A 2020 VISION FOR THE DEMOCRACY ALLIANCE: FUNDING RECOMMENDATIONS Late last year, following wide engagement with the Partnership and with other cers In the progressive community, we adopted a 2020 Vision for the Democracy Alliance (DA). We now accompany that vision with funding recommenclations that can guide DA Partners and, we hope, other donors in making Invest- ‘ments that will build an enduring progressive future \We have a daunting responsiblity. The last three lection cycles have cemented conservative gains at the state level that threaten economic opportunity and environmental safety restrict democracy, and roll back |human rights, The Right's sustained assault on labor has diminished resources for the progressive movernent ‘and thrust a key ally into fight for survival. In this challenging climate, it is even more urgent that we work ‘together to identify a common strateay and coordinate our giving. The recommendations below reflect the best thinking of the DA leadership on how to implement the framework outlined in the 2020 Vision plan. ‘The 2020 Vision portfolio i not primarily about which groups are‘on or off alist. It is about what we need 10 do to win, and keep winning. The DA is an informed and engaged body of donors, each of whom will, always have giving preferences, Gut we also recognize that collaborative funds, in which a number of donors ‘come together to aggregate resources for focused work, can be an important tool in aligning organiza ‘ons around geographic and isue-based strategies. In this portfolio, we give options to do give directly to ‘organizations and through funds. Although the overall number of organizations recommended for DA support would stay about the same, we recommend a small numberof initiatives within the larger portfollo for special focus in the next two years. ‘These recommendations are designed to accrue progressive power in states by building infrastructure, ‘engaging progressive constituencies in key economic and climate campaians and in efforts to protect and ‘expand demecracy, win elections, and advance public policy ‘This recommended investment strategy does not constitute 2 radical departure from the past - indeed, ‘continuity is desivable, since the DA's investments of the past ten years have yielded great gains. But it does shift and deepen our approach to recognize the heightened political salience of states, and the motivating power of issues, especially regarding New American Majority voters, ‘The areas of emphasis the DA has chosen are interconnected. The proposed funding recommendations include four kinds of organizations/efforts: + 2020 State Funds - Building on DA's long-standing investment in civic engagement of communities of color, the 2020 Funds will priortize investments in a select number of states to advance policy and clectoral victories concerning democracy, the economy, climate change, end in building the capacity of [New American Majority leaders and groups + Crost-issue and National Partner Organizations - Bolstering policy and communications work that inks issues and provides Intellectual grounding for progressive positions: investing in the key national partners ‘with strong local afilates in order to move seamlessly between electoral and policy activity + Innovation and Tools - Helping to support programmatic and technical innovation, through early stage financing and incubation; ensuring thatthe entire movement has access to specialized data and expertise that stenathen our work + Focus lsue Groups Those whose work's citical in a one of the DAs areas of focus.2020 VISION INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO FOR THE DEMOCRACY ALLIANCE Althoush the overal politica landscape is daunting, states also offer tremendous possiblity for progressive ower-building. As an aliance of donors across the country the DA is uniquely positioned to nationalize ‘both conversation and! action in the states, To achieve this goal, we propose an aligned set of collaborative funds (economy, democracy, climate, State Engagement Initiative, and New American Majority) that aim to-advance progressive policy and electoral victories, shape political representation, and support the mobilization of key progressive constituencies. ‘The funds will focus their work aver the next two years in a common set of states that includes: + Challenge states that are essential to restoring progressive power both at the state and feceral level + Growth states that are trending @ more progressive direction over time but currently out of reach: and + Governing states with progressive majorities that can be utlized to pass policies that can help large numbers of people and serve as a model for other states ora progressive federal administration, Inrecent years, the DA community has been able to marshal approximately $30 milion a year for the organi- zations in our core portfolio. We need to sustain that and build on it. Raising an additional $20 milion in the ext year, for example, would strenathen existing 2020 Funds on state electoral work and the New American Majority and launch the economy, cemocracy, and climate funds; help national, state-focused efforts lke SIX, BBISC and the Committee on States meet their growth goals; and give a significant boost to the funding of the Victory 2021 plan on money in politics 2020 VISION INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO 2020 STATE FUNDS NATIONAL PARTNERS AND CROSS-ISSUE ORGANIZATIONS. FOCUS ISSUE ‘ ORGANIZATIONS + Advancement Project + State Engagement initiative Economy = Climate omennies + American Constitution Society Se ete + Americans for Financial Reform. Democracy (Voting Rights) | Progress Larmerics bs Pinan + Brennan Center for Justice + Center for Community Sabeins Change + Center on Budget anc Policy Priorities + Center on Popular + Constitutional ‘Accountability Center TOOLS & INNOVATION ORGANIZATIONS + Ballot initiative Strategy + Economic Policy institute | + Now American Majority : + Leadingreen (joint venture ter Damecracy fof NROC Aetion Fund and ca League of Conservation Voters) = Catalist + Color of Change ae + National Employment Law + Citizon Engagement Lab + New Media Ventures Project + Media Matters for America + Progressive Majority «+ National People's Action + New Organizing Institute + State Innovation Exchange | Organizing for Action «S00 ‘ + Wellstone Action += Committee on States’ State Capacity initiative + Roosevelt Institute + Victory 2021 Pian ({ssue One and Piper Fund) + Ico + ProgressNow + State Voices + Working Families Party/ Organization | Working America2018 C4 CIVIC ENGAGEMENT PLAN edINTRODUCTION The election of Donald Trump and the reveled ee Ruin cui Ci ON oD devastating setback in our progress Pee urd tease tice) ara ehoCoren Ending DACA, ICE raids across the country, refusing to condemn neo-Nazis and White nationalists, doubling down Cee un eC een Ree Cag GS OU Sear Tt ea ee ea Rene nec eae and continued attempts to repeal the ACA with no plan to replace coverage are just a few of the actions this administration has taken that directly harm and threaten the future of our families. Over the next two cycles, the PICO Action Fund will challenge Trump and his dangerous agenda on all fronts - in ree Mate kee eeu ene Looking ahead to 2018, the PICO Action Fund is focused on preventing a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate (recognizing that even in the best-case scenario Republicans will maintain control); taking ground in the U.S. House; and especially working to support efforts to elect progressive governors and state legislators who will oversee census and redistricting in 2020-2021 In coordination with partners Center for Popular Democracy and People’s Action, we have identified a set of eet Rea ee Ree ee Eee Cea ep ee re ee a unprecedented early investment into key Republican-held House districts. At the same time, welll challenge the Se a cree ea ee ee ee cae District Attorney and Sheriff who support humane criminal justice policies and gun violence prevention. The PICO Action Fund's strategy has been informed by research by Stephen Philips and others that suggests the 2008/2012 coalition of voters built by the Obama campaigns can be rebuilt, but only if we 1) center our strategy COR Ee NT ae ies caesar ea a eae Pe MuRar cae uee eaec acstn Our Theory to Win prioritizes voters of color, women, and millennials, breaking dominant norms of the voting, Peau ee Rae oa a Sn uae eRe cm ee PCR cn gun Ce ue ee ate ee Ce neu that keeps voters marginalized through voter suppression, gerrymandering, and a white male-dominated DC consulting culture that feeds its own coffers at the expense of effective voter engagement strategy. Deel Pee een ae cee eee ees el landscape (e.g. AZ, CO, FL, OH, PA), and we have an expanding web of faith institutions and community leaders determined to hold our government accountable to a moral vision for society in which all families thrive.PICO ACTION FUND The PICO Action Fund was incorporated in January 2012 asa 501(c)4 social welfare organization to support and engage people of faith in efforts to eliminate poverty and racism, promote civic engagement and participation, and increase economic opportunity in the United States.PICO dation Fund The mission of the PICO Action Fund is three-fold: 1) to help people of faith who are organizing in local communities and states develop greater power to hold elected officials accountable to representing their constituents and the common good, rather than narrow special interests; 2)to close the racial and age gaps in voting rates; and 43) to change the rules that govern voting and election administration rules so that every person has the right to vote and every vote has equal power. PICO Action Fund has resource sharing agreements with PICO National Network and several other PICO member organizations.- x OUR MODEL: INTEGRATED VOTER ENGAGEMENT } Significant changes to the electorate are difficult to achieve in i one cycle. The driving principle of Integrated Voter Engagement : (IVE) is that investment in the same constituencies and precincts i year after year — at election time and through year-round issue work - can accumulate effects over time.PICO ation Fund ‘The goal of VE is to build powerful year-round organizations in key cities and states that have an organized and ‘growing constituency of people who register to vote, turnout to vote, mobilize others into political activity, and hold their elected officials accountable through issue campaigns and public action between elections. This constituency is the source of the organization's power to expand the electorate, to move bold issue agendas, to shape a humanized values-based public narrative, and to ultimately build the power to change the rules of our democracy in ways that deliver maximum benefits to working people. An investment in IVE represents a long-term investment in the movement, and our capacity to turnout large number of voters who can cast votes for candidates and initiatives that closely align to our core values. PICO Action Fund's Integrated Voter Engagement model is based on the following principles: + Faith Rooted, not simply faith based - We are reclaiming the role of faith in political discourse to advance a moral vision of inclusion, equity, and justice. + Build