PIPER FUND: Field Building

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Piper Fund’s leadership goes beyond grantmaking.  We recognize the need to develop a sustainable national infrastructure that can support state- and locally-led efforts. In collaboration with funders and advocates, we identify gaps in the field and work to create new initiatives to ensure that community-based organizations have the needed capacities to respond quickly to a changing landscape. All our initiatives include a field-building component to bolster the capacity of local advocates to achieve, implement, and protect policies that ensure a healthy democracy. Our approach includes:

  • Funding leadership development of national, state, and local advocates;
  • Supporting online and on-site convenings and trainings to foster networking, build organizing capacity, and develop advocates’ skills;
  • Connecting state and local advocates to peers and to national groups, and fostering strong local and national coalitions, for knowledge transfer and accessing shared strategic information, communications, and technical resources;
  • Supporting strategic communications capacity through assessments, media skills training, targeted messaging development, and collaborative communications plans; and
  • Commissioning and sharing analyses from comprehensive research to evaluate potential reform efforts, to identify shifts in the landscape, and to understand the connections of initiatives we fund to social justice and democracy issues.
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“Piper helped shift power at a table where community voices were not being honored in a way that shaped strategy. ”

- Mary Le Nguyen
Executive Director, Washington CAN, Seattle

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“Thanks again for including me in the fantastic conference last week. It was really wonderful to meet leaders from around the country and feel myself and our work in Maine to be part of a dynamic movement. ”

- Anna Kellar
Joint Executive Director, Maine Citizens for Clean Elections and League of Women Voters of Maine

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“My time with Rockwood has made me a stronger, more focused leader ready to take on the many challenges we face as a nation. The program was transformative, helping me to identify and grow a range of practices that I know will benefit me, my family, and my community for years to come.”

- Sarah Totonchi
Executive Director, Southern Center for Human Rights

Leading with our values: An intersectional approach to money in politics reform

Leading with our values: An intersectional approach to money in politics reform

When coalitions are locally-based, they are better able to connect civic engagement with building community power, as residents are able to have a greater influence on the policies that are enacted by their local government. When coalitions are inclusive, they are positioned to engage so-called “unlikely voters” who have historically been marginalized by ...

When coalitions are locally-based, they are better able to connect civic engagement with building community power, as residents are able to have a greater influence on the policies that are enacted by their local government. When coalitions are inclusive, they are positioned to engage so-called “unlikely voters” who have historically been marginalized by the democratic process. By centering local and state-level advocacy efforts on the needs and priorities of underrepresented communities, coalitions are able to expand the electorate and increase civic participation over the long-term. In short, communities are more “bought in,” which makes them more committed to actively supporting the ongoing implementation and defense of policy victories.

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Judicial independence: Building the field to protect state courts

Judicial independence: Building the field to protect state courts

In the face of discouraging statements from the new administration that it intends to roll back decades of protections for women, people of color, immigrants, the environment and participation in our democratic institutions—and given the executive branch’s power to appoint federal judges who agree with such rollbacks—state courts will be a key line of def...

In the face of discouraging statements from the new administration that it intends to roll back decades of protections for women, people of color, immigrants, the environment and participation in our democratic institutions—and given the executive branch’s power to appoint federal judges who agree with such rollbacks—state courts will be a key line of defense. As laws and public policies attacking these rights are challenged in state courts, it will be incumbent upon Piper to support organizations which educate and empower communities and the public at large to defend the integrity and impartiality of these courts.

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Piper Fund launches Fellowship for Leaders Strengthening Democracy

Piper Fund launches Fellowship for Leaders Strengthening Democracy

Piper announces the launch of the Fellowship for Leaders Strengthening Democracy, in partnership with the Rockwood Leadership Institute. The year-long fellowship—consisting of a cohort of 24 leaders from the money in politics and fair courts fields—aims to diversify the leadership of both fields, and to build more impactful organizations, better positione...

Piper announces the launch of the Fellowship for Leaders Strengthening Democracy, in partnership with the Rockwood Leadership Institute. The year-long fellowship—consisting of a cohort of 24 leaders from the money in politics and fair courts fields—aims to diversify the leadership of both fields, and to build more impactful organizations, better positioned to engage diverse constituencies and win reform.

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