With Democracy on the Line, Early Money is Key

It is clear that this is not a normal election year, and California is not immune to the voter suppression tactics and threats to the electoral process being deployed across the country. Examples include the FBI raiding the elections office in Fulton County, Georgia, seizing ballots and voter rolls; the fight over vote machines and hand-counted ballots in Shasta County in 2024; Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco seizing over 650,000 ballots from the county elections office just last week; and California lawmakers proposing legislation to ban ICE agents from polling locations due to previous threats. These tactics undermine trust in our elections and discourage voters’ participation.

To address the unprecedented risk to democracy, we are uplifting the Democracy Fund’s recommendations under their SPEED framework. This framework is not a replacement for regular voter engagement investments, but an expanded set of recommendations calling on philanthropy to: safeguard the field, protect election administration, engage and educate voters, ensure voting rights, and defend against extraordinary threats.

For our foundation partners in California, we’ve identified key opportunities in need of resources this year:

• Public foundations ready to engage in ballot measure work can move resources to the California Donor Table Issues Committee to support collaboration and coordination amongst a slate of progressive measures that will appear on this Fall’s ballot. We’re engaging the national expertise of Ballot Initiative Strategy Center to lead this work. We’re also sponsoring an anti-voter ID committee and supporting a coalition of pro-voter organizations, led by ACLU of Northern California and California Common Cause, working to beat a potential voter ID ballot measure.
• Courage California, a statewide group, and the regional civic engagement tables, Inland Empire United, MOVE the Valley, Engage San Diego, OC Civic Engagement Table, Lift Up Contra Costa, and the LA Civic Engagement Table are leading voter education and outreach efforts ahead of the primary and general elections.
• Election protection and integrity efforts, including legal observers, voter hotlines, and others.
• Polling and research on confirmed and emerging ballot issues to inform the field.
• Hosting statewide and local candidate forums and other direct voter education opportunities.

Our democracy is on the line this election cycle. Philanthropy must step up in this critical moment to protect voters and the democratic process. We invite you to partner with us to ensure that all pieces of the pro-democracy infrastructure are adequately resourced this year. Please reach out to Victoria (victoria@californiadonortable.org) if you want to learn more about supporting these efforts.