Our Mission
Wielding Power to Govern
Our democracy is a product of how we organize ourselves and wield our power to govern. With this in mind, Way to Rise was formed to ignite change and build lasting power across the country.
Way to Rise centers communities most impacted by injustice, funding sustained nonpartisan civic engagement led by both state-based organizations and national groups that support state-based partners. Way to Rise is creating a framework for aligned funders to give collectively, around a shared strategy, to lay the groundwork for significant power shifts over time.
As communities shift from protest to power, and from critique to governance, Way to Rise is helping to break the boom and bust cycle of funding, ensuring that organizers have the resources needed to embrace their power, determine policy outcomes for their communities, co-govern with elected officials, and reshape the future of our democracy.
Since 2018, Way to Rise has worked with individual donors and philanthropic partners to move nearly $5 million to state-based organizations and national partners focused on co-governance, voter protection and education, and narrative change. Our grantees are working across the country in states including AZ, NC, TX, FL, GA, VA, CO, MN, PA, and NV. Our in-state partners, including Instituto in Arizona, Blueprint North Carolina, and Texas Civil Rights Project have directly impacted the lives of their communities through voter education programs, training, and mutual aid programs. Nationally, partners like Kairos and Reframe have helped to build important capacity for in-state groups on digital organizing and narrative, and voter protection groups like Sojourners and Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute have helped prepare for the voter protection crisis presented by COVID-19.
Way to Rise is a philanthropic, 501(c)(3) effort that will fund work to create the conditions of power building and co-governance.
WAY TO WIN—our umbrella LLC works with multiple vehicles—shares our values and uses multiple vehicles, including 501(c)(4) and political action committee (PAC) funds, to advance justice and create a representative democracy that works for all.
To learn more please visit https://waytowin.us/.
Our democracy is a product of how we organize ourselves and wield our power to govern. With this in mind, Way to Rise was formed to ignite change and build lasting power across the country.
Way to Rise centers communities most impacted by injustice, funding sustained nonpartisan civic engagement led by both state-based organizations and national groups that support state-based partners. Way to Rise is creating a framework for aligned funders to give collectively, around a shared strategy, to lay the groundwork for significant power shifts over time.
As communities shift from protest to power, and from critique to governance, Way to Rise is helping to break the boom and bust cycle of funding, ensuring that organizers have the resources needed to embrace their power, determine policy outcomes for their communities, co-govern with elected officials, and reshape the future of our democracy.
Since 2018, Way to Rise has worked with individual donors and philanthropic partners to move nearly $5 million to state-based organizations and national partners focused on co-governance, voter protection and education, and narrative change. Our grantees are working across the country in states including AZ, NC, TX, FL, GA, VA, CO, MN, PA, and NV. Our in-state partners, including Instituto in Arizona, Blueprint North Carolina, and Texas Civil Rights Project have directly impacted the lives of their communities through voter education programs, training, and mutual aid programs. Nationally, partners like Kairos and Reframe have helped to build important capacity for in-state groups on digital organizing and narrative, and voter protection groups like Sojourners and Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute have helped prepare for the voter protection crisis presented by COVID-19.
Way to Rise is a philanthropic, 501(c)(3) effort that will fund work to create the conditions of power building and co-governance.
WAY TO WIN—our umbrella LLC works with multiple vehicles—shares our values and uses multiple vehicles, including 501(c)(4) and political action committee (PAC) funds, to advance justice and create a representative democracy that works for all.
To learn more please visit https://waytowin.us/.
Our Mission
Wielding Power to Govern
Our democracy is a product of how we organize ourselves and wield our power to govern. With this in mind, Way to Rise was formed to ignite change and build lasting power across the country.
Way to Rise centers communities most impacted by injustice, funding sustained nonpartisan civic engagement led by both state-based organizations and national groups that support state-based partners. Way to Rise is creating a framework for aligned funders to give collectively, around a shared strategy, to lay the groundwork for significant power shifts over time.
As communities shift from protest to power, and from critique to governance, Way to Rise is helping to break the boom and bust cycle of funding, ensuring that organizers have the resources needed to embrace their power, determine policy outcomes for their communities, co-govern with elected officials, and reshape the future of our democracy.
