More than a dozen major U.S. foundations have launched of the Progressive Stimulus Project, a 36-month, $5 million-dollar annual initiative to support progressive groups’ independent revenue generation efforts. In this watershed moment, these nonprofits are being called to quickly advance civic engagement and social justice while they reframe their work against a backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession.
Philanthropy should be giving more, not less, in this time of crisis. And even if donors do give more, creative new fundraising strategies are vital to a sustainable future for progressive organizations. Wallace Global Fund is spending 20% of our assets this year as part of our efforts to fund the vital work being done right now to protect vulnerable families, communities, and organizations as individual giving collapses. We are honored to help support this innovative new program and call on our peers in philanthropy to recognize that supporting our nonprofit partners is far more important than protecting our endowments,” said Ellen Dorsey, Executive Director of the Wallace Global Fund.
In addition to Wallace, the fund, managed by Progressive Multiplier, is launching with the support of The JPB Foundation, Ford Foundation, Mertz Gilmore Foundation, Four Freedoms Fund, Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Fund, The Resilience Initiative (a project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors through a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation), the Overbrook Foundation, Amalgamated Foundation, The WhyNot Initiative, Resilient Democracy Fund and Rosenberg Foundation. To date, over $1.5 million have been contributed to the first year’s goal of $5 million.