Secret liberal donor club Democracy Alliance is meeting this week with a number of black organizers and groups to recommend establishing or increasing funding streams to them, according to Politico. Democracy Alliance, a membership group which requires $200,000 yearly donations by each member to recommended groups, has several members who have funded black-focused organizations and organizations linked with Black Lives Matter, but this year’s meeting encourages donors to give more. Politico reports:
According to a Democracy Alliance draft agenda obtained by POLITICO, movement leaders will be featured guests at a Tuesday dinner with major donors. The dinner, which technically precedes the official conference kickoff, will focus on “what kind of support and resources are needed from the allied funders during this critical moment of immediate struggle and long-term movement building.”
The groups that will be represented include the Black Youth Project 100, The Center for Popular Democracy and the Black Civic Engagement Fund, according to the organizer, a DA member named Leah Hunt-Hendrix. An heir to a Texas oil fortune, Hunt-Hendrix helps lead a coalition of mostly young donors called Solidaire that focuses on movement building. It’s donated more than $200,000 to the Black Lives Matter movement since Brown’s killing. According to its entry on a philanthropy website, more than $61,000 went directly to organizers and organizations on the ground in Ferguson and Baltimore, where the fatal police shooting of Freddie Gray in April sparked a more recent wave of Black Lives-related protests. An additional $115,000 went to groups that have sprung up to support the movement.
Democracy Alliance was founded in 2005 by a coalition of donors including George Soros, and contributes over $500 million to various causes. In addition to BYP 100 and the Black Civic Engagement Fund, which was also promoted at last year’s meeting, ColorOfChange.org and The Advancement Project, two groups focused on racial justice and civil rights, are also present. These efforts signify another step in the intensifying, but sometimes fragile, relationship between liberal, mostly white donors and organizations led by people of color.