Since 2018, Way to Rise has worked with individual donors and philanthropic partners to move nearly $5 million to state-based organizations and national partners focused on co-governance, voter protection and education, and narrative change. Our grantees are working across the country in states including AZ, NC, TX, FL, GA, VA, CO, MN, PA, and NV. Our in-state partners, including Instituto in Arizona, Blueprint North Carolina, and Texas Civil Rights Project have directly impacted the lives of their communities through voter education programs, training, and mutual aid programs. Nationally, partners like Kairos and Reframe have helped to build important capacity for in-state groups on digital organizing and narrative, and voter protection groups like Sojourners and Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute have helped prepare for the voter protection crisis presented by COVID-19.
Way to Rise is a philanthropic, 501(c)(3) effort that will fund work to create the conditions of power building and co-governance.
WAY TO WIN—our umbrella LLC works with multiple vehicles—shares our values and uses multiple vehicles, including 501(c)(4) and political action committee (PAC) funds, to advance justice and create a representative democracy that works for all.
To learn more please visit https://waytowin.us/.
Value Proposition
What Makes Way to Rise Unique:
Way to Rise provides a framework for aligned funders to collectively and sustainably move resources
Rejecting the status quo of cyclical and siloed funding approaches, we support individual donors and aligned institutional partners in leveraging a multi-year collective funding strategy that sustains organizations in states and nationally over time.
We know that long-term work requires secure funding, and thus Way to Rise will aim to fill gaps during times when funding dries up and will support organizations that seek to expand revenue streams. This is a particular niche that Way to Rise can fill because of its affiliation with Way to Win, a growing donor network with over 100 members. In light of COVID-19, Way to Win and Way to Rise have shifted all of our gatherings for 2020, including the Way Forward, to virtual events. Please contact Leah Marsters if you are interested in future upcoming Way to Rise events.
Way to Rise’s funding strategy is co-designed with community organizers in states and nationally.
We focus on the capacities that community organizations have identified as critical to their ability to build and wield power, through strategies that include both movement action and policy change. The process of listening deeply to the needs of communities and removing barriers to grantmaking allows Way to Rise to respond nimbly and ensure resources are moved efficiently and to their highest use.
Way to Rise’s funding cuts across issues, geographies, and organizing strategies.
This includes the work of base-building, nonpartisan voter education, voter protection, accountability campaigns during legislative sessions, as well as digital and narrative work. While other civic engagement funders may focus only on tactical efforts like voter registration and GOTV, we focus on a well-rounded suite of strategic organizing efforts. In 2018, we moved more than $3 million to over 20 states focused on the sunbelt to build out the power of our new and mulitiracial America. In 2019 and 2020, we aim to continue to invest in state-based power builders to support the infrastructure needed to help them scale.
Way to Rise is flipping the formula on metrics.
We measure our progress by tracking how the organizations we support grow their influence at all levels of government. We rely on a set of signals that measure success beyond traditional civic engagement funders’ standard metrics, which often count rote outputs like the number of people registered to vote, rather than measuring actual long-term power shifting. Those signals include whether policies are being passed at the state and local level, whether barriers to participation are being removed, and whether narratives shift over time to become more inclusive and progressive.
PHOTO CREDITS
Header image depicts a Moral Mondays action in Raleigh, North Carolina led by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II. Photographed by Josh Rushing.
Way to Rise provides a framework for aligned funders to collectively and sustainably move resources
Rejecting the status quo of cyclical and siloed funding approaches, we support individual donors and aligned institutional partners in leveraging a multi-year collective funding strategy that sustains organizations in states and nationally over time.
We know that long-term work requires secure funding, and thus Way to Rise will aim to fill gaps during times when funding dries up and will support organizations that seek to expand revenue streams. This is a particular niche that Way to Rise can fill because of its affiliation with Way to Win, a growing donor network with over 100 members. In light of COVID-19, Way to Win and Way to Rise have shifted all of our gatherings for 2020, including the Way Forward, to virtual events. Please contact Leah Marsters if you are interested in future upcoming Way to Rise events.
Way to Rise’s funding strategy is co-designed with community organizers in states and nationally.