a bloc of voters of color and young voters informed by data, races, districts, margins of victory and most directly impacted communities, who become the center of any endorsement process (candidate or ballot). + Focus on races that impact our communities - flipping seats at all levels municipal to federal over multiple cycles if necessary. We are identifying elected officials that have been the greatest obstacles to racial justice in our communities and identifying offices that may be have the most direct impact on our communities. Our work redefines the narrative around those offices and helps voters understand the importance of these races (prosecutors, sheriffs, judges etc.) + Advance an issue platform that places concrete policies shaped by community members at the center of an endorsement process and use these platforms to create scorecards for elected to hold them accountable to our priorities. Poll after poll shows that, on a host of issues that matter deeply to us - living wages, retirement security, tax justice, sentencing reform, sustainable energy, immigration reform, money in politics - the majority of Americans are now with us. We are promoting a bold, proactive agenda, building a multi-racial movement for power, wage increases, criminal justice reform, voting rights, and opportunities for our immigrant brothers and sisters. + Use New Technology: Learning from our past IVE campaigns as well as testing new tools to reach younger voters and larger networks, e.g. Hustle texting and our own Rapid Response platform.OUR TRACK RECORD In the past two cycles, the PICO Action Fund has worked with its allies to win concrete victories for our families, including ballot measures that delivered: + Universal preschool in Cincinnati + Mass transit expansion in Indianapolis + Criminal justice reform in California (Prop 47) ium wage increases in six states 829,916 conversations held with voters 215,009 voters registered 10,079 volunteers recruited and trained 9, 80% of our targeted voter universe were people of color 9, 63% of our targeted voter universe were womenACO Action Fund PICO National Network and PICO Action Fund run one of the largest integrated voter engagement program in the United states. In 2016, PICO's Together We Vote program held 829,916 conversations with voters often left out of traditional campaigns - primarily infrequent, hard-to-reach Black and Latino voters as well as progressive White Working class religious voters - in 17 states (AL, AZ, CA, CO, FL, MA, Ml, MN, MO, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OH, PA, TX, and VI). PICO affiliates in these states registered 215,009 voters, including OH (184,339 voters), CA (9,017 voters), TX (6,000 voters), AZ (2,716 voters), and PA (2,290 voters). PICO recruited and trained 10,079 volunteers who formed over 1,500 multi-racial, racially conscious teams to have live conversations with prospective voters. More than 80% of our targeted voter universe were people of color, and 63% were women. Through this program, we helped to win a minimum wage increase in Colorado, universal pre-school in Cincinnati, a massive transit levy in Indianapolis, and juvenile justice reform in California. In 2014, despite low levels of national interest in the election, PICO organized over 12,000 volunteers who had ‘over 620,000 live person-to-person conversations with voters, the majority of whom were people of color and were otherwise not likely to vote in the election based on their past voting history. We also won several city and state level ballot initiatives with allies to raise wages and secure earned sick time for all workers, to reform sentencing and capture savings from prisons to invest in public services (Prop 47 in California), to redistrict city councils for greater representation and to pave the way for voting rights restoration for citizens returning from incarceration. The PICO Network first conducted vater engagement at a significant scale in 2012, when we held 654,000 live conversations with voters and helped lead successful ballot campaigns to raise revenue for education in California, to stop the Taxpayers Bill of Rights from passing in Florida, and to stop Voter ID from passing in Minnesota, With our 2016 partners - including SEIU, For Our Future, the Center for Popular Democracy, the National Employment Law Project, National Latino Evangelical Coalition, Sojourners, #WeStandWithLove, the Religious ‘Action Center for Reform Judaism (RAC), and the Interfaith Organizing Initiative - we were able to exceed our voter outreach goals during one of the most divisive election cycles in modern American politics. PICO also runs a robust research program to examine the effectiveness of our voter outreach strategies and offer lessons for the civic engagement field. We work closely with a team of researchers, including Dr. Hahrie Han and Dr. Paul Speer, to design experiments and study results. In 2016, our research resulted in a significant finding that for voters contacted by someone they knew through their congregation or through organizing, turnout increased ‘4.2% over those who received no contact (51.19 vs. 46.9%). This was 40 times the turnout impact of any test implemented in 2016. These results indicate that nonpartisan voter engagement, even in a Presidential election, can increase turnout among infrequent voters if itis done through social networks. We also found a 4% increase over the control group in the likelihood of those originally contacted by someone they knew to agree to have their names added to an issue petition after the election, We are taking these lessons to heart as we design our voter