criminal justice reform.
The Center for Participatory Change fits squarely into D&P‘s North Carolina strategy to build
statewide advocacy capacity to address open society issues and expand the base building power
50
of organizations that are rooted in communities of color. D&P staff‘s assessment of social
justice organizations within the state finds that many continue to work in regional isolation,
building strong networks locally and advancing social justice goals that never extend to other
areas of the state. D&P‘s funding strategy for groups like the Center for Participatory Change is
to build their capacity to leverage the work they do to make statewide changes that benefit rural
areas. In a 2010 visit to Asheville, staff was impressed with the Center‘s staff and board
leadership, its strategic focus and thoughtful approach to the provision of technical assistance,
and by the depths of its connections to local community-based organizations.
51
Grant ID: 20033654
Legal Name of Organization: Generational Alliance
Tax Status: Other
Name of Fiscal Sponsor: Tides Center
Purpose of Grant: to support the Generational Alliance
Grant Description: To support the Washington, DC-based Generational

Alliance, a national collaboration of youth engagement
organizations working to empower low-income youth,
youth of color, and LGBTQ youth through electoral and
community organizing, advocacy, and leadership
development. Members include a number of current OSF
grantees. The Generational Alliance builds capacity by
providing resources for the organizations to align their
goals and strategies, share best practices, plan special
projects, and develop collective resources. This grant
would address the Democracy and Power Fund‘s long-
standing investments in organizations that seek to increase
the engagement of young people in open society advocacy.
This is a tie-off recommendation due to shifting program
priorities.

2009)
2011)
Project Budget: 946,567

Rockefeller Brothers Foundation $175,000
Overbrook Foundation $ 30,000
Anonymous Donors $ 10,000
Conference Services $ 5,000
52
Term: 1 year, beginning November 1, 2011
Since 1979, the Tides Center provides back-office services, fiscal sponsorship, and capacity-
building support for projects that work to effect change in the areas of social justice, economic
development, civic engagement, environmental sustainability, environmental justice, human
rights, community development, and international affairs, among others. With offices in San
Francisco and New York City, the Tides Center sponsors nearly 200 projects nationwide.
The Generational Alliance is a strategic network of multi-issue youth activism and leadership
organizations across the country that seek to empower low-income youth, youth of color, and
LGBTQ youth and develop them as leaders. It seeks to create a collaborative youth movement
by building the capacity of its member organizations, developing trainings, and facilitating
shared projects that bridge organizational boundaries.
Generational Alliance member organizations focus on electoral and community organizing, arts
and culture, communications, policy, and leadership development pertaining to youth. Its 17
organizational members include eight Democracy and Power Fund youth engagement grantees
(including the United States Student Association and the League of Young Voters) and all
members agree to work as a collective on a shared Youth Agenda. The Agenda‘s priorities are:
1) Quality and affordable education

2) Accessible and comprehensive health care
3) Healthy jobs and healthy economy
4) Climate justice and clean energy
5) Safety in our homes and in our streets
6) Affordable and accessible housing
7) Voting rights and election reform
8) Rights for new Americans
The Alliance convenes the communications staff of its members to share what is on the horizon
and to develop rapid response strategies, talking points, and sample materials to help members
taking timely and relevant action. Through the rapid response group, members agree upon
strategic public collaboration such as joint op-eds, pitches, and social media outreach. The
Alliance also works with its members to develop a narrative to unify communications outreach
across sectors and communities.
53
For the 2012 election, the Generation Alliance will create 12 state voter guides in English and
Spanish that can be tailored to reach young underrepresented and low-income youth. The guides
will be in print, mixed media (video, visual arts, and mixtapes), and online and will provide
501(c)(3) information about how candidates stand on the issues impacting underrepresented
youth. The guides will also provide important election protection information that will be vital
to member communities, given recent attacks on voting rights. The Alliance and its members
will distribute 100,000 traditional voter guides and 6,500 voter guide mixtapes and conduct
online distribution with voter guides on the websites of all members.
The Generational Alliance also seeks to help its members build their capacity through access to
trainings and tools, technical assistance, and fundraising support. It will conduct an
organizational skill survey to identify the key needs of its members and then plan trainings and
technical assistance accordingly. Past technical assistance has included the development of long
term leadership development strategies, electoral plans, advocacy plans, and organizational
management systems. Additionally, the Alliance‘s executive director provides tailored
fundraising support to the member organizations to help them be more effective in developing
fundraising plans.
over two years, as a tie-off grant, to the Generational Alliance. While D&P staff recognize the
importance of building the power of young people to advance open society, they are not
persuaded that the Alliance‘s impact, focus, and leadership warrant support beyond the proposed
tie-off grant.
While the Alliance needs to identify areas of focus where it can deliver results and demonstrate
impact, it is not our desire to cause this relatively small budget organization grave financial
damage. Its budget prospects are not, at this time, as strong for 2012 as they were for the 2008
election year. Consequently, D&P recommends a two year tie-off grant to enable the
organization to better withstand the end of our funding and have time to identify new funding
sources.
Part of the rationale for investing in the Generational Alliance was due to the fragmentation,
duplication, and lack of organizational capacity in the youth activism sector. However, D&P
staff have not seen the Alliance effectively address these problems during the last grant period.
Regrettably, the Alliance has not chosen to facilitate its dynamic member organizations in setting
an aggregated agenda for the youth engagement sector and thereby ensure its relevance.
54
Grant ID: 20033643
Legal Name of Organization: Leadership Center for Common Good
Grant Description: To support the Leadership Center for the Common Good, a
Washington, DC-based organization that incubates and
supports community engagement to promote progressive
policy on issues such as housing justice and foreclosure
policy, education reform, and immigrants‘ rights. Common
Good does this by providing training and strategic
campaign development expertise to a network of 17 state-
based affiliates that work with low-income African
American, Latino, and immigrant constituencies in 45 cities
across the nation. It conducts campaigns, increases non-
partisan voter engagement, and develops future leaders to
advance progressive priorities at the local, state, and federal
levels. This grant would advance a Democracy and Power
Fund goal to increase the engagement of people of color,
low-income, and immigrant communities in voter
participation and open society advocacy.
Project Budget: n/a

