2025-2030 Strategy

Stopping Autocracy & Building Democracy

Supporting Movements That Set Conditions for Change

Read as PDF: Summary • Full Version

Letter from the Executive Director

MVF friends and colleagues in nonpartisan civic philanthropy,

This memo lays out our plan to stage a turnaround from authoritarianism and toward a brighter future.

This national moment is a nightmare. ICE is disappearing our neighbors. Ideologues are slashing our social safety net. We are descending further into authoritarianism. How do we find our way through?

Our first step must be to zoom out and remember we are part of a much larger story: A story of unfinished, unguaranteed progress, shaped by social movements, led by everyday heroes. History is not linear. The outcomes are unknowable. But what comes next is, at least in part, up to us.

Movements set the conditions for change. The most effective movements of the past century have:

Built community-based organizations led by and for those closest to injustice.
Grown big-tent coalitions that rally believers and win over skeptics.
Focused on building long-term power over short-term, quick-fix tactics.
Turned people power into civic influence.
Leveraged crises to spark mass mobilization and sustained action.
Told bold, hopeful stories of a future worth fighting for.

Funders fuel this crucial, history-changing work. Sustained progress has always required sustained investment, from those who see the world as it is and as it could be – and are called to bridge the gap.

In these troubled times, let’s do everything in our power to bring this troubled era to an end, and lay the foundations for a hopeful new era that is about so much more than restoring a broken status quo.

Thank you for your partnership over these years. I invite you to join us in this important new chapter.

Gratefully,

Billy Wimsatt
Executive Director, Movement Voter Fund

Executive Summary

About Movement Voter Fund

MVF funds local organizing and movement-building groups working to shift culture, expand democracy, and shape policy.

MVF operates like a “mutual fund” for civic philanthropic giving: We raise money from donors, then channel it toward the most impactful organizations around the country. Since 2016, MVF has helped move over $150 million for nonpartisan voter engagement and issue-based organizing.

Overview

We can beat back autocracy and build a democracy that works for all of us, but only if we organize a movement powerful and popular enough to win hearts, minds, and the will to enact progress.

Problem: Regressive movements are eroding the foundations of our democracy.

Through steady investment, conservative donors have built grassroots power through groups like Turning Point USA, waged culture wars through a sprawling online media ecosystem, and passed the Heritage Foundation and The Federalist Society’s policy agendas in state and federal institutions.

Meanwhile, working-class communities are under-resourced and therefore under-organized, both online and offline. Pro-democracy funders have largely ignored the power of long-term organizing, instead focusing narrowly on nonpartisan voter mobilization in the run-up to elections. Conservative movements have spent decades attacking civil society institutions, from labor unions to universities.

Solution: A broad grassroots movement to build a country where all can thrive.

To stop authoritarianism and rebuild democracy, MVF is investing in three connected strategies:

Expand local organizing to strengthen civic engagement and pass pro-democracy policies.
Scale up digital organizing to capture attention, shape worldviews, and shift public opinion.
Build the capacity of organizations and networks to develop leaders and drive lasting change.

Long-term power takes long-term investment. That’s where MVF comes in.

There are no shortcuts. To achieve the future we want, we need to create the conditions for sustainable progress starting now. Join us in funding this work: movementvoterfund.org/donate.

Part 1: Challenges Confronting Our Democracy

Rising Authoritarianism Is a Symptom With Root Causes

The second Trump administration has created a police state targeting immigrants, sent the National Guard to occupy city streets, extorted law firms and universities, gutted the civil service, and curtailed journalists’ access. These examples reflect only a few visible signs of rising authoritarianism.

Meanwhile, dozens of states have become labs of autocracy. Legislators have gerrymandered districts to shut voters of color out of representation for decades and passed waves of voter suppression laws. State executives and courts have purged hundreds of thousands of people from voter rolls, drawn out certification of elections, and baselessly investigated organizations for voter fraud. These power grabs have eroded civil rights, damaged public health, and harmed people’s lives in dozens of states.

