What We Do
We are transforming democracy.
Groundswell Action Fund gathers the financial resources of individual investors and foundations to energize a truly inclusive, participatory democracy.
In doing so, we support the strongest electoral organizing and power-building efforts led by Black women, women of color, low-income women, and transgender and gender-expansive leaders of color across the United States.
There is no single-issue challenge and there are no single-strategy wins.
While we and our grantee partners understand the importance of winning individual elections or policy fights, we also know the long-term prize is durable, grounded in grassroots organizing and voter engagement infrastructure.
Image courtesy of Black to the Future
Three Intertwined Strategies
Groundswell Action Fund employs three strategies to bolster our victories.
Groundswell Action Fund provides unrestricted general support grants that allow organizations to build long-term financial stability and avoid the harm caused by boom-and-bust cycles of funding that only shows up to elect certain candidates during a key election year.
We also provide short-term rapid response funding in moments of extreme challenge or unexpected opportunity; for example, during final-push moments of a campaign when extra canvassers or one more radio spot may make a decisive difference.
We fund year-round organizing. Full stop.
We know that healthy organizations doing year-round electoral organizing are critical to U.S. democracy. We also know how that speed can put stress on staff. That stress can crack staff and organizational infrastructure. That’s why we fund the stability and development of our grantees through general operating funds.
We plan to stand in the gap for organizations, providing consistent and robust support in:
- a) Data, digital, and technology infrastructure
- b) Media amplification
- c) Political education
- d) Legal compliance
- e) Electoral plan and long-term strategy development
- f) Lifting women of color, transgender and gender-expansive people of color
Funder organizing is a hallmark of Groundswell’s work.
Our central goal is to increase financial resources to intersectional organizing led by women of color and transgender and gender expansive people of color, regardless of whether those resources come to us or go directly into the field.
Aside: Most of this work lives in our 501(c)(3), Groundswell Fund. In the last few decades, GF has turned a $300,000 annual seed investment from two donors into $15 million in giving annually from hundreds of donors and dozens of private foundations. We have helped inspire millions more in giving from donor-investors and foundations directly to many of the grantees we support.
Groundswell Action Fund has the same aspiration for the 501(c)(4) field. Check out our plan to move $20 million to 501(c)4 electoral organizing by 2025, and join us in building a path to liberation.