Rockefeller Family Fund $157,000
Marguerite Casey Foundation $150,000
Unitarian Universalist Veatch Fund $ 60,000
CS Mott Foundation $ 50,000
55
Match Requirements: n/a
The Leadership Center for the Common Good (―Common Good‖) is a new organization whose
mission is to incubate and nurture community engagement efforts to promote broad progressive
reform, increased equity, and a government more responsive to the needs of ordinary residents.
It does this by providing a range of training programs and services to a 17 state network of
membership-based community organizations. Common Good provides its partner organizations
with technical assistance and training in organizational development, leadership and staff
development, campaign and policy development and research, fundraising, and governance and
administration.
The values that animate Common Good‘s work are rooted in a commitment to increasing social
and economic power for disenfranchised constituencies, particularly people of color, low-
income, and immigrant communities.
Common Good was established in March 2010 by former Maryland Lieutenant Governor
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, now its board chair, and leaders from the community organizing,
civic, business, and labor sectors. In 2009, after the first year of the Obama presidency and the
demise of ACORN, a key organizing vehicle for low-income communities of color, the founders
recognized a need to fill a void in the progressive advocacy universe, specifically the dearth of
politically sophisticated groups that engage low-income people of color in hard hitting, results
oriented issue organizing and advocacy at multiple layers of governance. As complex as
ACORN‘s legacy is, it had established a long track record of operating at a scale and depth that
was significant and that helped to move progressive public policy at the local, state, and national
levels.
Common Good‘s board also includes: former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine; American
Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten; former New York State Comptroller Carl
McCall; National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy‘s executive director Aaron Dorfman;
and leaders from a number of community organizations.
Its state partner organizations, including the Texas Organizing Project Education Fund, a current
Democracy and Power Fund grantee, and Action Institute NC, also recommended in this docket,
are active in local and national issue coalitions. They sit at the State Voices voter engagement
collaborative tables. Common Good‘s partners serve as lead state liaisons for the Health Care
for America Now campaign in five states, Communities for Excellent Public Schools coalition in
13 states, and Social Security Works, to counter Social Security privatization, in five states.
Common Good places priority on several key open society priorities, including: economic
justice; housing, foreclosure, and bank accountability; education; immigration; and preservation
of the social safety net. Its economic justice work has been focused on a policy agenda that
includes living wages, paid sick days, wage theft, and worker safety protocols.
56
Common Good‘s partners in a number of states are actively engaged in a range of local and state
strategies to deal with the foreclosure crisis, the lack of accountability by large banks, and the
impacts of the housing crisis on families.
Common Good and a number of its partners are actively involved in the Coalition for Excellent
Public Schools, a new coalition of 34 local, state, and national parent, student, and community
organizing groups. The Coalition has launched a national campaign to improve low-performing
schools by emphasizing research-based education practices and parent, student, and community
engagement. Local partners provide a vehicle for low-income parents to impact public policy
that shapes their children‘s education and their communities. The U.S. Department of Education
has adopted many of the Coalition‘s recommendations for No Child Left Behind ―Turnaround
Schools,‖ and the Coalition is promoting alternatives to the largely punitive No Child Left
Behind restructuring options.
Common Good and its partners are also active in a number of ways in the immigration debate.
At the local and state levels, its partners assist immigrants with the naturalization process and
advocacy to curtail anti-immigrant activism and policymaking. Common Good‘s partners
engage in basic ‗know-your-rights‘ campaigns, voter education, and get out the vote work in
heavily immigrant, lower-income communities.
The network‘s social safety net work occurs at the federal level, where its works to aggregate the
work of its state partners which are actively engaged in coalitions to win quality, affordable
health care and to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. At the state level, they are
actively fighting proposed budget cuts to schools, early-childhood education, health services,
mental health, access to courts, and other services on which lower-income residents rely.
Common Good‘s work, federally and via its state partners, has contributed to several recent
policy victories, including:
In 2010, Common Good nationally played a leading role in national field coordination
and many of its state partners led the Healthcare for America Now effort in their states.
The organizations mobilized thousands of community members to take action, challenged
the abuses of the insurance industry, and helped win one of the most important, albeit
incomplete, progressive legislative gains in decades;
Common Good led the field taskforce and several of its state partner organizations helped
lead field efforts for Americans for Financial Reform, the campaign to reform Wall Street
abuses. While that campaign won important reforms, such as the new financial consumer
protection agency, four state organizations also began to develop more locally driven
strategies to organize homeowners around the foreclosure crisis; and
In 2010, thirteen Common Good state partners helped to launch Communities for
Excellent Public Schools to reform the No Child Left Behind Act. The Department of
Education notified this coalition that it had successfully persuaded the Department to
adopt several proposals on parent engagement in schools. The national Common Good
office coordinates the work of its state partner groups and helps to set strategy for the
overall campaign.
57
U.S. Programs, via the Democracy and Power Fund, recommends a general support grant of
$100,000 over one year to the Leadership Center for the Common Good in recognition of its
initial work and the promise of future leadership in increasing the engagement of people of color,
low-income, and immigrant communities in voter engagement and local, state, and federal open
society advocacy.
This recommendation carries some risk. Common Good is a new network that employs
grassroots organizing as its primary means to inspire the participation of people from the most
marginalized communities in the political process. It has historical connections to ACORN,
about which USP staff and others had significant criticism. It is a new organization in an already
crowded progressive ecosystem. It‘s also unclear if it can raise sufficient resources to sustain its
national training and campaign staff and provide technical support and regranting to its 17 state
partner organizations.
Nevertheless, following due diligence, D&P staff believe that this is a risk worth taking. The
Common Good network, with its effective national leadership, including campaign strategists,
field organizing experts, and organizational development specialists, can make a significant
contribution to the field of organizations that seek to build large-scale public participation to
advance progressive priorities. ACORN‘s demise left a sizable hole in the progressive advocacy
universe as it operated at a scale that few other grassroots groups with a low-income people of
color base could fill. In 2008, for example, ACORN and its affiliates registered more than one
million new voters. There is no current organization, except for the online based Rock The Vote,
that can do this in 2012. Common Good, if it launches successfully and connects and
strengthens its strong state partner groups, can begin to rebuild an important base of activism
from African American, Latino, and immigrant constituencies.
Common Good has already contributed to several high profile national campaigns, on health
care, banking reform, foreclosure policy, and education reform, and, perhaps most significantly,
it has learned key lessons from ACORN‘s demise. It has made an early priority of working well
with other groups, emphasized the importance of internal management, board oversight and
building an influential board, and required responsible fiscal stewardship for its national office
and state partner organizations.
D&P staff will carefully monitor Common Good‘s work over the term of this grant. Staff hope
to see the organization deepen its roots, develop new leaders, inspire activism from people and
communities who are often unheard in policy fights, and contribute meaningfully to open society
victories.
58
Grant ID: 20033692
Legal Name of Organization: New World Foundation
Purpose of Grant: to provide project support to a demonstration project to