The rise of authoritarianism in the U.S. has many concurrent symptoms. Public trust in government has hit historic lows, while the US ranks 31st out of 49 OECD countries for voter participation. Algorithmic social media captures the attention of millions of people by amplifying outrage and scapegoating communities. Officials determined to entrench their power shred the social safety net, pass giveaways to billionaire allies, and coerce institutions to restrict civil liberties, chilling civil society. Stopping the rise of authoritarianism requires addressing its root causes, not only its symptoms.

Under-Organized Communities, Both Online and Offline

Millions of Americans are struggling and isolated. Societal addiction to algorithm-driven digital platforms has replaced in-person relationships. Meanwhile, two in three Americans worry about affording basic necessities, such as food and healthcare. Attacks on unions and declining participation in faith institutions have left millions without structures for collective action. Social isolation, economic anxiety, and lack of political agency allow authoritarianism to rise and its anti-democratic concurrent symptoms to flourish. This does not have to be our future. Organizing rebuilds political agency and is the antidote to rising authoritarianism.

Less Than 1% of Philanthropy Supports Democracy

Donors give over $500 billion to charity each year, but less than 1% supports democracy, including voter engagement, independent media, and election administration. Federal cuts, from HIV prevention to food access, decimated the infrastructure that nonprofits depend on, rendering charitable giving more urgent but less effective. Under these conditions, every funder has a stake in our democracy.

Part 2: MVF’s Theory of Change

Ultimate Vision: Defeating Autocracy and Restoring Democracy through Powerful Movements

Our most urgent challenge is to stop the erosion of democracy and the rise of authoritarianism.
But defeating autocracy is not enough. We must create a multiracial democracy backed up by powerful movements that can stop backsliding and deliver for all communities.

Real-World Results: Policy Progress, Public Opinion Shifts, Next-Gen Leaders

Enacting policy change to improve people’s lives restores political agency to communities.
Shaping worldviews and public opinion reinforces and stops backlash to policy progress.
The next generations of leaders are ready but need resources to make durable change.

The Work We Fund: Organizing, New Media, and Strong Ecosystems

The foundation for lasting change is year-round, locally rooted organizing around the country.
Digital new media meets people where they are online and supports offline organizing.
Organizations and leaders in strong ecosystems operate as greater than the sum of their parts.

Our Key Interventions: Mobilize Money, Build Capacity, Maximize Collaboration

Only 1% of all philanthropic funding supports democracy. Investment in organizing and movement building fosters a stronger democracy, the ultimate force multiplier for every issue.
Beyond funding, capacity-building support strengthens organizations.
And to maximize impact, we must maximize collaboration across our movements for progress.

Part 3: MVF’s Grantmaking Strategy

MVF is investing in grantmaking across three strategic program areas to organize the multiracial working-class, defeat rising autocracy, and build a democracy that works for everyone:

Expand local organizing by community-based groups to maximize voter participation. Guided by MVF’s State Advisors, who have deep knowledge of local nonprofit ecosystems, MVF supports grassroots organizations to organize year-round, mobilize voters strategically and long-term, and engage communities in policy advocacy.
Scale up digital organizing to capture attention, shape worldviews, and shift public opinion. MVF’s new-media strategist coaches grassroots organizations to compete for attention and runs digital campaigns with content creators to shape public opinion and worldviews.
Build the capacity of leaders, organizations, and networks that drive change. MVF’s Capacity Building Program supports the sustainability of organizations, boosts the effectiveness of movement leaders, and tackles problems that impact the entire civic engagement field.

In all of these strategies, MVF prioritizes communities of color, young people, and working-class people. Organizing the multiracial working class is our top priority for defeating rising authoritarianism.

Strategy #1: Expand Local Organizing

Strengthen Voter Participation Through Year-Round Civic Engagement

→ Key indicators of success: increases in voter turnout, number of volunteers involved in civic engagement programs, number of leaders within organizations

Most electoral campaigns use low-touch methods of communication (e.g., texting, ads, mail) to mobilize voters but fail to engage people in the political process beyond the election. This intense mobilization causes voters to grow tired of the barrage of negative ads, does not develop long-term leaders, hollows out organizations, and leaves little, if any, civic power to build upon.

