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Team re:power

2023: A year of growth for re:power!

2023 is a year of growth for re:power and we’re thrilled to deepen our impact with the addition of three new team members. Learn more about our new incredible team members below!

Krystal Garcia Centeno
Development & Communications Coordinator

Krystal Garcia Centeno

Krystal brings a wealth of experience from advocacy organizations like Warehouse Workers for Justice and the Sierra Club where she was an organizer and operations professional building power with working people across intersectional social justice fights. Krystal was a 2020 At-Large Delegate for Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign and a community college school board candidate during the 2023 consolidated election cycle, where in both cases she championed progressive policies and advocated for more inclusive democracies.  

Krystal is particularly excited to join the Development and Communications team because she is passionate about redistributing wealth and is eager to reimagine philanthropy through a community centric framework. Outside of work she’s a dog mom of two girls (Olivia and Blue), a graduate student, and is usually watching films with Pedro Pascal in them.

Adriyanna R. Andreus
Program Coordinator, Progressive Governance Academy

Adriyanna R. Andreus

Adriyanna joins the re:power team after working on the Made to Save team at Civic Nation mobilizing efforts to get shots in arms in communities of color and building stronger and more resilient ties between communities of color and their public health ecosystem—all in service of building long-term community power.

Previously, Adriyanna worked on the Voter Registration Quality Control Project and on Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2020 presidential campaign in accounting and compliance. Adriyanna was a 2020 Maryland At-Large Delegate for President Joe Biden while serving as the Coordinator for the Haitian Ladies Network. 

In her free time, Adriyanna loves to cook her favorite Haitian recipes, cuddle with her dog Tokyo and cat Furiosa, travel the world with her partner Tiff, and keep her community civically engaged through her social media platform Decipher TV.

Tina C. Hines
Executive Assistant & Board Liaison

Tina C. Hines

Tina C. Hines is a seasoned Executive Assistant with over 35 years in the field. She began her administrative career as a secretary in the offices of Johnson & Johnson. There Tina held executive assistant positions in the areas of safety and industrial hygiene, sales and logistics and business development. She was the recipient of several awards for her work at Johnson & Johnson. 

Tina continued her career supporting the founder/owner of Black Enterprise Magazine. It was during this time where she enhanced her skills which eventually led her to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. At the foundation, Tina managed the executive office of the President and CEO, as well as worked closely with the board of trustees. More recently, Tina has served as office manager of Extra Hands VAS where she supported the founder with daily operations.

Tina is a graduate of the University of Phoenix with an Associates of Arts in Business. She is also certified as a life and transformational coach. She is passionate about helping women live their best life without limits.

How Grant Makers Can Help State Policy Makers Advance Smart Approaches

Below is an excerpt of an article originally published in The Chronicle of Philanthropy on January 19, 2023. Read the full article at the page linked below.
By: Karundi Williams, Tom Perriello

The 2022 elections were dominated by precedent-setting victories and critical upsets. Across the country, large numbers of young candidates and candidates of color won elected office at every level of government, including the first Gen Z member of Congress. Voters aged 18 to 29 overwhelmingly sided with Democrats and propelled a wave of upsets from the Michigan statehouse to the Los Angeles City Council.

Now, as state legislative sessions ramp up, a new band of lawmakers begins the challenging work of delivering on campaign promises during a period of extreme division and threats to democratic institutions and office holders.

Elected state and local leaders are closest to their communities and have the greatest potential to demonstrate what effective and responsive governance looks like. This is in sharp contrast to an increasingly dysfunctional Congress, including a House of Representatives that struggled for days this month with the routine process of electing a speaker.

When national politicians fail to deliver, local officials can pick up the slack by producing innovative community-focused programs and policy to improve democracy, protect reproductive rights, and battle climate change. They can help revive trust in government, elections, and public officials, as well as make a real difference in people’s lives, especially those in underserved communities.

Unfortunately, governmental institutions don’t set up new officeholders to succeed, particularly at the local and state levels. The vast majority receive no formal training on how to do their jobs and quickly discover that the skills of campaigning for office don’t seamlessly transfer to the skills required to govern. Many, as a result, are unprepared to step into the governing arena after winning an election.

For several years, philanthropists and advocacy organizations have invested far more in building progressive power than figuring out how to hold and use that power. Millions of dollars from philanthropists’ personal checking accounts flow into key states during election years then disappear until the next campaign cycle. This boom-and-bust funding pattern is predicated on the idea that winning elections is the goal. In reality, the goal is to create and adopt policies that change lives and strengthen communities. That won’t happen if newly elected political leaders lack the tools to perform well in office.

In reality, the goal is to create and adopt policies that change lives and strengthen communities. That won’t happen if newly elected political leaders lack the tools to perform well in office.