identify effective ways for progressive nonprofits to
diversify their funding streams
Grant Description: To provide renewed project support to the New World

Foundation, fiscal sponsor for an OSF initiated funding
collaborative that supports field-based research to diversify
the funding bases for grassroots nonprofit organizations.
OSF is one of four national foundations that are supporting
an eight organization demonstration project, via a
competitive application process, to analyze effective
strategies to increase grassroots fundraising in a tough
economic climate. This grant would advance a Democracy
and Power Fund goal to strengthen the internal operations
of grantee organizations so that they can be more effective
in advancing open society advocacy.

$80,000 from Strategic Opportunity Fund (2005-6)
10)
Organization Budget: $9,522,504.15
Project Budget: $624,750
Major Sources of Support: New World Foundation $200,000

Unitarian Universalist Veatch Foundation $ 75,000
Stoneman Foundation $ 50,000
Term: 1 year, beginning November 1, 2011
59
The New World Foundation, a NYC-based foundation, was founded in 1954 to support
community activists in the United States and around the world in building stronger alliances for
social justice, civil rights, and economic and electoral issues.
In 1994, New World changed its status as a private national foundation to a public charity in
order to leverage additional financial resources. Its grantmaking programs are now collaborative
funds and the foundation seeks to help donors to understand the social justice field, support
exemplary work, and develop innovative new ways of working towards social justice.
Conceived in 2009, following a several month long process initiated by Democracy and Power
Fund staff members Bill Vandenberg and Patricia Jerido as a response to the economic crisis and
its impacts on social justice advocacy organizations, OSF, the New World Foundation, and the
Stoneman Family Foundation developed a joint request for proposals for a new effort to support
innovations in small donor development for non-profit organizations. With a goal of making
grants to a small cohort of community-based organizations that have a proven track record in
raising revenue from small donor bases and that now seek to raise the scope and scale of this
work, the RFP generated 315 applications. After a multi-level review by representatives of all
three foundations, eight community-based social justice non-profit organizations from across the
U.S. were selected to receive an initial round of $510,000 in grants. Grants ranged in size from
$35,000 - $120,000. The eight organizations thus formed the cohort for the Donor Development
and Diversification Project and each has now received a second round of grants from the project.
The cohort includes:
Causa Justa/Just Cause, Oakland. To raise $100,000 in small membership contributions