In contrast, base building is the work of bringing people together to exercise power as a unified constituency. Our allies at Democracy & Power Innovation Fund define a base as “constituents who can wield long-term independent political power that creates local, state, and national impact.” Base building involves developing leaders with trust and influence; building community around shared trust, belonging, relationships, values, and aspirations; and organizing to help one another, vote, advocate, and leverage our power to win progress.

MVF’s grantmaking strategy prioritizes base building and year-round civic engagement to build long-term power. MVF State Advisors have built relationships with hundreds of community-based groups and have deep familiarity with local ecosystems of nonprofits. MVF uses this expertise to guide our grantmaking to community organizations for voter mobilization and base building.

Block Harm and Advance Progress Through Co-Governance

→ Key indicators of success: defeat of regressive policies, passage of progressive policy agendas, ballot measure victories.

MVF’s grantmaking supports grassroots organizations to block policies that harm communities, create state-level policy agendas, and co-govern with elected officials. MVF partners have blocked anti-democracy policies at the state level. In 2025, Maine People’s Resource Center and Food AND Medicine defeated a ballot initiative that would have enacted strict voter-ID requirements and restricted absentee voting. Local organizations in Missouri gathered 305,000 signatures for a ballot measure to stop gerrymandering of Congressional districts.

In addition to stopping disenfranchisement, base-building organizations are leading state and federal advocacy efforts to block legislation that harms already marginalized communities. The Alliance for Congressional Accountability has held hundreds of town halls to pressure their members of Congress to vote against cuts to food assistance and Medicaid in the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” At the state level, the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition killed a bill that would have allowed schools to refuse enrollment to children without legal immigration status, while the ACLU of NH pushed the Governor to veto a book ban and an anti-trans bill.

Blocking harmful legislation is not enough. In a relationship known as co-governance, elected officials engage in collaborative relationships with local organizations to design, plan, and implement policy priorities. Movement organizations then mobilize their bases to demonstrate the political will to pass transformative policies, often over corporate opposition, to improve the lives of working people.

The best example of co-governance is in Minnesota. In 2023, lawmakers in Minnesota passed a sweeping agenda that included 100% clean energy, paid family and medical leave, universal free school lunches, and driver’s licenses for all. This legislative package was passed within the first six months of 2023, but was only made possible after a decade of neighborhood-level base building by local MVF grantee partners like ISAIAH, allying with labor unions, and developing leaders around the state. These deep networks, created by base-building, have been the key to resisting ICE occupation.

Strategy #2: Scale Up Digital Organizing and New Media

New media refers to any media delivered digitally, often through algorithm-driven platforms that use outrage to capture public attention. For our purposes, “new media” is not the opposite of “legacy media” (New York Times, CNN), but rather the distributed systems that move information from those and other channels to algorithm-driven “For You pages” on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, X, Twitch, etc. While legacy media outlets still play a key role in our media ecosystem, people are increasingly engaging cultural and political narratives in the algorithm-driven world of new media.

Coach Community Organizations to Capture Digital Attention

→ Key indicators of success: number of voters engaged on digital platforms, number of local stories amplified through national content creators

States have become critical battlegrounds for digital information warfare, from election denialism in 2020 to disinformation on extreme weather. Local organizations are at the frontline of these fights, from curing ballots to providing relief after extreme weather events. However, local organizations often lack the resources to capture viral moments in new media.

MVF’s grantmaking supports state and local grantees to level up their digital organizing. This includes collaborating with content creators to amplify stories and digital organizing to network within Facebook groups and Subreddits, and to create group chats for rapid response.

Run Campaigns With Creators to Shape Worldviews

→ Key indicators of success: viral moments against rising authoritarianism, shifts in public opinion toward pro-democracy worldviews, number of content creators engaged

MVF’s New-Media Strategy seeks to cultivate a unified narrative ecosystem that shifts public opinion and promotes pro-democracy worldviews. Nonpolitical messengers are far more effective at reaching and persuading audiences than politicians. MVF supports content creators, housed within movement organizations, to meet voters where they are online. By cultivating networks focused on new media to support these campaigns, creators and their messages can be tested online and amplified by broader networks to engage voters and shift broader narratives.

