March 2, 2018
Voqal is pleased to announce 10 new grants to organizations working across the country to enhance the community and strengthen social equity. The grants of $100,000 to Missouri Jobs with Justice Voter Action, $100,000 to Free Speech TV, $75,000 to Progressive Maryland, $75,000 to Common Cause, $50,000 to WIN WIN Action, $50,000 to OUR Walmart, $50,000 to People’s Action, $50,000 to Mijente, $35,000 to the Piper Fund, and $10,000 to Arizona Advocacy Network reflect Voqal’s commitment to support progressive movements for social change.
Missouri Jobs with Justice Voter Action
Missouri Jobs with Justice Voter Action puts new tools in the hands of the thousands of grassroots leaders and activists that have built jobs with justice through workplace campaigns, ballot initiatives and other community fights for more than a decade. With support from Voqal, Missouri Jobs with Justice will partner with Organization for Black Struggle to use traditional and social media to connect with a universe of voters who are often ignored or marginalized by traditional campaigns. Together the groups will educate them on how politics impacts their daily lives with the goal of motivating them to vote in the 2018 elections.
Free Speech TV
Free Speech TV is a national, independent news networks committed to advancing progressive social change. With Voqal’s support, it will assess and refine its programming to empower an informed and active citizenry to build a more just, equitable world.
Progressive Maryland
Progressive Maryland is a statewide nonprofit advocacy organization promoting social, economic and racial justice. Voqal’s support will enable it to work with the Fair Elections Maryland coalition to establish small donor funded elections for local and statewide offices in Maryland. The immediate focus of the coalition includes winning a small donor program in Prince George’s County, implementing existing programs in Montgomery and Howard County and building momentum to pass a statewide program in 2019.
Common Cause
Common Cause is a nonpartisan grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. It works to create open, honest and accountable government that serves the public interest. Voqal’s grant will support work to pass a ballot initiative aimed at improving Albuquerque’s successful public campaign financing system by creating a voucher program that would allow Albuquerque residents to designate who receives their campaign finance dollars.
Win Win Action
Win Win Action is a network of progressive organizations coming together to advance racial, social and economic equity across Washington through civic and political engagement. Voqal’s grant will support Win Win Action’s efforts as part of the Washington Voting Justice Coalition. This coalition is focused on winning a bold suite of voting reforms that will decrease systemic disparities in participation among marginalized communities across Washington.
OUR Walmart
OUR Walmart works to ensure that every Associate, regardless of his or her title, age, race, sex, sexual orientation or disability is respected at Walmart and in the retail industry generally. It recently created WorkIt, an app to help people working in hourly jobs get answers to questions about workplace policies and rights from trusted and trained peer advisors. With Voqal’s support, OUR Walmart will build out the technological infrastructure needed to allow separate organizations to use Worklt to reach distinct groups of constituents.
People’s Action
People’s Action is a powerful force for democracy and economic fairness. From family farms to big cities, from coast to coast, it fights for community over greed, justice over racism and people and planet over big corporations. With support from Voqal, it will advance the vision of electoralizing the resistance by committing a slate of candidates for public office to run on a proactive economic and racial justice agenda in the 2018 elections.
Mijente
Mijente is a national hub for Latinx and Chincanx organizing. Using a hybrid offline and online platform, it is creating a political home that brings together leadership, advocacy, culture and media to spark culture and policy change. Voqal’s grant will support Mijente’s ongoing efforts to build a “URL and IRL” organizing and movement building hub for Latinx and Chicanx change-makers.
Piper Fund
The Piper Action Fund works to reduce the impact of corporate and wealthy special interest money on democracy. To do so, it supports campaigns for reform policies that will increase the power of underrepresented communities to ensure that they achieve an equal voice. With Voqal’s support, Piper Fund will continue to create and expand a sustained force of state and local activists with skills and infrastructure that can resist policies that threaten democracy and further disenfranchise the citizenry.
Arizona Advocacy Network
The Arizona Advocacy Network is devoted to defending and deepening Arizona’s commitment to democracy. It envisions a truly representative political system in which all Arizonans make their voices heard. It believes the cornerstones of such a democracy are meaningful voting rights and access to the ballot, political decisions driven by voters instead of money and a fair and independent judiciary. With Voqal’s financial support Arizona Advocacy Network will significantly expand its field and digital organizing capacity in support of a “dark money” disclosure measure (Proposition 403) in Tempe, Arizona’s March 2018 election.
“We are proud to support these organizations and their work to build a better future across the United States,” said Voqal President, John Schwartz.
To learn more about Voqal’s grant-making and the organizations we support across the country check out the Voqal Fund.