in the first year of an organizational merger of two diverse Bay Area organizations, one a
low-income, primarily African-American tenant and worker group, the other a largely
Latino community service agency;
Colorado Community Organizing Collaborative, Denver. To build the shared fundraising
capacity of eight community-based groups working collectively to advance racial and
economic justice in Colorado. The collaborative has two fundraising consultants that
provide tailored assistance and ongoing training to each organization and conducts
rigorous evaluation to determine which fundraising approaches – in person, phone, mail,
online – work most effectively to increase membership contributions and sustain long-
term donor loyalty;
Domestic Workers United, New York City. To strengthen its membership‘s commitment
to fundraising, expand its fee-for-service Nanny Training Program for its largely
immigrant women membership, and implement a ―Donor Member‖ initiative that will
raise matching contributions from non-domestic workers to match the membership dues
of its domestic worker members;
60
FIERCE, New York City. To build stronger member-led grassroots fundraising efforts
among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer identified youth of color and to
develop a grassroots fundraising model to share with other social justice organizations;
Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, London, Kentucky. To deepen the connections
between community organizing, grassroots fundraising, and membership recruitment and
retention. The organization has tripled its membership, to 10,000 dues paying members,
and increased its grassroots fundraising by nearly 350% from 2004 to 2009. It projects to
do similarly over the next five years;
Make the Road New York, New York City. To implement a membership program from
its constituency that connects thousands of low-income immigrants with access to credit
via low-cost, non-predatory banking services, financial counseling, loans, and other
financial services that are provided through a unique partnership with a credit union;
Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, Woodburn, Oregon. To expand the donor
bases and fundraising capacity of nine immigrant and farmworker organizations in rural
Oregon and establish a leadership institute to provide fundraising training to 100 staff and
leaders from the nine partner groups; and
Washington Community Action Network, Seattle. To expand its membership and donor
base through the targeted development of small business leaders as donors and public
advocates and to increase membership retention through the use of enhanced technology,
including web-based predictive dialer phone capacity.
The eight organizations represent a diversity of constituencies and geography and bring a mix of
approaches to grassroots fundraising and donor diversification.
The joint funding collaborative, housed at the New World Foundation, seeks to provide renewed
support to these same organizations as well expand the documentation and evaluation of this
effort to share more broadly. In addition, the funding partners have developed opportunities for
peer to peer training and convening the grantees to build skill levels amongst participants.
over one year to the New World Foundation for its partnership with OSF to build stronger
organizations that have the capacity and the sustainability to be more effective open society
advocates.
With the unsettled economic climate and ever-changing foundation priorities, many open society
organizations struggle to have the necessary resources they need to be as effective in their
advocacy as this challenging political moment requires. D&P staff make this recommendation
with the expectation that the lessons learned from this collaborative demonstration project will
provide alternative and replicable models for organizational development to improve the stability
of community organizations.
With this third year of this project, its focus will be on quantifying the impacts of the support that
the eight organizations have received. Specifically, D&P staff will focus on supporting the
development and dissemination of case studies that document lessons learned by the
61
organizations, what has worked and what has not (and why). D&P staff are encouraged that the
project will seek to launch a set of activities in collaboration with the Grassroots Institute for
Fundraising Training (GIFT), a current Democracy and Power Fund grantee. GIFT will work
closely with the funders and the grantees on these efforts, as the success of these efforts depends
heavily on their needs and capacity. GIFT will be developing case studies on the grantees‘
experiences, providing an important opportunity for grantees to reflect, to share with other
organizations who are interested in replicating their successes, and to share with other funders
who are interested in what kind of impact investing in small donor fundraising can have.
With the economic recession, the fundraising climate for many community-based organizations
has grown quite dire. It is not the intention of this project to prop up organizations that may have
needed to close and which now teeter on the brink of survival. The project seeks to support
innovative models of small donor development and overall donor diversification that can lead to
greater organizational sustainability and capacity. With this sustainability can come greater
organizational independence and, in some instances, enhanced community participation in
internal governance and external advocacy. The heavy reliance on foundations can create
instability for organizations in times of financial crisis and as foundations change their priorities.
The groups have now been in the field for 18 months and, while the Grassroots Institute for
Fundraising Training will work in the coming months to assess the impact of this initiative on
diversifying the groups‘ funding sources, the demonstration project has already had an impact
beyond the grants made. Several organizations that were not awarded grants have indicated that
they were challenged to consider this aspect of their fundraising work more strategically; and, a
number of groups launched similar projects on their own. The initial RFP also attracted
significant interest from colleagues in philanthropy and the French American Charitable Trust
issued a parallel RFP to its grantees, resulting in ten more fundraising capacity building grants to
grassroots organizations. Two of these grantees overlapped with grantees from this cohort, thus
providing them additional resources to match initial awards. In 2011, the Unitarian Universalist
Veatch Funding Program at Shelter Rock joined the initiative.
Final funding decisions will be made at the end of the year and an OSF grant to the New World
Foundation, the fiscal sponsor, would ensure a more efficient allocation of funds to grantees (as
opposed to grantees receiving grants from four foundations, all with distinct funding processes).
OSF staff play a key role in this collaboration and comprise two of the six funders who will
review grants and make final funding recommendations.
The time sensitive nature of this effort is clear: The continued recession and downturn in
grantmaking have created high levels of organizational anxiety and there is a great need in the
field for innovation and successful working models for donor development.
62
Grant ID: 20033650
Legal Name of Organization: North Carolina Fair Share Education Fund
Grant Description: To support North Carolina Fair Share Education Fund, a

statewide membership organization dedicated to working
with low-income communities to achieve a fairer North
Carolina. Fair Share develops new community leaders and
engages low-income and people of color communities in
advocacy, popular education, and coalition building at the
local, state, and national levels to promote economic
opportunity. This grant advances a Democracy and Power
Fund goal of expanding engagement among Black, Latino,
immigrant, and youth constituencies in open society
advocacy in a demonstration state for the Fund.
Project Budget: n/a
Major Sources of Support: UNC School of Public Health $60,000

Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation $25,000
Center for Community Change $21,000
Membership income $ 9,160
63
North Carolina Fair Share Education Fund is a Raleigh, North Carolina based organization
established in 1987 as a statewide membership, advocacy, and leadership development
organization dedicated to working with low-income people and communities for a fairer North
Carolina. Fair Share develops new community leaders and engages low-income and people of
color communities in advocacy on economic opportunity through popular education, coalition
building, and public policy advocacy at the local, state, and national levels.
Most recently, Fair Share led a successful state coalition, North Carolina Health Care for
America Now, to advance federal health care reform and address health disparities across the
state. It targeted rural and low-income communities and built a base of health care activists that
secured North Carolina support for the passage of federal health care reform, an advocacy
victory that expanded health services to one million uninsured North Carolinians.
From 2007-10, Fair Share initiated public policy for same day voter registration, i.e. a policy that
enables eligible, unregistered voters to register to vote on Election Day. It founded the North
Carolina Same Day Registration Coalition to advance voter participation among youth and
disenfranchised voters. The coalition, with sixty organizational members, won a legislative
policy victory in 2007. The victory shrunk the prior twenty five day waiting period to register
before elections and has increased voter turnout and reduced barriers to voter participation in the
state. While a comparison of 2008 election voter turnout to prior elections is not helpful due to
the historic nature of the election, in 2010, despite low voter turnout in other counties, Fair Share
increased voter turnout in five counties by 17%, a statistically significant increase.
In 2012, Fair Share will continue to focus on building its low-income and African American
majority membership, including by expanding its work in several rural and Eastern North
Carolina counties that are currently unreached by other progressive organizations (which choose
to focus where greater numbers of people and resources reside). Its programmatic priorities for
2012 include large scale, non-partisan voter engagement and regulatory advocacy to ensure the
thorough and fair implementation of the new federal health care law in the state.
Fair Share is seeking general support.
year to North Carolina Fair Share Education Fund in recognition of its work to strengthen the
advocacy of its low-income and people of color constituents in a fast changing state. With this
grant, Fair Share would join a cohort of organizations working to strengthen the open society
advocacy infrastructure of North Carolina, a demonstration state for the Fund.
As noted in prior writings and conversations, North Carolina is a rapidly changing state that
features both continued population growth and a diversification of its population as Northerners
and immigrants move to the state for more affordable housing, work, or better weather. The
64
state, now one of the nation‘s ten most populous, continues to increase its political power at the
national level and is in the spotlight again for the 2012 election. While most progressive funders
and organizations choose to base their operations or funding in large urban centers or liberal
college towns, political power continues to shift to the suburbs and, in a state like North Carolina
that has several significant population centers, rural communities still have sizable political
power. North Carolina Fair Share is a rare organization that maintains both an urban and a rural
membership base, including members in places in which most progressives never invest.
The 2010 election brought North Carolina a significant change in its state legislature, with many
new officeholders and the first conservative majority in both chambers since 1898. Much of the
legislation being proposed – including voter identification requirements and budget cuts to vital
social services and to the state‘s education system – would have a terrible impact on low-income
and people of color families and communities. This past year has been a wake-up call for many
advocates in North Carolina about the need for greater community engagement beyond the
state‘s traditionally strong community of advocates.
Fair Share, while small and operating on a shoestring, has demonstrated real advocacy impact on
local, state, and federal issues. It has done this through: careful alliance building with its state
organizational peers and with national organizations such as the Center for Community Change;
a long-term and methodical focus on building its base of members; and training members to
effectively advocate for themselves and their communities. D&P staff make this
recommendation with the expectation that Fair Share will continue to increase the public
participation of people of color and low-income constituencies to take on key open society
issues, including voting rights, health care implementation, and economic opportunity.
The enactment of same day voter registration in North Carolina was the result of a multifaceted
strategic advocacy campaign that was led by Fair Share, the Same Day Registration Coalition,
and a determined state representative, Deborah Ross. The Same Day Registration Coalition
featured a diverse membership, including several OSF grantees, Democracy North Carolina and
the state NAACP, labor unions, the faith community, the League of Women Voters, and a host of
other organizations.
While this victory is significant, with the state legislature‘s rightward turn it is now under attack.
Recent legislative attacks on voting rights include proposals to curtail same day voter
registration, take away a week of access for Early Voting, eliminate the state‘s successful – and
pioneering – youth voter pre-registration program, and require voter identification. Thanks, in
part, to the work of Fair Share – and the veto pen of the state‘s unpopular Democratic governor –
all have been defeated, with the voter identification legislation vetoed without an override.
Clearly, North Carolina is a state in flux, with rapid growth, shifting demography, and back and
forth political change. While the state is one of two demonstration states for the Democracy and
Power Fund, staff believe that the state warrants closer attention from U.S. Programs, as it
remains the one great hope for a progressive Southern state.
65
Grant ID: 20033651
Legal Name of Organization: North Carolina Latino Coalition
Grant Description: To provide general support to the North Carolina Latino

Coalition, a broad based, multi-issue coalition of grassroots
Latino congregations, neighborhood associations, unions,
community centers, and sports associations dedicated to
strengthening the leadership, voice, and participation of the
state‘s fast growing Latino community in local, statewide,
and federal advocacy. The Coalition facilitates the building
of relationships among community leaders and allies,
identifying common concerns, researching potential
solutions, and acting collectively for social change. This
grant would advance a Democracy and Power Fund goal to
build the open society advocacy impact of organizations in
states facing rapid demographic shifts, including in North
Carolina, a demonstration state for the Fund, and working
in people of color, immigrant, and low-income
communities.

(2010)
Project Budget: n/a
Major Sources of Support: Membership income $101,200

Needmor Fund $ 30,000

66
The North Carolina Latino Coalition (NCLC) is a broad based coalition of grassroots Latino
congregations, neighborhood associations, unions, community centers, and sports associations
dedicated to building the power of the Latino community in North Carolina. Founded in 2002
and based in Durham, the coalition seeks to strengthen the leadership, voice, and participation of
Latinos, including a large number of Latino immigrants, in local, statewide, and federal issues.
Organizers and leaders build relationships among immigrant leaders and allies, identify common
concerns, research potential solutions, and act collectively for social change. Currently working
in partnership with six local, broad based organizations affiliated with the North Carolina
Industrial Areas Foundation community organizing network, the coalition focuses its work on
three overarching areas:
1. Building multi-racial alliances by identifying and mentoring immigrant leaders and

connecting them to local and statewide multi-racial organizing efforts.
2. Providing organizing technical assistance to grassroots Latino organizations throughout
the state so that they can bring about change in their local communities.
3. Organizing large and participatory actions in order to publicly negotiate solutions with
decision makers from the public and private sectors.
The Latino Coalition focuses its efforts on advocacy priorities that reflect the concerns of North
Carolina‘s Latino community, a more recent and immigrant dominant population than other
regions of the country where Latinos have long been residents:
Improving access to college education for undocumented immigrants;