We focus on the capacities that community organizations have identified as critical to their ability to build and wield power, through strategies that include both movement action and policy change. The process of listening deeply to the needs of communities and removing barriers to grantmaking allows Way to Rise to respond nimbly and ensure resources are moved efficiently and to their highest use.
Way to Rise’s funding cuts across issues, geographies, and organizing strategies.
This includes the work of base-building, nonpartisan voter education, voter protection, accountability campaigns during legislative sessions, as well as digital and narrative work. While other civic engagement funders may focus only on tactical efforts like voter registration and GOTV, we focus on a well-rounded suite of strategic organizing efforts. In 2018, we moved more than $3 million to over 20 states focused on the sunbelt to build out the power of our new and mulitiracial America. In 2019 and 2020, we aim to continue to invest in state-based power builders to support the infrastructure needed to help them scale.
Way to Rise is flipping the formula on metrics.
We measure our progress by tracking how the organizations we support grow their influence at all levels of government. We rely on a set of signals that measure success beyond traditional civic engagement funders’ standard metrics, which often count rote outputs like the number of people registered to vote, rather than measuring actual long-term power shifting. Those signals include whether policies are being passed at the state and local level, whether barriers to participation are being removed, and whether narratives shift over time to become more inclusive and progressive.
PHOTO CREDITS
Header image depicts a Moral Mondays action in Raleigh, North Carolina led by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II. Photographed by Josh Rushing.
Value Proposition
What Makes Way to Rise Unique:
Way to Rise provides a framework for aligned funders to collectively and sustainably move resources
Rejecting the status quo of cyclical and siloed funding approaches, we support individual donors and aligned institutional partners in leveraging a multi-year collective funding strategy that sustains organizations in states and nationally over time.
We know that long-term work requires secure funding, and thus Way to Rise will aim to fill gaps during times when funding dries up and will support organizations that seek to expand revenue streams. This is a particular niche that Way to Rise can fill because of its affiliation with Way to Win, a growing donor network with over 100 members. In light of COVID-19, Way to Win and Way to Rise have shifted all of our gatherings for 2020, including the Way Forward, to virtual events. Please contact Leah Marsters if you are interested in future upcoming Way to Rise events.
Way to Rise’s funding strategy is co-designed with community organizers in states and nationally.
We focus on the capacities that community organizations have identified as critical to their ability to build and wield power, through strategies that include both movement action and policy change. The process of listening deeply to the needs of communities and removing barriers to grantmaking allows Way to Rise to respond nimbly and ensure resources are moved efficiently and to their highest use.
Way to Rise’s funding cuts across issues, geographies, and organizing strategies.
This includes the work of base-building, nonpartisan voter education, voter protection, accountability campaigns during legislative sessions, as well as digital and narrative work. While other civic engagement funders may focus only on tactical efforts like voter registration and GOTV, we focus on a well-rounded suite of strategic organizing efforts. In 2018, we moved more than $3 million to over 20 states focused on the sunbelt to build out the power of our new and mulitiracial America. In 2019 and 2020, we aim to continue to invest in state-based power builders to support the infrastructure needed to help them scale.
Way to Rise is flipping the formula on metrics.
We measure our progress by tracking how the organizations we support grow their influence at all levels of government. We rely on a set of signals that measure success beyond traditional civic engagement funders’ standard metrics, which often count rote outputs like the number of people registered to vote, rather than measuring actual long-term power shifting. Those signals include whether policies are being passed at the state and local level, whether barriers to participation are being removed, and whether narratives shift over time to become more inclusive and progressive.
PHOTO CREDITS
Header image depicts a Moral Mondays action in Raleigh, North Carolina led by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II. Photographed by Josh Rushing.
Our Strategy
Power Building
& Co-Governance
Way to Rise funds 501(c)3 organizations recommended in the Plan to Win and the Plan to Govern, encompassing three main areas:
Our Strategy
Power Building
& Co-Governance
Way to Rise funds 501(c)3 organizations recommended in the Plan to Win and the Plan to Govern, encompassing three main areas:
Co-Governance
A theory focused on increasing democratic participation and training communities on what it means to govern, in order to build capacity and implement bold policy.
For Way to Rise, co-governance means ensuring communities have what they need to lead on the issues that matter to people’s lives year-round—from engaging voters in elections to building power to pass bold policies once elected officials are in office.
