A Quick Primer on "Progressive Infrastructure"
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The term “progressive infrastructure” dates back to George W. Bush’s presidency when groups like the Center for American Progress, Media Matters and the Democracy Alliance were founded. The idea was that the left needed a stronger set of core institutions to win battles across multiple fronts.
Talk of building infrastructure has since become ubiquitous in the progressive world, especially since 2016, along with fundraising appeals to support such efforts.
But what exactly are we talking about when we use the term infrastructure? And what should donors know about funding it? To help answer these questions, here’s a short primer on progressive infrastructure, with links to Blue Tent briefs or articles, as well as coverage on my other site, Inside Philanthropy.
Donor Networks and Funding Intermediaries. These raise and direct financial resources to support progressive work. They include funding collaboratives with small numbers of wealthy donors, like the Democracy Alliance, Way to Win, Mind the Gap and Solidaire, as well as groups that raise money from a broader swath of donors, like Movement Voter Project and Swing Left. A growing number of more specialized funding intermediaries focus in such areas as climate justice and gender equity. At the apex of this world are entities like Tides, New Ventures and NEO Philanthropy, which house an array of special funds and initiatives.
National Organizing Groups and Networks. These work to build political power across multiple states and take different forms. For example, the Working Families Party has chapters in 14 states, while the Center for Popular Democracy regrants funds to grassroots groups around the country and manages coordinated campaigns. Many CPD groups are part of the State Power Caucus. Indivisible has a more decentralized model, with local groups spread all around and loosely coordinated through a national headquarters. The Rural Democracy Initiative acts as a funding intermediary to support rural organizing in multiple states and also plays a convening and agenda-setting role.
National Voter Mobilization and Data Organizations. While nearly all national organizing groups engage in voting mobilization, others are entirely devoted to such work. America Votes operates in 20 states, convening a “table” of progressive groups in each state to coordinate strategy and pool resources for electoral work. Several Latino voting groups like Poder Latinx and Mi Familia Vota engage in voting work across key battleground states. The Center for Voter Information and its c3 arm, the Voter Participation Center, also works nationally. Some groups in this space have more specialized roles, such as Catalist, which focuses on voter data, and the Analyst Institute, which works to measure and improve on voter engagement tactics.
National Anchor Organizations. These are large, top-tier groups that play an outsized role in a particular area and are among the best-funded of all progressive groups. The Ford Foundation sees them as so important that it created a special program called BUILD to fund them with big, multi-year grants. Not everyone will agree on what groups fit this definition, but examples include the ACLU, Community Change, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Sierra Club, Planned Parenthood, and UnidosUS. Of course, unions like the SEIU also remain all-important players on the left — arguably with more firepower than anyone else to drive change across many arenas. Finally, speaking of Ford, it’s obviously a central player, too, along with other leading left-of-center foundations like the Open Society Foundations. These funders provide much of the financial fuel for all the work I’m describing.
State-Focused Organizations and Networks. After years of underinvestment, progressive donors are finally supporting state-focused work at a significant level. Examples here include the States Project and Sister District, which aim to win state-level electoral races; the State Innovation Exchange, or SiX, which supports progressive state legislators; two older networks, the State Priorities Partnership, a network of state-based think tanks, and the Economic Analysis and Research Network, or EARN, a hub for progressive economic work in the states; and Families at Work, a coalition of state and local groups that promote family-friendly workplace policies.
State Tables. State tables work to coordinate the flow of both c3 and c4 progressive funding in states, as well as to coordinate electoral efforts and other work. They act as crucial hubs for exchanging information, as well as key intermediaries between donors who want to support work in specific states and leading progressive groups working in that state. California is so big that it has several regional tables, such as Inland Empire United, in addition to a state-wide table. The Committee on States is a national umbrella that supports the work of state donor tables.
State-Wide Organizing and Advocacy Groups. Drilling down further, we get to groups that focus on building progressive power across a specific state. There’s been huge growth in such groups in recent years, particularly in battleground states, and I’ve mentioned them often in this newsletter. Examples include New Georgia Project, New Virginia Majority, Florida Rising, LUCHA and Pennsylvania Stands Up. All focus not just on voter mobilization, but winning policy victories between elections that can improve people’s lives.
Leadership and Training Groups. Progressive organizations are only as good as the people who run and staff them, while Democratic success in elections can hinge heavily on the quality of candidates and their campaign teams. Groups working to strengthen the left's human capital in different ways include Arena, Run for Something, Midwest Academy and the Rockwood Leadership Institute.
There’s a lot more to say on the subject of progressive infrastructure and many more groups I could name — as well as other buckets of work, such as media and messaging. The growth of so much capacity is great news. But coordinating it all and avoiding duplication has become an ever bigger challenge.
This sprawling universe is also daunting to navigate as a donor. It can be hard even to know where to start in setting priorities. But a first step is to have a clear map in your mind of who's who and what's what.
