Proposals are by invitation only
Integrated Voter Engagement, part of our capacity building efforts, is a program that equips organizations with resources and strategies to engage historically underrepresented populations in policy, systems change, and the democratic process, both during and beyond election cycles.
Aligned with Groundswell’s Blueprint, our Capacity Building Program, which includes our Integrated Voter Engagement Program and Grassroots Organizing Institute, sharpens our shared vision, strategies, and tactics to build a multiracial, feminist democracy.
Read more about our current Blueprint based on grantee feedback and the input of national, local, and global leaders in social and reproductive justice.
Groundswell Fund moves from the underlying principle grassroots power is built and maintained through strong organizations with the infrastructure and the agility to deliver real change in the lives of people in their communities.
When we asked our grantee partners how we could support them in leaning into an opportunity to skill and scale their grassroots power…they responded.
Groundswell Fund answered with the Grassroots Organizing Institute (GOI) and an Integrated Voter Engagement (IVE) program.
Our programs are opt-in, and participation is not required to receive grant funding. Some examples of our capacity-building offers include:
Mind-body modalities to support the health and sustainability of leaders and organizations.
A community-based organization whose mission is to build a progressive and sustainable Long Beach community that works for gender, racial and economic justice led by Southeast Asian young women, Khmer Girls in Action worked to pass a $1 million budget to support the Youth Strategic Plan. The Youth Strategic Plan is the result of five years of efforts to support the Invest in Youth Campaign.
Groundswell’s Integrated Voter Engagement (IVE) program supports leading Reproductive Justice organizations with a deep investment of resources in order to increase nonpartisan integrated voter engagement.
IVE helps build capacity to engage historically underrepresented populations in policy, systems change, and the democratic process within and beyond election cycles.
The IVE program tracks progress in four areas:
Each participating organization will receive the following:
Grant support
Political education
Ongoing education rooted in race, gender, class, and decolonization lens to create a shared understanding of the theories, strategies, and foundational texts that unify “organizers” across sectors. The education will be integrated into trainings so that the skills-building trainings and workshops are a part of the theory-to-action continuum and support the year-round IVE campaigns.
Convenings
Intensive, in-person/virtual gatherings with other cohort members for co-learning, skills-building, and relationship building. Skills-building workshops include trainings on how to:
Direct coaching and mentorship
This includes up to 80 hours annually with a seasoned organizer who will coach key staff within the organization to develop internal systems to support effective organizing, design a campaign(s), create an achievable work plan(s), and implement that plan effectively.
Database access and training
All participating organizations will have access to tools, technology, and resources to develop a full functional year-round Integrated Voter Engagement program
Development and execution of mailers
As part of a layered strategy to increase the organization’s community profile and to support the impact of canvassing, phoning, media, etc.
Access to legal counsel
For all participating organizations to ensure full 501(c)(3) compliance for civic engagement activities. All materials and phone and canvass scripts are vetted by Groundswell’s legal counsel.
Evaluation support
Organizations develop, with help from their coach, an IVE work plan that tracks impact.
Healing Justice
Access to self-care and mind-body self-awareness modalities — such as Somatics, Forward Stance, mindfulness meditation, and yoga — which accelerate culture change, build group cohesion, and foster sustainability in movement-building work.
IVE Program is Non-Partisan
All voter education, get out the vote, and election and voter protection activities will be conducted in a non-partisan manner in compliance with IRS rules and regulations and will not constitute prohibited political activity.
Groundswell and the organizations it provides support to will not express support or opposition for any particular candidate or party and will not target potential voters by referring to issues that divide the candidates.
Groundswell and the organizations it provides support to will review proposed activities with outside legal counsel to ensure that all activities are consistent with the Internal Revenue Code.