This includes training for elected officials and their staff and support for community-based organizations that seek to play a role in legislative sessions, drafting policy and holding elected officials accountable.
Way to Rise supports policy incubation and community power building at the state level as a pathway to national-level change. Many bold ideas being championed locally are breaking through at the national level, including criminal justice reform, housing policy, and climate justice. We need to continue this momentum to win the battle of ideas that center racial, gender, and economic justice as common values.
Additionally, the Plan to Govern, to be launched in 2020 by Way to Win LLC, is designed for strategic post-election and off-cycle investments to continue to build power and improve people’s lives. The periods between elections in some ways matter most for democracy—when there are opportunities to translate electoral victories into progressive policies, and when funding for civic engagement tends to wane.
We see the power of governance unfolding in front of us due to COVID-19, and we must strengthen the institutions and infrastructure that aim to exert progressive governance at the state and federal level.
Co-Governance
A theory focused on increasing democratic participation and training communities on what it means to govern, in order to build capacity and implement bold policy.
For Way to Rise, co-governance means ensuring communities have what they need to lead on the issues that matter to people’s lives year-round—from engaging voters in elections to building power to pass bold policies once elected officials are in office.
This includes training for elected officials and their staff and support for community-based organizations that seek to play a role in legislative sessions, drafting policy and holding elected officials accountable.
Way to Rise supports policy incubation and community power building at the state level as a pathway to national-level change. Many bold ideas being championed locally are breaking through at the national level, including criminal justice reform, housing policy, and climate justice. We need to continue this momentum to win the battle of ideas that center racial, gender, and economic justice as common values.
Additionally, the Plan to Govern, to be launched in 2020 by Way to Win LLC, is designed for strategic post-election and off-cycle investments to continue to build power and improve people’s lives. The periods between elections in some ways matter most for democracy—when there are opportunities to translate electoral victories into progressive policies, and when funding for civic engagement tends to wane.
We see the power of governance unfolding in front of us due to COVID-19, and we must strengthen the institutions and infrastructure that aim to exert progressive governance at the state and federal level.
Co-Governance
A theory focused on increasing democratic participation and training communities on what it means to govern, in order to build capacity and implement bold policy.
For Way to Rise, co-governance means ensuring communities have what they need to lead on the issues that matter to people’s lives year-round—from engaging voters in elections to building power to pass bold policies once elected officials are in office.
This includes training for elected officials and their staff and support for community-based organizations that seek to play a role in legislative sessions, drafting policy and holding elected officials accountable.
Way to Rise supports policy incubation and community power building at the state level as a pathway to national-level change. Many bold ideas being championed locally are breaking through at the national level, including criminal justice reform, housing policy, and climate justice. We need to continue this momentum to win the battle of ideas that center racial, gender, and economic justice as common values.
Additionally, the Plan to Govern, to be launched in 2020 by Way to Win LLC, is designed for strategic post-election and off-cycle investments to continue to build power and improve people’s lives. The periods between elections in some ways matter most for democracy—when there are opportunities to translate electoral victories into progressive policies, and when funding for civic engagement tends to wane.
We see the power of governance unfolding in front of us due to COVID-19, and we must strengthen the institutions and infrastructure that aim to exert progressive governance at the state and federal level.
VOTER PROTECTION AND VOTER EDUCATION
Way to Rise supports efforts that protect voters and expand access to the ballot, to ensure that every person has a vote and each vote is counted in the face of the ongoing efforts to purge and suppress voters—especially those from low income communities and communities of color. This includes voter protection policy and litigation work, the nonpartisan voter education that is needed to ensure people have the information they need to vote safely in November, and 501(c)(3) registration and mobilization. This work has become all the more critical in the era of COVID-19, when it is clear that people’s ability to vote safely in every community across the country is at stake.
Narrative Change
Way to Rise supports work to build new narratives that are driven by the incredible leaders—most of them women and people of color—leading state-based and national work across the country. The mainstream media and dominant political discourse privilege viewpoints and strategies that uphold conventional wisdom, at the cost of systematically addressing major inequalities and issues that matter to those most impacted by injustice. We need to develop persuasive counter-narratives about our multiracial identity and common goals, as well as platforms and vehicles for dissemination to broad audiences.
