This Funder is Zeroing in on Underrepresented Voters — and ID-ing Insurrectionists
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Polling station in hoboken, NJ. Ben Von Klemperer/shutterstock
Protecting democracy isn’t always glamorous. Sometimes it requires raising money and managing budgets to cover the rent and provide employees with a living wage. Public Wise considers these kinds of quotidian, practical details part of its mission, too, as it supports grassroots organizations working to identify and mobilize unrepresented voters around the country.
The goal is not to simply pump funds into voter outreach in the short term, an all-too-common practice in election year funding, but to help build a sustainable movement that will make a difference in 2024 and beyond. As IP’s Philip Rojc pointed out recently in a discussion of philanthropy’s role in the 2023 election, the stakes are high: “a messy, underresourced election may very well speed the U.S. on the path that other great powers throughout the ages have taken, away from nominally representative government and toward autocracy.”
Public Wise is doing what it can to provide some of those resources necessary for a smooth, safe and high-turnout contest this November, while building movement infrastructure. The group supports a range of organizations across the country that are embedded in local communities and reaching out to voters who often don’t consistently turn out on Election Day. As part of that work, Public Wise zeros in on the nuts and bolts of organization-building through its Funds+ program, which provides unrestricted funding with free consulting services.
“A lot of the groups that we love started because they saw a need in the community and they're putting all their resources into addressing that need,” said Christina Baal-Owens, the executive director of Public Wise. “As they start to develop that great work, they realize there are all these other things they need to do — to register in states, to fundraise — these things that you don't think about doing when you're thinking about social justice. So it's great to have people who are so passionate about the work, and it's great to have community groups that are born out of a community. But there is a need to keep these groups growing and flourishing.”
Since its launch in 2019, Public Wise has granted close to $10 million. The group gets its general support funding from energy and environmental entrepreneur Eric Laufer, who cofounded the organization and is now board president. While their philanthropy is separate, Laufer is the son of billionaire donors Henry and Marsha Laufer; Henry worked at Renaissance Technologies — the legendary hedge fund that has yielded several wealthy philanthropists and heirs — alongside megadonor Jim Simons. Eric Laufer’s philanthropy to date has focused on promoting democracy and climate issues. Public Wise receives program support from other individual donors, institutional funders and grassroots efforts.
The organization is part of a segment of philanthropy that is nonpartisan but carries out election-related work such as voter outreach and education. On the left and the right, donors are leveraging a mix of political donations, 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) funds to shape American elections, for better or worse. Public Wise has both a C3 and C4 fund, the latter having more latitude to support candidates and causes.
The organization does more than voter outreach; it’s also on the lookout for bad actors. In 2022, it launched the Insurrection Index, a year after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The goal of the public database is to identify individuals involved in the attack who were holding or seeking public office, as IP reported at the time.
Two years later, the Insurrection Index is still tracking those who participated in the assault. Now, Public Wise is working to expand those efforts with its new Election Threat Index, which will identify election deniers serving in local and state offices and working on election administration. The Election Threat Index launched with an Arizona state page, and will be releasing state pages for Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Florida, Wisconsin and Nevada this year.
The New American Electorate
Today, a number of progressive organizations that focus on voter outreach and voting rights are struggling. Justice Democrats, the organization that was behind Alexandra Ocasio Cortez’s original run for office, experienced several rounds of layoffs last summer; MoveOn announced layoffs in November; and Fair Fight, which was founded by Stacey Abrams, did the same just last month. The reasons behind these layoffs no doubt vary group to group, but 2023 saw a marked drop in funding for progressive causes, as Michelle Goldberg pointed out in the New York Times last fall.
Despite last year’s funding drought, the Democracy Fund found in a recent survey that philanthropic commitment to democracy-related causes has increased in recent years (although it still represented only about “0.7 percent of all philanthropic in the U.S. in 2022”, according to the report). But Baal-Owens would like to see donors move away from the typical boom-and-bust cycle of election funding, which leaves many organizations scraping by after the polls close.
“It’s important for funders to understand, especially in the democracy space, the importance of civic engagement work in non-election years,” she said. “In election years, especially presidential election years, people fund really heavily; less so for the midterms. But in those years in between, you still have to pay your staff, you still have to talk to the people that you're trying to motivate. We’ve done research that showed that voters were less likely to want to vote if they were only talked to in election years, because it feels very transactional. So organizations that are doing really great work need to be funded year-round and they need to be funded in off years.”
Public Wise works to provide sustainable funding, and its Funds+ approach offers partners everything from guidance on budget and fundraising tactics to funding for focus groups and research, depending on needs. The organizations that Public Wise supports aren’t high profile or lavishly funded. They include state and regional groups working with local communities, like Poder in Action in Arizona, the Asian American Advocacy Fund in Georgia, and One Pennsylvania, a multiracial, intergenerational and multi-issue organization in that state.
“We look for groups that are working with what we call ‘the new American electorate’ — so people of color, young people, rural voters, new citizens — people that aren't normally talked to by campaigns or parties, people that are considered, quote, ‘low propensity voters.’ These are also people, quite frankly, who are more expensive to talk to because maybe there's translation involved, or they're transient, they're renters and it's not easy to track them down every year. So we look for groups that are working in those communities. We also look at states where those communities are a significant portion of the electorate.” Public Wise’s partners include both 501(c)(3) organizations and 501(c)(4) organizations.
Baal-Owens pointed to one of its partners, the Asian American Advocacy Fund, based in Georgia. “There’s been a lot of attention on roadblocks to voting in Georgia, but less attention on the Asian American and Pacific Island community,” she said. “We found that in 2020, the biggest jump in vote by mail was among AAPI voters. Groups like the Asian American Advocacy Fund can make a big difference in civic engagement and election outcomes. So we’re really cognizant of where our dollars can make the most impact.”
Drag Out the Vote, another Public Wise partner, engages and registers voters at drag events. “It’s a community that’s being targeted, and there are many reasons for them to become civically engaged,” Baal-Owens said. “But they aren’t necessarily met where they feel the most comfortable, and not engaged through the work they do. Drag Out the Vote is a great example of the kind of organizations we love, because it's really innovative. And it’s not necessarily a group that people are throwing dollars at.”
Baal-Owens hopes that more philanthropies will support democracy-related work — and not wait around to do so. “Funding closer to an election is not as useful as funding right now,” she said. “People are hiring up and starting their programs, and you're basing what you can do on your budget. So early funding is really important and unrestricted funding, because if you can't pay your staff and retain them, you're losing a lot of institutional knowledge, you're losing a lot of relationships. And those things are really valuable in this work.”