This funding asymmetry was inevitable during a time when people of color and low-income populations had few advocates in government leadership. But as more progressive champions, including people of color, have won elections, philanthropy has failed to adapt to a new reality.

To start remedying the situation, re:power Fund, the organization Karundi leads, came together in 2019 with the State Innovation Exchange and Local Progress Impact Lab to create the Progressive Governance Academy, or PGA. Open Society Foundation-U.S., which Tom heads, and other grant makers provided initial funding for PGA — the only collaborative governance-training program in the country for progressive state and local elected officials.

Since launching, PGA has trained more than 1,300 legislators, including both new and incumbent elected officials in statehouses and city councils in pivotal states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, and Georgia. It has connected them to networks of peers and policy experts to support their continued learning and development. This includes holding training sessions in areas such as setting a realistic agenda and timeline for achieving ambitious legislative goals and how to identify and work with influential government leaders or outside groups who can help them bring policy priorities to fruition.

But now, especially with so many young and first-time candidates ascending to office, these efforts need to be significantly expanded. For every excellent candidate-training program — and more of those are also still needed — at least as many opportunities should be available to help lawmakers make the leap from candidate to government leader.

Effective government is one of the best ways for foundations and nonprofits to create change and fulfill their missions. But too many grant makers fail to make that connection and to invest accordingly.

When candidates are sworn into office, they often must navigate a complicated bureaucracy and byzantine process to achieve their policy goals. In some places, they join a new team of elected officials who share their values, but often they are all alone in seeking progressive reforms.

“Taking office amid the pandemic and for the first time felt like drinking from a fire hose,” said Vanessa Fuentes, who was elected to the Austin, Tex., City Council in 2021. Fuentes, who ran on a platform to address the city’s health care disparities and unemployment rates, received training from PGA.

Fuentes credits the program with helping her deliver on progressive policy solutions, including successfully championing a renters’ rights agenda, which protects tenants’ right to organize, and establishing a process to remedy lease violations and improve the city’s tenant-relocation program.

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Welcoming our new Leadership Giving Manager

Mia S. Willis

We’re excited to welcome our new Leadership Giving Manager, Mia S. Willis (they/them)! 

Mia is a fundraiser, popular educator, and artist based on unceded Muscogee Creek territory (so-called Atlanta, Georgia). They are a lifelong Southerner whose family lineage includes laborers, union stewards, teachers, and civil servants.

Mia was a graduate student in Classics at The Florida State University when they left academia to design the youth volunteer curriculum at the Atlanta History Center and embark on their first North American poetry tour. They have received fellowships from Cave Canem, La Maison Baldwin, and Lambda Literary for poetry featured in The Slowdown, Palette Poetry, and others.

By the summer of 2020, Mia was eager to support movement organizations with the skills they acquired as a self-employed performance artist and workshop facilitator. They have since served in development and popular education roles at Reading In Motion, Highlander Research and Education Center, and Southern Movement Assembly.

When Mia isn’t fundraising for change or writing toward tomorrow, they enjoy collecting vinyl records and producing sample-based music.

“I come from a family of community-centric fundraisers; individuals who understand that fundraising is just one way marginalized people build power under capitalism and that all contributions, regardless of nature or size, are invaluable in the struggle toward self-determination. I’m looking forward to talking with the folks who support our work and building with them!”

Mia S. Willis

October 2022 Newsletter

Preview - Oct 2022 Newsletter

September 2022 Newsletter

Preview - September Newsletter

Summer Round-up: Program Trainings & Partnerships!

It’s been a busy summer filled with important partnership trainings aimed at preparing our folks for the battles ahead, including the 2022 midterms. Here are some highlights from some of our recent partnerships!

Four Freedoms Fund

In June, we launched a twelve-week integrated voter engagement cohort for Four Freedoms Fund to train their immigrant-rights based grantees on campaign management. There were 20–25 BIPOC participants at any given time representing different organizations within the FFF grantee ecosystem, such as Mi Familia Vota, LCF Georgia, Nebraska Appleseed, North Carolina Asian Americans Together (NCAAT), and La Union Del Pueblo Entero (LUPE). Many of these organizations were representing the local immigrants rights fight taking place in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Nebraska, and Arizona to name a few. 

re:power Fund staff and trainers supported the leadership of many new organizers on utilizing platforms like VAN, introduction to digital organizing, how to base build alongside direct voter contact, identifying tactics, creating an effective and winning field plan, and even managing up as a middle manager. The cohort really leaned into bi-weekly coaching sessions held by re:power trainers and felt supported throughout the time in the program.

Here are a few reflections from participants:

“The coaches are clear and helpful in explanations. They lead and not tell.”

“Direct Voter Contact training was definitely the most useful since it was tailored specifically to our org.”