Supporting the workers‘ rights of farmworkers;
Supporting communities affected by recent immigration raids;
Maintaining accountability on the implementation of Title VI law regarding the hiring of
interpreters at health facilities; and
Increasing non-partisan voter engagement among new citizens.
Over the last two years, the Latino Coalition developed the North Carolina Latino Leadership
Academy as a forum for the community organizing training of Latino leaders in the state. To
date, over 75 leaders from 30 congregations and community-based organizations have attended
the trainings and are now active leaders in their own communities. The academy brings together
leaders from across the state three times per year for community organizing training and
development of advocacy strategies.
The Latino Coalition is currently formed by 70 grassroots Latino organizations operating in over
22 counties throughout the state. North Carolina Latinos are generally poorer than their non-
Latino neighbors as they face a number of challenges, including citizenship and language
67
barriers, lack of information and understanding of U.S. education, economic, and governmental
systems, low levels of formal education, and widespread racism and discrimination. To build
power for its marginalized constituency, the Latino Coalition actively organizes and develops
leaders in five out of the eight counties in the state where there are more than 2,000 Latina/o
voters. These counties include the state‘s largest population centers of Charlotte, Durham,
Greensboro, Raleigh, and Winston-Salem, cities where the state‘s political power is especially
concentrated.
The Coalition is seeking general support.
over one year to the North Carolina Latino Coalition for general support in recognition of its
work to build the capacity of Latino communities, including immigrants, to engage in open
society advocacy and use their voices to address issues of community concern. North Carolina is
a demonstration state for the Democracy and Power Fund, and the Latino Coalition is part of a
larger cohort of organizations working to build advocacy capacity and impact in the state on
issues that include criminal justice reform, economic opportunity, educational justice,
immigrants‘ rights, racial justice, and the state budget crisis.
North Carolina, now one of the nation‘s ten most populous states, has had the fastest growing
Latino population in the country in recent years, with population growth of 394% since 2000.
The state‘s Latina/o population is now at 400,000 people and constitutes roughly 7% of the
population, changing the long-standing and complex racial dynamics of the state which had
previously operated in a Black/white framework. During the early years of the last decade,
Latinos were attracted to the state for plentiful construction, service, and agricultural jobs that
helped fuel the state‘s then booming economy. Now, with the nation‘s economy in crisis and
North Carolina‘s boom now going bust, animosity toward Latinos in the state, from both Black
and white, long-term and new residents alike, is rising.
The state has some of the harshest anti-immigrant laws in the country, including an outright ban
on undocumented student attendance at public community colleges – even if they pay higher
tuition and forego financial aid – and a large number of jurisdictions with 287(g) law
enforcement partnerships with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Compounding this,
the state‘s Latino population is much newer and more immigrant-based than in states such as
Colorado and New Mexico. Consequently, it lacks the capacity and standing to advance positive
policies or stop the most regressive ones, and many North Carolina counties do not have Latino
community-based organizations or other venues for Latino organizing or participation. Where
this capacity has existed, the majority of the energy has been devoted to either basic human
needs or direct service work. Strong community-based organizations are an important factor that
often determines the level of civic engagement and recognition of a local community.
68
With the generally weak grassroots infrastructure in North Carolina, the voice of Latinos on open
society challenges at the local and state levels warrants greater investment. D&P staff believe
that the state‘s Latino community needs a broad-based infrastructure that is able to respond
quickly to the growing demands of the anti-immigrant movement and that can involve leaders
from different counties throughout the state. While it is still in its early stages and finding its
way, the North Carolina Latino Coalition has the beginnings of that reach and capacity.
The Latino Coalition connects organizations working with and for Latinos and Latino
immigrants with critical resources and information, defending their rights and negotiating with
local governments, business, and the larger community over quality of life and basic rights
issues. During the last two years, the Coalition has built alliances to have an impact on health,
public safety, housing, recreation, education, and human relations. For a large segment of
Latinos in the state, the Latino Coalition‘s grassroots network represents the only chance of
getting vital and accurate information about community services, housing, legal aid, new
regulations, emergency assistance, and education.
Ivan Parra, the Latino Coalition‘s lead organizer, is a native of Colombia with a strong
background in community organizing, including previous work as the Executive Director of El
Centro Hispano, an organization that quickly became North Carolina‘s largest Latino
membership based organization. He is a founder and key organizer of the Latino Community
Credit Union, the first financial institution owned and operated by Latinos in North Carolina and
an experienced bilingual trainer and organizer. Parra has been a lead partner in building
multiracial interfaith coalitions in different parts of the state and has been organizing with the
North Carolina Latino Coalition since its creation. D&P staff have met with Parra on several
occasions and find him to be thoughtful and strategic and to possess a compelling vision for
building the future power of Latinos in North Carolina.
69
Grant ID: 20033649
Legal Name of Organization: North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP
Tax Status: Other
Name of Fiscal Sponsor: NAACP Collective Action Fund at the Tides Foundation
Purpose of Grant: to enable the North Carolina State Conference of the

NAACP to promote criminal justice reform, educational
equity, racial justice, and civic engagement.
Grant Description: To support the North Carolina State Conference of the

NAACP for its work to build a broad alliance of people of
color, low-income, and immigrant organizations to more
effectively promote criminal justice reform, educational
equity, racial justice, and civic engagement. The North
Carolina State Conference of the NAACP is among the
national NAACP‘s most effective state entities, both high
functioning and broad-based in its alliance building.
Through this campaign, the North Carolina NAACP has
developed a blueprint for an open society friendly state and
is now mobilizing its coalition partners to make the agenda
real. This grant advances a Democracy and Power Fund
goal of expanding civic engagement and advocacy impact
among Black, Latino, immigrant, and youth constituencies
in North Carolina, a demonstration state for the Fund.