MVF’s cohort of content creators amplifies messages across platforms and personalities to shift public opinion to pro-democracy positions. For example, Live From Occupied trains content creators in cities to broadcast how National Guard deployments or ramp-ups in ICE operations impact communities.

Strategy #3: Build Capacity of Leaders, Organizations, and Networks

Capacity building is “whatever is needed to bring a nonprofit to the next level of operational, programmatic, financial, or organizational maturity, so it may more effectively and efficiently advance its mission into the future.” Rather than a one-time effort to improve short-term effectiveness, capacity building is a continuous strategy to create sustainable organizations. For MVF, sustainable community organizations have the ability to implement long-term strategies for power building.

Develop Leaders to Run Sustainable Organizations

→ Key indicators of success: number of leaders of organizations trained on financial sustainability, number of new financial/fundraising practices implemented

MVF’s Capacity Building Program seeks to support leaders, particularly people of color, young people, immigrants, and LGBTQ+ individuals, to run sustainable organizations. Talented organizers are often promoted quickly to lead organizations, but lack expertise in fundraising and ensuring financial sustainability. MVF funds two cohorts, each with 40 organizations, to coach emerging leaders on fundraising and financial management best practices. Sustainable organizations are a precondition for base-building, developing more leaders, large-scale civic engagement programs, and policy advocacy.

Strengthen State Networks to Boost Grassroots Organizing

→ Key indicators of success: number of state operations, research, or communications hubs, higher share of base-building organizations with coordinated civic engagement plans

MVF supports grantmaking for strong “state ecosystems” to support base-building organizations. Base-building organizations are at the core of MVF’s grantmaking strategy, but these organizations rely on statewide coordinating organizations to level up key shared functions such as research, training, operations, and communications. MVF grants have seeded and supported operations hubs, strategy coordination tables, shared communications capacity, and nonpartisan issue-advocacy campaigns. MVF State Advisors convene organizations to budget and plan together, and to organize new donors in coordination with in-state funders and state donor tables.

Tackle Problems Facing the National Ecosystem

→ Key indicators of success: number of organizations using the Tech Tool Stack, transition to movement-owned voter engagement platforms, early detection of safety and security breaches

Data, Tech, and Systems

MVF’s Capacity Building Program gives our partners the tools, skills, and support to strengthen, sustain, and scale their work. MVF offers free and discounted access to a Tech Tool Stack designed to optimize voter organizing efforts while saving time, money, and people power. These tools allow grassroots organizations to access the same technology and data as the biggest electoral campaigns.

The Capacity Building Program builds custom dashboards for grantees to share data about their organizing and voter mobilization programs. These dashboards demonstrate grantees’ impact on leveraging base-building for voter mobilization in real time.

The civic engagement field faces an existential threat. In 2021, a private equity firm bought NGP VAN, the technology used by thousands of organizations and campaigns for voter mobilization, and has raised costs to unsustainable levels. MVF’s Technology Infrastructure Working Group convenes tech providers, organizations, and tool developers to address the existential need for movement-led tech.

Safety and Security

Nonprofits are navigating a hostile environment under rising authoritarianism. Because MVF partners shift power, hostile state officials launch investigations, vigilantes dox leaders, and federal lawmakers name them in probes. MVF is an anchor investor in the Nonprofit Legal Defense Task Force through the Alliance for Justice. This national hub of trusted legal experts supports advocacy and organizing groups navigating complex civil, criminal, and compliance challenges.

Part 4: MVF’s 2026 Goals

MVF is focused on two main goals: blocking the authoritarian consolidation of power and rebuilding trust in democracy. We need millions of Americans to be more engaged and connected to democracy. 2026 is a golden opportunity to build our civic and community muscle – and we need to invest in building organizations and networks that can absorb many more people to stay deeply connected and engaged over time.

Fueling Civil Resistance and Protecting Communities

MVF will continue to support our partners to stop the authoritarian consolidation of power by:

Rapid response to ICE abuses in cities: In 2026, we have already granted more than $1.2 million in nonpartisan rapid-response funds to organizations on the ground — including ISAIAH, UnidosMN Education Fund, and Inquilinxs Unidxs Por Justicia in Minnesota — to protect their communities from ongoing federal occupation.
Fighting for fair electoral representation: With gerrymandering efforts expected to continue, MVF partners are ready to win the fight for fair electoral representation. The landscape is changing quickly, and MVF is monitoring developments in additional states. We are also awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which could strike down Section 2 in the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in elections. If the Supreme Court guts Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, legislatures in several southern states, including Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama, may redraw Congressional districts and dilute the power of Black and Brown communities.

