Making Grants

May 18, 2016 Voqal Fund program officer and manager of the Voqal Fellowship, Leah Pryor-Lease will moderate a panel titled Effective Civic Tech: Getting Beyond Bubble Gum + Paper Clips at the 2016 Funders Committee for Civic Engagement Convening on Wednesday, May 25. The panel will focus on a survey New Media Ventures recently conducted

May 16, 2016 Nation Inside is a network and web platform for the movement to end mass incarceration. It supports 42 grassroots groups representing 350,000 people with the communications, technology and skills needed to turn the tide on mass incarceration. Thanks to funding from Voqal, Nation Inside was able to optimize its web platform to

May 12, 2016 The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center (BISC) helps national and state partners and funders build cohesive ballot measure strategies. Its innovative research, training and expert strategic assistance helps ensure the best outcomes for ballot initiative campaigns. BISC envisions a future where progressives change the game and use ballot measures as a political and

May 9, 2016 Piper Action Fund, a Proteus Action Fund initiative, invests in leading edge efforts to address special interest influence on America’s political and judicial systems. This past year, Voqal partnered with Piper to support several efforts aimed at achieving real, long-term campaign finance reform. This included Demos’s Inclusive Democracy project, a movement-building program

May 3, 2016 Democracy Initiative recently built a strong coalition of state and national partners to fight for campaign finance reform in Maine. Democracy Initiative seeks to build a movement to halt the corrupting influence of corporate money in politics, prevent the systemic manipulation and suppression of voters and address other obstacles to significant reform.

April 29, 2016 Gamaliel recently advanced community organizing and advocacy for criminal justice and racial equity in New York and California by deploying digital organizing and communications strategies to amplify the voices of the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse (ACTS) and the North Bay Organizing Project (NBOP). Thanks to help from Groundswell, an online community

April 26, 2016 Founded in 1990, Catalyst Chicago recently celebrated its 25 year anniversary. An independent news organization that serves as a watchdog and resource for school improvement in Chicago, it recognizes the critical link between education and community vitality. Catalyst Chicago believes everyone shares in the responsibility for educating Chicago’s children. It is an initiative

April 22, 2016 As a member of the Honest Elections Seattle coalition, Voqal Fund grantee Every Voice successfully worked with businesses and organizations from Seattle and all over the country to pass ballot initiative I-122. Initiative I-122 will limit the influence of money on local policymakers in several ways. First, it limits the amount of

April 20, 2016 CivicMedia-Minnesota Production Co., Inc. is a Saint Paul, Minnesota nonprofit that was created to bring media and civic literacy through information, education and empowerment of residents and students in local, state and regional public affairs. They engage citizens and students in understanding issues of governance and public policy, critiquing media coverage of

April 15, 2016 Portland, Oregon based X-RAY.fm operates a noncommercial FM radio station to promote civic engagement using digital media and technology to foster, broadcast and disseminate progressive discourse in the Portland community. They provide a forum for discussion and an outlet for local creatives, training in media production and storytelling, and outreach to communities