In the wake of January 6th, as anti-voting laws swept the country and election-denying candidates sought public office, it was clear that the norms, rules, and practices of our democracy were in danger.

After listening to more than 100 state leaders, what we believed was missing to the response to these attacks was consistent support for community organizing, coordination of state-based plans, deeper leadership development, and strategic campaigns to defeat anti-democracy forces and to advance a more inclusive, participatory democracy.

The Pro-Democracy Campaign, a 501(c)(4), is a sustained strategy launched in the Fall of 2021 in response to these increasing and widespread attacks on voting rights and democratic institutions. We resource partner organizations with funding, expertise, and connections to help achieve a more inclusive and participatory democracy.

We’ve built a non-governing advisory committee of national leaders that help us ground our work to meet urgent needs and for the long haul. And, we’ve assembled a small central team of strategists who support state leaders with technical assistance, campaign know-how, and implementation.

All elections, even federal elections, take place in the states under rules drafted by state policy makers. Since form follows function, it is critical to build enduring state capacity to shape the playing field on which future elections take place. This is why we are focused on the most critical gaps needed by state leaders to win, such as:

• Supporting the implementation of multi-year plans

• Investing in organizational leaders and their institutions

• Resourcing programs

• Organizing and collaborating with the funding community

We believe success only comes from partnerships, and welcome funders to join us in building on this shared vision of an inclusive and participatory democracy. The Pro-Democracy Campaign provides funding partners the opportunity to engage with long-term, state-based, pro-democracy work in a vetted and coordinated way. We are happy to provide specific recommendations for how to engage with this work comprehensively, or within a specific geographic or programmatic priority area.

Funders can move resources with the confidence that beyond closing specific gaps for the groups, funding will be leveraged to support new coordination strategies and bring additional partners into pro-democracy work.