Unifying the Field to Defend Democracy

Short-term, tactical election-protection efforts have rendered our democratic process poorly understood and vulnerable to threats. To protect our democracy this year and for the long term, MVF is collaboratively creating, executing, and funding a unified plan to defend free and fair elections.

The goal of our five-phase plan is to mobilize historic turnout — and to then ensure that every ballot is counted and certified. The success of the plan relies on unifying organizations to absorb millions of volunteers into sustainable engagement.

2026 Five-Phase Plan: Timeline and Key Activities

PHASE 1: Align the Movement: Creating a unified plan and getting in formation with partners

April - May

Meet with partners and survey best practices
Create alignment among 200+ organizations
Develop shared infrastructure, narrative, and training
Map threats, defend against suppressive policies
Organize funders and strategically deploy resources

PHASE 2: Build Early Momentum: Voter engagement, registration, training, and preparation

June - August

Disseminate best practices across all partners
Absorb and train millions of volunteers
Prepare voters: Check registration, sign up for absentee and Vote by Mail, and energize to vote
Use primaries to stress-test mobilization strategies
Deploy creators and new-media efforts to inoculate against misinformation and disinformation

PHASE 3: Get Out The Vote: Early in-person, Vote by Mail, and Election Day GOTV

September - November 3

Build programs to peak on the first day of early/mail-in voting and sustain through Election Day
Spread good news and best practices
Integrate voter protection and election safety in every mobilization plan
Major narrative push on all fronts with “single source of truth” and clear intake process
Prepare for rapid response as needed

PHASE 4: Count Every Vote

November 3-4+ (longer in key locales as needed)

Deploy observers to protect counting processes
Launch rapid response as needed: Ballot curing (to correct ballot errors), litigation, public mobilization, and new-media efforts to counter misinformation

PHASE 5: Secure the Results

December - January

Monitor election certification
Block attempts to subvert or overturn elections
Continue rapid response as needed: Litigation, public mobilization, and narrative efforts
Absorbing election-time volunteers into long-term organizing networks

Part 5: MVF’s Role

Role #1: Mobilize Money

MVF is organizing funders across issue areas and geographies to invest in systems change, community organizing, power building, and advocacy to protect communities and civil society.
Our Philanthropic Advisors work with donors and funders to help them make the most strategic investments possible in democracy, from grassroots organizations to national alliances.
Our Donor Organizing Team supports MVF donors to become volunteer donor organizers, who then, in turn, host events and launch fundraising campaigns to identify and bring in new donors.

Role #2: Strengthen Organizations

Our State Program Team advises local and state nonpartisan grantmaking strategies to have the greatest impact on short-term democracy defense and long-term power building.
MVF’s Capacity Building Program gives our partners the tools, skills, and support to strengthen, sustain, and scale their work.

Role #3: Maximize Collaboration

Our National Partnerships Team coordinates with hundreds of organizations, networks, and leaders on strategies, both online and offline, so the entirety of our pro-democracy movement is greater than the sum of individual organizational efforts.
MVF is seeding experiments in organizing and civic engagement to level up the field.

Thank You for Your Partnership

MVF is grateful for your partnership in the urgent work of defeating autocracy and, through patient dedication and steady investment, ushering in a new era of multiracial democracy.

Together, we can shift public opinion, organize working people of all races, and pass bold policies that improve people’s daily lives and create a future that we all deserve.

If you see yourself or your philanthropic institution as part of this vision for change, please reach out to us at info@movementvoterfund.org. We are ready to partner with you.

Movement Voter Fund conducts its grantmaking through a fund at Tides Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions are deductible for federal income tax purposes in accordance with applicable law. Please consult your tax advisor for guidance. For financial and other information about Tides Foundation’s purpose, programs, and activities, visit the Tides Foundation website.