Way to Win Q2 Report
Dear Way to Win Community,
As we round the mid-way point of this critical year with only four months until the general election, our organization is sharing our 2020 2nd quarter overview. Way to Win values transparency about our strategies and our funding — so that we can give clear-eyed assessments about what we’ve built. Together, we’ve moved and aligned $24 million in the first half of 2020, and over $43.9 million so far in this cycle — all to leaders working in states and nationally who know what’s needed for real, tangible, and very necessary change, on Election Day and beyond.
Investing in the Electoral and Governing Arms of the Movement For Black Lives
We continue to invest in Black political leaders and their power. At the height of the initial protests in June, we rallied around Black leadership. In close to just one day, our community raised over $1.4 million for Jessica Byrd and Three Point Strategies. We also invest in Black leaders running for office to reconstruct power and policy, and we are winning. Last month, Jamaal Bowman beat his 16-term Democrat opponent and Mondaire Jones won his primary as well.
We have also recommitted to the support of Black infrastructure in 2020 battlegrounds. In the first two quarters, through our Plan to Win strategy, we have provided core funding to new groups like SONG Power and Freedom for Florida. We have also helped to fund new collaborations, including a deep-dive opinion study of Black voters in Florida by Black Futures Lab and New Florida Majority.
We firmly believe that co-governance is the key to policy change and this quarter, we experimented in co-governing to imagine new worlds, including directing $50,000 to TakeAction Minnesota to reimagine the Minneapolis Police Department.
Supporting Organizers’ Continued COVID-19 Adaptations
At the early stages of the virus, we focused our resources on stabilizing the sector. In the latest quarter, we adapted our Plan to Win to focus on three core strategies for our groups to succeed this November: 1) Digital & Remote Adaptation; 2) Content Creation and Narrative; and 3) Safe Voting Access.
Under the rubric of digital and remote adaptation, we co-hosted the D2 Summit, a gathering of leaders from 61 organizations that shared how each group is adapting to this new digital realm. We walked the talk by moving $2.19 million to these digital adaptations so far this year, including Blueprint NC and Texas Freedom Project.
Shaping the Air War through New Narrative Work
To enhance the landscape on narrative creation for Latinx communities, the largest voting bloc of people of color this cycle, we moved forward on the Latinx Justice Fund, which has been fielding research on using the Race-Class Narrative (RCN) framework. The framework’s bottom line is that race, and the way you talk about it, is an extremely powerful tool. The Right cannot be the only side that knows how to use it.
That’s why we are working to implement RCN to help shape the air war — the fight for media presence that influences voters. We are funding both state and national organizations to create content designed to reach the diverse audiences that make up the coalition we will need to win in 2020.
Building Way to Win’s Institutional Power
Lastly, in June, on Day 01 of our annual Way Forward event, we relaunched Way to Rise, our nonpartisan philanthropic effort built in collaboration with the Amalgamated Foundation, with the aim of co-governance & sustainable communities, voter protection and education, and narrative change. Way to Rise’s launch is was a “top story” in Inside Philanthropy, check it out here.
As we get closer to November, I feel full of appreciation for our growing community of members at Way to Win. You are building the future of democracy — from supporting new candidates to backing fearless leaders of national and state powerbuilding. In the words of Lateefah Simon, “Let’s max out the Movement.”
In solidarity,
Tory Gavito