Way to Rise funds key narrative-building groups nationally, state-based organizations who are increasing their capacity for communications and narrative change work, as well as a narrative change writing fellowship for movement leaders that we piloted in 2019.
In 2020, we have also launched the Latinx Justice Fund (LJF), in partnership with the Ford Foundation and Nathan Cummings Foundation. The LJF focuses on building Latinx civic, economic, and cultural power via a shared narrative framework that addresses Latinx identity and mobilizes Latinx communities across the country. Broadly, the LJF is designed to: (1) define Latinx power in the current iteration of white supremacy, (2) invest in strategic research and infrastructure to build Latinx power via shared narratives, and (3) create a community to increase funding to Latinx infrastructure.
VOTER PROTECTION AND VOTER EDUCATION
Way to Rise supports efforts that protect voters and expand access to the ballot, to ensure that every person has a vote and each vote is counted in the face of the ongoing efforts to purge and suppress voters—especially those from low income communities and communities of color. This includes voter protection policy and litigation work, the nonpartisan voter education that is needed to ensure people have the information they need to vote safely in November, and 501(c)(3) registration and mobilization. This work has become all the more critical in the era of COVID-19, when it is clear that people’s ability to vote safely in every community across the country is at stake.
Narrative Change
Way to Rise supports work to build new narratives that are driven by the incredible leaders—most of them women and people of color—leading state-based and national work across the country. The mainstream media and dominant political discourse privilege viewpoints and strategies that uphold conventional wisdom, at the cost of systematically addressing major inequalities and issues that matter to those most impacted by injustice. We need to develop persuasive counter-narratives about our multiracial identity and common goals, as well as platforms and vehicles for dissemination to broad audiences.
Way to Rise funds key narrative-building groups nationally, state-based organizations who are increasing their capacity for communications and narrative change work, as well as a narrative change writing fellowship for movement leaders that we piloted in 2019.
In 2020, we have also launched the Latinx Justice Fund (LJF), in partnership with the Ford Foundation and Nathan Cummings Foundation. The LJF focuses on building Latinx civic, economic, and cultural power via a shared narrative framework that addresses Latinx identity and mobilizes Latinx communities across the country. Broadly, the LJF is designed to: (1) define Latinx power in the current iteration of white supremacy, (2) invest in strategic research and infrastructure to build Latinx power via shared narratives, and (3) create a community to increase funding to Latinx infrastructure.
VOTER PROTECTION AND VOTER EDUCATION
Way to Rise supports efforts that protect voters and expand access to the ballot, to ensure that every person has a vote and each vote is counted in the face of the ongoing efforts to purge and suppress voters—especially those from low income communities and communities of color. This includes voter protection policy and litigation work, the nonpartisan voter education that is needed to ensure people have the information they need to vote safely in November, and 501(c)(3) registration and mobilization. This work has become all the more critical in the era of COVID-19, when it is clear that people’s ability to vote safely in every community across the country is at stake.
Narrative Change
Way to Rise supports work to build new narratives that are driven by the incredible leaders—most of them women and people of color—leading state-based and national work across the country. The mainstream media and dominant political discourse privilege viewpoints and strategies that uphold conventional wisdom, at the cost of systematically addressing major inequalities and issues that matter to those most impacted by injustice. We need to develop persuasive counter-narratives about our multiracial identity and common goals, as well as platforms and vehicles for dissemination to broad audiences.
Way to Rise funds key narrative-building groups nationally, state-based organizations who are increasing their capacity for communications and narrative change work, as well as a narrative change writing fellowship for movement leaders that we piloted in 2019.
In 2020, we have also launched the Latinx Justice Fund (LJF), in partnership with the Ford Foundation and Nathan Cummings Foundation. The LJF focuses on building Latinx civic, economic, and cultural power via a shared narrative framework that addresses Latinx identity and mobilizes Latinx communities across the country. Broadly, the LJF is designed to: (1) define Latinx power in the current iteration of white supremacy, (2) invest in strategic research and infrastructure to build Latinx power via shared narratives, and (3) create a community to increase funding to Latinx infrastructure.