program for 2018 and beyond to ensure greater impact on turnout.PATH TO VICTORY: INVESTING IN LOCAL AND STATE RACES i Activating the latent majority is the key to power and therefore : the single highest priority of the progressive movement today.PICO Action Fund Based on the success of our previous IVE campaigns, PICO knows that the most effective vehicles for activating our latent majority are strong, politically independent organizations, such as our nationwide network of affiliates and partners, that are deeply rooted in base communities and serve multiple constituencies across issues. These independent political organizations are particularly critical at the state and local level — the level at which we are achieving the greatest gains and marking the best defense, and where the power to redistrict Congress for the decade from 2020 forward will be determined. In the past, our track record of success in winning fights at the local, state, and federal levels is strongly aligned to our patterns of investment in local organization, as well as in in-state collaborative base-building leadership. As noted above, the PICO Action Fund is focused on preventing a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate (recognizing that even in the best-case scenario Republicans will maintain control); taking ground in the U.S. House; advancing progressive ballot measures; and especially working to support efforts to elect progressive governors and state legislators who will oversee census and redistricting in 2020-2021, shaping the power landscape for the next 20 years. Timeline: Jan-May 2018: Expansion into new counties, building multi-racial organizing that energizes our base and equips them to talk to their friends and family. Leaders build lists of voters in their social networks (e.g. through listening, sessions/house parties). Issue landscape-shaping through legislative campaigns, public actions, and communications. June-Nov 2018: Relational voter engagement - 500k conversations through canvases and phone banks and larger scale voter outreach via personal networks. 5,000 people make lists of 20 voters from their social networks (higher impact with targeted scale). Target voter outreach based on: Congressional Districts District Attorneys and Sheriffs Races Ballot Measures Nov 2018,Jan 2019: Accountability - Advance bold, pro-family federal and state legislative agenda in 2019. 1—— 2018 naces —— 2oie stats — oof Registered Congresionel 2016 Voters whore Organization “argets Redistricting Prosecutor Sherif Contacts People of Color PICO California Dianne Felnten 2) Sacramento ‘anv E r 195951 43% ‘Sandiego Darrell ssa = Together MeCofman Open 4153 CSlerado Grr Ce Faith in Florida filNeson(O) los Cabal “Ssephanie Nash : 210% o istiliboogh "EIT ae REDLINE FRED ee indyCAN Jee Dooney (0) 36855 = Saree gees a oa iA RN ae = Jescn owas ta Palson oie Hennepin 2016 Hennepin County Coury Calin beeen) ‘ckNolonieee — 2016 stats %ofResistered Congressional cats, otro are Organization "Trgets Redistricting ets People of Color JALLOT INITIATIVE: Minimum wage, Redistricting reform, Coral eee St ee MasouFanh ote Mec ie. St.Louis County e-25 =e RENN Granite State Che surunu Organizing —~ Pale aa Shearer) : cea 5 ‘ewNelane Daa aster (0) Faith in New 280% Jersey Ftcheent ‘Maran Hien ©) 2473 Steve Peace Potral Dans Anna Sso0% Couns y [ACTION ‘a2ean 14.00% (Washoe) eft Fouts “Rosen FOR Clare) ‘ibn Ken oie emveget 310% ‘Couney Foags ‘StateWidect Dean eter or CMe 13% aera ar nas oa | ee ee — a r= 7 Fat Meehan (R) E ne ee : ore : 4 . 218 Dallas "36508 cae ; * 3390% oa FREEPICO—_— General Election Presidential %ofRegistered Margin of Marginof | Voterswhoare State eer ee Gd a alfa A) 0 Republican 2% Repubcan Femshario PA 15 ChleDent OPEN) Republican Red Caieria aided Republican 4% os CHS om Calera A Catforia CA Caforia CA) Fev FL Minnesota MN) 2 Steve Peace OPEN Republican Rae sews) 2 Bonhapanek Perharag) 17 Mace Toas(T0 2 PateSessonsAndrea Marta, PICO Action Fund Director amarta@picoaction.org | (916) 601-2811 “Andrea Martais the Executive Director of the PICO Action Fund. Prior to her role leading PAF, Marta served as the Campaign Manager for LIVE FREE, an initiative ofthe PICO National Network focused on ending the criminalization of people of color by empowering those directly impacted by mass incarceration to lead inthe local. state, and national arenas. 1n.2016, she led PICO Action Fund's voter engagement campaign that helped unseat the incumbent prosecutor In Hillsborough County, Florida. Marta began her organizing career at 14, when she joined a PICO-affillated organization in San Francisco as a volunteer leader following a drive-by shooting at her church during @ youth dance. In response, she helped to advocate for and design a $7 milion youth center in her neighborhood: By age 23, her organizing work led her to Congregations Organizing for Renewal, PICO's Southern Alameda County affiliate, where she led a mult-year organizing campaign to address youth violence, which ultimately won 2 ballot measure that directed $4 million in city funding to Ceasefire and other violence prevention strategies. in recent years, Andrea has played key roles in helping to move the president to Ban the Box on federal job applications, playing a leadership role in PICO California's Prop 47 voter engagement strategy, and coordinating PICO’s first statewide civic engagement campaign. Marta currently coaches staff, directors, and clergy across the PICO Network, in building coherent and powerful campaigns to address decrease the numberof incarcerated people in our counties and the number of homicides ‘caused by urban gun violence.