(2010)
$50,000 from the Equality and Opportunity Fund
(2010)
Project Budget: $ 384,350
Major Sources of Support: Food Lion $30,000

Capitol Broadcasting $25,000
First Bank $15,000
Genworth Financial $12,000
AT&T of North Carolina $10,000
70
Amount Recommended: $250,000 (including $200,000 from the Democracy and

Power Fund, T1: 21117 and $50,000 from the Equality and
Opportunity Fund, T1: 24448)
Term: 2 years, beginning September 1, 2011
The mission of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality
of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination. The Tides
Foundation, which often serves as a fiscal intermediary for nonprofits, operates the NAACP
Collective Action Fund at the Tides Foundation (―the Fund‖). The intent of the Fund is to make
it possible for NAACP state and local units to raise funds for 501(c)(3) work.
The North Carolina NAACP State Conference is a Durham, NC based organization and a
flagship state conference within the national NAACP network, with more than 100 local
branches and campus affiliates. Established in 1938, the State Conference serves to: improve the
political, educational, social, and economic status of African Americans and other racial and
ethnic minorities; eliminate racial prejudice; keep the public aware of the adverse effects of
discrimination; and take lawful action to secure the elimination of racial discrimination.
The North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP provides technical assistance to all
volunteer run adult branches and youth units in their effort to translate the national NAACP
programs to the local level in the areas of education, economic development, criminal justice,
health, environment, and international affairs.
In the fall of 2006, the executive committee of the North Carolina NAACP State Conference,
along with other coalition partners, developed and approved an ambitious initiative called the
Historic Thousands on Jones Street Coalition (known locally as ―HK on J‖): The Peoples
General Assembly. Historic Thousands on Jones Street commemorates the 2007 march of
thousands to the North Carolina State Legislative Building, on Jones Street in Raleigh. The
NAACP organized over 90 social justice organizations around a 14 point legislative reform
agenda and over five thousand people convened in Raleigh in February 2007, marking the
NAACP‘s 98th Birthday. After a robust policy discussion, the group unanimously voted to
endorse a broad-based anti-racism, anti-poverty, and anti-war agenda with 81 specific policy
action steps. For the three years since and with no dedicated staffing, the Coalition has expanded
and now boasts over 90 partner organizations. In 2008, over 8,000 people crowded Jones Street
for a report on the agenda and, in 2009, 10,000 people from across the state attended. The
71
Historic Thousands on Jones Street campaign is the main vehicle for the North Carolina
NAACP‘s dynamic and innovative work.
Through the collaborative power behind the 14 point agenda, the North Carolina NAACP helped
to win an increase in the minimum wage (the first state in the south to do so), same day voter
registration (the first state in the south), and hundreds of millions of dollars in new money for
low wealth schools and disadvantaged students. It has also launched a fight against re-
segregation in public schools, particularly in Wake County (Raleigh), a liberal leaning county
with the state‘s largest school district and where the school board has been taken over by forces
advocating for an end to the court approved economic integration of local public schools. In
addition, the passage of the Racial Justice Act in 2009, led by the state‘s strong death penalty
abolition movement, enables a defendant to show statistical evidence that race was a key factor
in a trial or sentencing in a death penalty case. This will allow the judge to commute the
sentence to life in prison without parole. The NC NAACP, with coalition partners, spearheaded
the development of the first-ever state Jobs Summit – in conjunction with the Governor – to hear
recommendations from those affected by joblessness and underemployment and from
organizations that serve them.
Other successes of the campaign include:
Creating a Working Group to discuss the federal stimulus package with key staffers
of the Governor‘s cabinet in order to assure that Title VI was adhered to in its
administration and distribution of funds;
Securing more than $2 million new dollars to address health disparities;
Securing more than $19 million new dollars for affordable housing;
Providing long-term support (until victory was won) for the Smithfield workers to
collectively bargain at the largest hog processing plant in the world;
Joining with ADELANTE, a coalition of progressive organizations and non-profits to
advocate for educational opportunities for Latino and immigrant children and youth;
Joining with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice in filing an amicus brief to the
North Carolina Supreme Court to intervene in a lawsuit that seeks to disenfranchise
Black voters by attacking nineteen minority legislative districts;
Working in partnership with the Proteus Fund to create the Voter Education
Protection Registration Empowerment Program that reached 140,000 households to
get out the vote in African American communities in which 45% or more had not
voted in primary elections;
Creating over 30,000 voter cards to inform citizens of their voting rights and to
encourage the formerly incarcerated to exercise their voting rights;
Developing PSAs for urban and gospel stations to engage residents to take advantage
of Same Day Registration and Early Voting;
Joined with Black-owned media to develop North Carolina‘s “Millions Voting
March” during the 2008 presidential election. This included over 200,000 robocalls,
door to door contact, and public announcements that drew over one million African-
Americans to the polls; and
Led efforts to provide reparations for the victims of the 1898 white supremacist
terrorist attacks in Wilmington, NC.
72
U.S. Programs, via the Democracy and Power Fund and the Equality and Opportunity Fund,
jointly recommend a grant of $250,000 over two years to the NAACP‘s North Carolina State
Conference in recognition of its leadership in building alliances and increasing the capacity of
people of color and low-income communities to advance a multi-issue open society agenda. We
also note that the state NAACP is a leader in non-partisan voter engagement.
The recommended grant also advances the Equality and Opportunity Fund‘s overarching goal of
supporting efforts to ensure justice and equality, prohibit arbitrary and discriminatory
government action, and to lift barriers that prevent people from participating fully in economic,
social, and political life. Further, it advances the specific racial justice grantmaking priority of
challenging racial barriers and structural racism.
As part of the Democracy and Power‘s state strategy, the North Carolina NAACP‘s Historic
Thousands on Jones Street Campaign provides an opportunity to galvanize people and
communities throughout the state with bold but winnable policy demands. North Carolina, like
nearly every state, faces severe budget cuts and a retrenchment on civil liberties in a climate of
rising anti-immigrant sentiment, unaddressed historical racism, and lack of support for the poor.
The campaign has proven to be a successful model for diverse and smaller organizations to
aggregate their power to the state level on many issues that target structural inequality and are
OSF priorities. The 14-point agenda includes calls for the following:
High quality, well funded, and diverse schools;

