Center for Popular Democracy
The Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) works to build “the power of communities to ensure the country embodies our vision of an inclusive, equitable society.” Along with its 501(c)(4) arm, CPD Action, the organization supports grassroots groups across the U.S. to build political power on behalf of historically marginalized groups, advance policy change and win elections. CPD is a key hub of progressive work on many issues, with staff in multiple states and dozens of affiliate organizations.
Why This Work is Important
Progress requires people power. At present, progressives face major structural barriers to winning power decisively enough to enact most of their agenda at both the federal and the state levels. Worse yet, liberals can no longer rely on using the federal courts as a shortcut to stamping out blatantly antimajoritarian electoral maps and policies. The only way to overcome these obstacles is by engaging enough voters to elect progressive majorities and put pressure on recalcitrant lawmakers.
Long-term grassroots organizing is one of the most important investments donors can make. To build durable majorities, progressives must first get people to participate in politics who may otherwise not. This requires connecting with people at the local level, getting them not only to engage with the issues in their communities, but to believe their participation can actually make a difference. This is long and difficult work for even seasoned organizers, but when done effectively, the result is highly engaged citizens who will work for progressive change both locally and nationally.
Why Donors Should Consider the Center for Popular Democracy
CPD is building power from the ground up. While CPD is a large national group, central to its strategy is supporting grassroots organizing by supporting front-line organizations with money and other resources. These groups advocate for change at the state and local levels while also organizing constituents and coordinating nationally to build support for structural policy changes. This work is further supported by CPD Action, which engages in more overtly political work like canvassing programs and funding other groups engaged in organizing and electoral politics.
CPD is moving money to important, underfunded places. While many donors would like to invest in community-based organizations working on the ground to get people invested in political change for the long term, finding and evaluating those groups is time-consuming and challenging. CPD helps fill that gap, acting as both a leader in the progressive movement as well as an intermediary to get donor money to the places it's needed the most.
CPD has set an ambitious, long-term agenda. In 2021, CPD announced its plans to build a “growing base of 1 million politically aligned
individuals, 50,000 grassroots organizers, and 1,000 movement leaders” by 2024. For organizations like CPD engaged in long-term work that’s often difficult to measure, setting clear goals is extremely important, as it makes evaluating success and failure much easier. Just as importantly, however, CPD has been actively working to hit its numbers, securing commitments from more than half of its affiliate groups to build a shared base, while hosting hundreds of trainings to develop leaders from dozens of organizations.
Conclusion
CPD prioritizes grassroots work aimed at strengthening democracy and achieving economic justice, and the group has helped build and fund vital organizations throughout the country. For smaller donors, CPD is an especially good option, as they take on the difficult work of finding, evaluating, and supporting the individuals and institutions pursuing the tireless work of engaging regular people in politics.
