November 1, 2017
As part of our series featuring Voqal’s recent strategic review of its philanthropic investments to address money in politics, we look at the second of six recommendations from the Taking Money Out of Politics: A Weighty Lift report. Also, you can read about the first recommendation in last week’s post, Taking the Money Out of Politics: A Weighty Lift – Continued Engagement.
Recommendation 2: Go big and bold.
Voqal started down this path because it viewed the problem of money in politics as a root cause of social inequity. This is not only still the case but also was validated by several of our interviewees – who were all drawn to this work for precisely the same reasons. They had been stymied and could not achieve gains on their other areas of interest (e.g., education, the environment, criminal justice reform) without tackling this first. For this reason and to the extent Voqal strives for a more just and equitable world, it is a philanthropic investment area worthy of Voqal’s resources.
This report demonstrates the fact that Voqal’s investments in this area have made a significant difference and contributed to the momentum that now exists to push public financing and clean elections reform at the state and local level.
There are ample opportunities for Voqal to invest (c)(4) dollars. Now that Voqal has a dedicated program officer who is actively engaged in this sector and can identify, research and assess specific needs and requests, there is a tremendous opportunity for Voqal to make more targeted and focused investments and optimize its advocacy competency and (c)(4) funding capacity. This could be done both through a larger number of grants and perhaps larger funding amounts if warranted by the situation.
Interested in learning more about Voqal’s investments in reducing the influence of money in politics? Download the Taking Money Out of Politics: A Weighty Lift and Balancing the Scales: The Fight for Our Democracy reports.