Meeting the Moment

Change has always come from organized people, and meeting this moment requires organizing with courage and clarity. Over the past six years, the DPI fund has led field-defining research and innovation to strengthen organizing practice and demonstrate a new way of driving change rooted in multiracial democratic practice. Now is the time to harvest what we have learned to sharpen our collective strategies.

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Elections are where we contest for who we are and what we want as a country. While the political industry is built to chase a few more efficient votes at the margins, organizing focuses on building constituencies to achieve material change in their own lives through democracy. In 2024, the DPI Action Fund, Pro-Democracy Center, and the Organizing Lab at the State Power Fund undertook an unprecedented study of 26 independent power organizations (IPOs) across 10 states, representing the largest dataset ever collected on organizing and mobilization. We will share key findings and hear from state leaders on how organizing is converting election-year participation into civic power.

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Our values and identity research has shown that 40% of Black, Latino, and Asian American eligible voters are disconnected from civic engagement. In 2024 and 2025, we set out to better understand the roots of disconnection across demographic and social groups. This isa bloc of voters with outsized influence who have shaped the political arena for more than 25 years. This panel will explore new insights and feature organizers using innovative strategies to engage and enroll disillusioned voters into democratic practice.

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Civic homes are vehicles for transforming the extraordinary anger and abundant activism of this moment into organized, enduring power. Join us for a conversation with organizers and researchers about the role belonging and agency play in building powerful organizations and fueling collective action. This panel will explore what we are learning about the strategies that move people from isolation to solidarity and from self-doubt to agentic public leadership.

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