Letters of Interest

To revitalize a progressive religious movement as an identifiable moral backbone for the overall progressive movement, Faithful America and Faith Voices for the Common Good are seeking support to create a joint information-delivery and technology infrastructure to reach mainstream religious people with progressive messaging through innovative social software, such as Faith Voices’ unique, interactive Synanim technology (Synanim.org). This collaboration will expand the current reach of the two organizations for optimum messaging and coordination of work to engage both clergy and laity in more active participation in providing moral frameworks for the progressive movement. This linkage will broaden their reach by growing www.faithfulamerica.org from 100,000 to a target of 500,000 members and Faith Voices from 20 to 50 organizational members to support Faith Voices’ Gather Heart messaging system for clergy, which enables clergy to create sermons online with Synanim. Between them, the two organizations have potential access to 86,000 clergy and 45,000,000 Christians. The joint infrastructure will provide world-class clergy leadership training and a dynamic and centralized online service for growing a progressive religious movement. It will engage persons of faith in public debate and enable interactive discourse on progressive values, thereby strengthening the moral public voice of the progressive movement.

The lack of a coordinated communication network is a great liability to progressives when it comes to acting in concert to influence public opinion and public policy, and maximizing the gains of grassroots organizing and electoral campaigns. This LOI proposes to map progressive organizations and networks, and to use this data to create a web-based database listing communication vehicles, organizations, and networks willing and able to coordinate message distribution. Specifically, the LOI proposes:

1. compiling existing aggregated data on progressive organizations and networks and undertaking asset mapping research;
2. developing an interactive online database listing communication vehicles, organizations, and networks willing and able to coordinate message distribution; 
3. creating a database demonstration tool, conducting heavy outreach to progressive media, organizations and consultants, and coordinating five convenings to gather progressives regionally for demo launches; and
4. turning the database over to an existing organization, to be maintained by its staff.

Contact:

A stronger and better connected infrastructure will enable progressives to communicate their ideas and values more effectively to a variety of audiences, to collaborate more effectively, and to move the political agenda to be more receptive to progressive candidates and programs. In collaboration with renowned network analyst Valdis Krebs, the Commonweal Institute proposes to increase substantially the connected capacity of the progressive movement by mapping and analyzing the social and organizational networks that presently exist among progressive infrastructure organizations and individuals, then intervening in specific ways to strengthen and “weave” those networks. These activities will include targeted networking events to increase connectivity, the creation of a public engagement networking site, the development of a messaging echo chamber via network connections, and education and promotion to encourage network involvement.

A vibrant network with diverse membership and a strategic plan for growing and formalizing their work and increasing their impact, the Progressive Communicators Network proposes to increase its capacity by hiring its first two regional organizing and program staff people in late 2006 or early 2007, with two more regional staff added each year through 2010. The Network will continue with its proven approach of national and regional work on: 

1. supporting networking between communicators;
2. building skills of communicators, with a focus on framing and messaging; and
3. fostering cooperation and collaboration and supporting the projects that spring from these collaborations.  

The scale of the work, however, will change with increased financial resources to add people power and program resources.

Recent events make it clear that the energy exists within the Hispanic community to enable Hispanics to reach their full political potential, which, if managed correctly, can sustain the progressive movement and help it grow. However, in order to be successful, progressives must communicate effectively with the Hispanic population through an approach that can deliver messages utilizing new technologies at the neighborhood level. Iowa, a bell weather of politics and demographics, can serve as a testing ground for on-going engagement with the growing Hispanic population. Housed within the Center for Civic Participation, which operates nationwide in a number of states from its Minneapolis office, the Iowa Project is an expansion of the strong and targeted community-specific work that has been done in Iowa's Hispanic community. Hispanic civic participation is critical to the lasting implementation of progressive agendas; The Iowa Project is a long-term strategy that can achieve rapid intermediate results, with the possibility of subsequent expansion into other Midwestern states, as well as those states with large Hispanic populations.

By focusing on skill-building for key progressive leaders, the Rockwood Leadership Program proposes to organize national and regional think tank leaders and facilitate collaboration in visioning, messaging and program across the boundaries of organization, issue focus, and geography. Drawing on training methodologies from community organizing, private sector leadership development programs, and its deep experience facilitating progressive social change, Rockwood delivers intensive workshops that help key leaders create the visioning, partnership and implementation skills associated with highly successful public policy campaigns. The stages in infrastructure-building, in the Rockwood model, begin with:

The Progressive Synergy Project proposes to develop a model governance structure for cross-issue coordination, based on some of the progressive movement’s most successful collaborative efforts: the Partnership Project, the Forest Stewardship Council, and America Votes. This governance structure will provide a foundation for effective interaction between electorally-oriented progressive groups, creating a space for the strategic integration of resources and more effective messaging in order to win elections. The Progressive Synergy Network model aims to enhance the effectiveness of the growing progressive political movement by setting a strict standard for assessing the capacity of its member organizations, while encouraging the kind of collaboration that is necessary for long-term political relevance and victory. It integrates the emergence of new funding models, intelligent branding strategies, and democratic decision-making into a model that incorporates methodologies that have already proven successful in other sectors.