Livable wages and support for low-income people;
Same day voter registration and public financing of elections;
Support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities;
Affordable housing and ending consumer abuse;
Abolishing racially biased death penalty and mandatory sentencing laws;
Collective bargaining for public employees; and
Immigrants‘ rights.
With more than 100 community and campus branches, the North Carolina NAACP is a flagship
state conference for the national NAACP. Ben Jealous, the Association‘s President, had
encouraged OSF support of the state chapter even before the selection of North Carolina as a
demonstration state for the Democracy and Power Fund. The NC NAACP is led by the Rev. Dr.
William J. Barber, II, a liberation theologist who is a dynamic leader and catalytic speaker. Rev.
Barber entered the position with a promise to increase the relevance of the 100-year old
institution to contemporary life and criticized former state NAACP leaders for having a behind-
the-scenes approach to civil action, preferring to negotiate with legislators rather than taking the
civil rights agenda to the streets. His commitment to organizing and policy advocacy is unique
for the institution and Rev. Barber has said that ―…the difference is that when we go into the
legislature, we don‘t check with them to negotiate what‘s most politically acceptable. We go in
and stand on our principles.‖ A broad, diverse, and growing community of organizations and
activists stands with them.
73
At the 102nd Annual National NAACP Convention, the North Carolina State Conference
received the 2011 Thalheimer Award from the National NAACP for its programs in 2010. This
is the highest NAACP award to recognize state conferences for outstanding work on core areas,
such as building membership, criminal justice, educational equity, civil rights compliance,
enhancing advocacy, rebuilding legal capacity, civic engagement and enforcement.
74

Open Society Foundation Democracy Grantmaking

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MEMORANDUM

TO: Aryeh Neier

Our Docket III recommendations include:

Idea Generation: Three recommendations for $3.2 million

Voter Participation: Three recommendations for $825,000

Engagement of Key Constituencies in Open Society Advocacy: Ten recommendations for

Action Institute NC - $75,000 over one year (new)

Engagement of Key Constituencies in Open Society Advocacy

Legal Name of Organization: Center for American Progress

Tax Status: 501(c)(3) public charity

Name of Fiscal Sponsor: n/a

Purpose of Grant: to provide general support to the Center for American

Grant Description: To provide general support and project support to the

Previous OSI Support: $7,309,186

Project Budget: $1,550,000 over two years for housing project

Major Sources of Support: The Humanity United Fund $2,000,000

Amount Requested: $1,000,000 over two years for general support

Is this a contingent grant? Yes, for housing project support only

Amount Recommended: $1,700,000 (including $1,000,000 from USP Anchor

Term: 2 years, beginning November 1, 2011 for general support; 2

Matching Requirements: n/a

Description of Programs for which Funding Is Sought

1) Stabilizing communities with high concentrations of mortgage foreclosures through a

The Anti-Hate Table plans to:

Re-shaping the Islamophobia Debate Project

Rationale for Recommendation

Legal Name of Organization: Leadership Conference Education Fund

Tax Status: 501(c)(3) public charity

Name of Fiscal Sponsor: n/a

Purpose of Grant: to provide general support

Grant Description: To support the Leadership Conference Education Fund,

Previous OSI Support: $7,364,900

Organization Budget: $5,579,946

Project Budget: n/a

Major Sources of Support: Ford Foundation $1,750,000

Amount Requested: $2,000,000

Is this a contingent grant? No

Amount Recommended: $1,000,000

Term: 1 year, beginning September 1, 2011

Matching Requirements: n/a

Description of Program for which Funding Is Sought

The proposal seeks general support.

Rationale for Recommendation

Legal Name of Organization: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute

Tax Status: 501(c)(3) public charity

Name of Fiscal Sponsor: n/a

Purpose of Grant: to provide renewed general support

Grant Description: To support the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, a

Previous OSI Support: $719,200

Organization Budget: $5,990,347

Project Budget: n/a

Major Sources of Support: Atlantic Philanthropies $500,000

Amount Requested: $600,000

Is this a contingent grant? No

Term: 2 years, beginning November 1, 2011

Matching Requirements: n/a

The Roosevelt Institute‘s Economic Policy Project is a multi-platform, interdisciplinary effort

Roosevelt Institute Campus Network

Description of Program for Which Funding Is Sought

The proposal seeks general support.

Rationale for Recommendation

Legal Name of Organization: Hip Hop Caucus Education Fund

Tax Status: 501(c)(3) public charity

Name of Fiscal Sponsor: n/a