On March 25th, members of the Pushback Network (Sondra, Carl, Henry, and Micaela, all from New York; Scott from Alabama, Rodney, and myself) presented at a NYRAG Members Briefing sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, The Ford Foundation, New York Foundation, North Star Fund, and Open Society Institute.
Our presentation was called, Capturing the Energy Before and After the November Elections: The Pushback Network as a Model–and can I just say, we not only captured the energy in the room, we raised it! Geri Mannion from the Carnegie Corporation kicked off the briefing with a question: “Who here in the room has already heard of Pushback?” A sea of hands rose into the air. In attendance were folks from The Atlantic Philanthropies, Community Resource Exchange, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Threshold Foundation just to name a few.
The presentations given by Rodney, Henry, Scott, and Micaela were truly phenomenal. They really hammered home the importance of funding integrated voter engagement work–and not just for 2-3 years, but 10+ years. After hearing the case studies and presentations of PBN, Community Voices Heard, Greater Birmingham Ministries, and Center for Economic Justice, you could see the funders responding positively to these messages. Thomasina Williams at the Ford Foundation really laid it down when she said, “Since Pushback is working on all levels (local, state, and national), we need to make sure that we’re funding at each level.”
Let’s keep on pushing to make this vision a reality. In order for us to achieve our vision of social justice, i.e. expanding the electorate to include people of color, working class and poor people, and youth; increasing voter turn-out in disenfranchised communities; and affecting progressive policy change through the election of our grassroots leaders–we need funders, like those who attended yesterday’s briefing, to continue to ask those really great questions and help us move PBN to a whole new level!
