Democracy & Power
Innovation Fund

Our theory of everything at the DPI Fund is that for our country to have a progressive multiracial democracy we need to build and sustain organized power.
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The DPI Approach

Our Goal

MULTIRACIAL
DEMOCRACY

We work with our community of organizers, researchers, and funding partners to support state-based work to promote and sustain multiracial democratic practice.

Our Approach

BASE-BUILDING
ORGANIZING

We believe that base-building organizing driven by state-based containers of collective action is the core strategy that drives multiracial democratic practice.  

Our Impact

IMPROVING STRATEGY &
PRACTICE TO WIN CHANGE

We co-create and support research and innovative programs to improve organizing strategy and practice that wins change for our families and communities.

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The DPI Fund supports groundbreaking research related to organizing strategy and practice, understanding and measuring power, and values and identities within communities of color. We co-create our research projects with our organizing partners and research leads, ensure that organizing partners are driving research goals and strategy, and create opportunities for practitioners across organizations to learn from each other.

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Examples of Current Research
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Videos
From Political Cynicism to BIPOC Political Power
DPI Fund partners Katrina Gamble of Sojourn Strategies, Jess Morales Rocketto of EquisLabs, Nse Ufot, and Terrance Woodbury of HIT Strategies presented at SXSW about how political cynicism threatens political power in young people and BIPOC communities.
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Newsletters
Power Metrics Memo Executive Summary
This report includes several case studies of groups innovating, tracking, and learning from new metrics to improve their power-building practice, along with recommendations for organizing and funding practitioners on measuring power
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Research Reports
Black Values Research 2024
The research project was led by Katrina Gamble, PhD, Senior Advisor to the DPI Fund and Founder and CEO of Sojourn Strategies, and Terrance Woodbury, CEO And Founding Partner of HIT Strategies.
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September 4, 2024
2024 Black Values Media Briefing
POWER Interfaith in PA, New Georgia Project, and Detroit Action Education Fund released a national study of the Black electorate which, for the first time, analyzes segments or values clusters of the Black community.
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February 12, 2024
Surfacing Missing Voters
This report documents the ways that Black, Latino, and AAPI individuals and communities are systematically ignored by current digital and technological systems of voter engagement.
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September 5, 2023
Power Metrics: Measuring What Matters to Build a Multiracial Democracy
This report outlines a framework developed by groups in the DPI Organizing Lab to identify and measure strategies that wield power using the data organizations collect and analyze in their day-to-day work.
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May 1, 2023
Surveying the Landscape of Data Integration for State and Local Organizing Group
This report documents the challenges base-building groups face with the current set of movement tech tools and suggests some systemic solutions.
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April 10, 2023
Black Values National Survey and Cluster Analysis Briefing
In this video, The DPI Fund, HIT Strategies, and Sojourn Strategist discuss the Black Values National Survey designed to understand the various values and political identities that drive Black civic engagement.
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Member Spotlight
We have found courage in each other as co-conspirators working to challenge a system that has left us out for too long. Thank you to the DPI team for believing in us and our power to drive change. This is real.
Alejandra Gomez
Arizona Center for Empowerment

2023 ANNUAL CONVENING

October 4 - 5, 2023  | 12:30 - 5:00 pm ET
On October 4-5, 2023, we hosted a two-day convening where we shared our latest research findings and strategized together around ways to implement these learnings to support powerful organizing and civic engagement programs across the country in the lead up to 2024!
october 4, 2023
Day 1: Shifting the Political Paradigm
This opening panel will explore the challenges of our current political paradigm, where politics is extractive, transactional, and driven by political operatives in NY or DC, how that political “common sense” undermines multiracial democratic practice, and what we can do together to create and realize a new paradigm where the political system builds power in Black, Latino, AAPI, and Native communities that they can use collectively to win change.
october 5, 2023
Day 2: Narrative, Agency & Belonging
We all know that organized, collective action is a critical strategy for winning change. And we have learned that perceptions of power are critical building blocks for political action. But what are the factors that help members join and stay connected to base-building organizations and see those organizations as “political homes” that operate as containers for building power for collective action? This panel will discuss the role that narrative, agency and belonging play in the work to build and sustain powerful political movements and how those insights can translate into impact.
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news + media

See the latest news and media events from DPI community members
Newsweek
DPI Partners', Gregory Edwards and Marcus Bass, op-ed about the need to understand the nuanced political views of Black men
Reverend Gregory Edwards, the Executive Director of POWER Interfaith, and Marcus Bass, the Executive Director of North Carolina Black Alliance authored this op-ed titled Inviting Cynical Black Men Into Politics, Without Shame or Blame discusses the imperative to engage Black men authentically and draws on the DPI National Black Values research.
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Roland Martin Unfiltered
DPI Analyst Miriam McKinney Gray on Roland Martin
DPI Analyst Miriam McKinney Gray was on Roland Martin discussing her research on the millions of Black and Latino voters who are missing or mislisted in the voter file. Miriam’s segment begins around the 53-minute mark.
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The Fulcrum
DPI Funder Partners Author Op-Ed on Shifting from Policy to Power
Authored by Kelly Knowlin from the Fresh Sound Foundation and Jennie Riley, the Executive Director of the Rx Foundation. The op-ed discusses the need for the philanthropic community to focus on long-term, systemic support for multiracial democratic practice and community power-building.
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Join us to explore more research and innovation projects housed in the DPI Research Library. 

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The Democracy & Power Innovation Fund is a project hosted at the Rockefeller Family Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity.
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