About Movement Voter Fund
Our Story
Movement Voter Fund (MVF) is a fund of Tides Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity nonprofit organization. Movement Voter Fund is strictly nonpartisan and dedicated to strengthening and expanding democracy and to advancing social and racial equity, economic fairness, and environmental sustainability in the United States.
Our mission is to support local nonpartisan grassroots organizations working to build power in Black, Latinx, AAPI, Native, immigrant, Muslim, LGBTQ+, youth, students, working class, rural, and other communities through issue-based community organizing, civic engagement, public education, and community-led mutual aid. We believe that investing in locally-rooted grassroots organizations is the most effective approach to positively transforming our country.
Movement Voter Fund’s work consists of four core strategies. First, MVF conducts extensive research on the field of local community organizing in all 50 states. Our team of deeply experienced, on-the-ground advisors is in constant touch with hundreds of local organizations, issue-based alliances and coalitions across the country. Second, based on our extensive knowledge, expertise and relationships, MVF advises hundreds of foundations, families, and individual donors on customized strategic grant-making, as well as managing a major grantmaking portfolio in house. Third, MVF provides extensive customized technical assistance and capacity building resources to hundreds of local issue- and community-based partner organizations across the country. Fourth, MVF plays a strategic and catalytic role in partnering with local and statewide organizing ecosystems to strengthen collaboration, identify gaps, address crises, and respond more nimbly and collaboratively to emerging opportunities.
We focus on organizations whose work is deeply rooted in advancing racial, economic, gender, and environmental justice, as well as building the leadership and engagement of marginalized communities and providing them with the funds, skills, and support necessary to take their work to the next level. Our model is based on partnerships. We partner with donors who want advice on how to invest in grassroots organizing and capacity building for under-resourced groups in the field. And we partner with grassroots organizations to support the deep organizing and civic engagement so critical to democracy. Our local grassroots partners are rooted in their communities. Leaders build trust with the people in their communities, identify their priorities, inspire action to solve problems, and transform representative government from the streets to the halls of government.
We know where and who to fund because we listen to the experts: people in vulnerable communities who best know the challenges they face and the right solutions to those challenges. Each year, our team of state advisors analyzes the field, works with partners and state organizations to develop strategic plans, and identifies the budget gaps faced by our partners. In turn, our donor team advises our donor partners on where and in which groups to invest their funds. Although we fund hundreds of organizations across the country, our largest investments support c3-eligible voting rights, voter engagement, and election protection efforts. This work is further strengthened by our vibrant capacity-building program, through which we offer and pay for critical support to our partners, ranging from organizational and leadership development to skills training to tech tools to safety and security.
The model works. MVF has helped and advised hundreds of donor and philanthropic partners to strategically move tens of millions of dollars to hundreds of local grassroots organizations in more than 40 states, enabling our partners to build power in communities across the country and make the promise of democracy real for all Americans. Our ecosystem continues to grow as we build stronger relationships with frontline organizations and support their needs. MVF also has a 501(c)4 sister organization, Movement Voter Project, which enables us to provide legal support to leaders managing legally complex (c)(3)/(c)(4) tandem organizational structures as well.
While MVF and our local partners work on a wide range of issues, we believe that democracy is the ultimate “single” issue. There is no goal that can be achieved in the United States without a vibrant democracy, whether your priorities are sustaining the environment, improving education and social services, economic fairness, protecting the rights of immigrants and religious minorities, housing, mental health, reproductive and sexual rights, or any other issue. We must strengthen and expand our democracy. That means building it from the ground up by investing in local community-based organizations. Please join us in supporting nonpartisan grassroots democratic organizing at the local level.