“It was nice to be directly asked the question and have my coach to talk it through with. I got some good feedback with good follow up questions.”

“I needed basic campaign ideas, tips and tricks and Victoria definitely provided! Things simply like ‘how many times does someone need to see your messaging’ during a campaign.”

Highlights: 

  • Deeper understanding in creating field and campaign plans as well as cutting turf.
  • Participants appreciated authentic in the field experiences of the coaches.
  • Re:Power coaches helped orgs create strategic and targeted universes for C3 plans.

Run For Something

Throughout the month of September, we partnered with Run for Something Action (RFSA) to launch a County Clerk candidate campaign management program for eight candidates in Denver and Texas who are in the midst of active campaigns to seek the role of County Clerk, also known as Election Administrators, during this year’s midterm elections in November. RFSA recruits and supports young, diverse progressives to run for down-ballot races in order to build sustainable power for Democrats in all 50 states. RFS aims to lower the barriers of entry for these candidates by helping them with behind-the-scenes mechanics, tactical and strategic support, advice, mentorship, access to training, and everything in between.

RFSA sought out a partnership with us to train their Democracy Defenders candidates on effective campaign management, digital security, VAN, and fundraising. We held four weekly sessions with eight weeks of coaching hours to support the candidacy of this important role throughout local democracies. At re:power, we understand the importance in this political moment to protect the integrity of elections at all levels of government following the failed insurrection of 2021 and the Big Lie campaign led by the extremist Right. We supported the campaign management learnings of 8 county clerk candidates in Colorado and Texas.

Here are a few takeaways from the program: 

“Kemi made the information accessible to me. The links were helpful to test my phishing skills. I like the music ahead of time, it helps set the mood and gets some energy flowing before a two hour session.”

“There is so much I wish I had known when I raised my hand to be a candidate… Thank you for educating candidates in such a powerful way.”

“Following the fundraising training, one candidate pitched to the entire Zoom their fundraising messaging for their campaign and was able to raise $100 from the call as practice!”

New Pennsylvania Project

The New Pennsylvania Project (NPP) is a voting rights organization founded in 2021 to expand Pennsylvania’s electorate so it reflects the Commonwealth’s demographically changing population. NPP is engaging and empowering young residents and those living in underrepresented and often neglected communities of color and immigrant communities to vote, providing education about the issues that matter in their neighborhoods and mobilizing the electorate to vote in every election—twice a year.

We partnered with the New PA Project and New PA Fund on a 3 month strategic planning process, culminating in a Board retreat. The process successfully laid the groundwork for launching the New Pennsylvania Project Fund and building  a shared vision of success for the New Pennsylvania Project moving toward 2024. 

New PA Project Board members and senior staff gave rave reviews for the retreat we facilitated. Some examples:

“Thank you SO much for your time, work and expertise in facilitating!”

“The shift to focus on more actionable items vs. getting through the agenda was helpful.”

“Willingness to be flexible and not have a rigid approach to getting through the agenda was excellent.”

Highlights

  • We field tested a new, more flexible model for strategic planning especially geared toward organizations and leaders who aren’t familiar with strategic planning, are in constant mobilization mode and are seeking to balance planning with action. We approached the planning process as an opportunity to learn and teach about the components of the process, had a flexible and collaborative process for prioritizing deliverables based on real time capacity and needs, and held regular working  sessions with a clear division of labor to meet our goals.  
  • We focused on shared vision and values as well as opportunities and challenges at the Board Retreat. This helped create a sense of unity and purpose and inspired Board members about the work ahead. 

State Courts On the Power Map—Ohio Launch

Partners: Ohio Organizing Collaborative, Lead Ohio, Buckeye Institute for Justice 

The launch of our pilot project to train state leaders and organizations to navigate the state courts as key decision-makers on the issues we’re fighting for. This was a 3-part series, beginning with a state launch for organizational leaders in July, followed by a 2-part training series in September geared to community members and organizers, to provide context on the important role of state courts and deliver training focused on moving people to action. 

Anchor organizations included Ohio Organizing Collaborative, and Lead Ohio Fund, and participants came from multi-racial constituencies, including Faith leaders, students, voting rights organizers, criminal justice organizers, electoral campaigners, and aspiring candidates.

The curriculum is a first of its kind: geared toward BIPOC participants, particularly women and non-binary folks; focused on navigating a new and critical organizing arena–state courts. It was co-created and co-facilitated by re:power and Ohio leaders in a collaborative process that elevates the expertise and knowledge of folks on the ground while also providing the national context, strategy and training re:power Fund brings to the table. 

The curriculum addresses a critical need for BIPOC organizations and leaders to learn more about this organizing arena, as decisions about our bodily sovereignty, right to vote and other key issues increasingly move to the state courts—and in many states, judges are up for election in November.

Highlights

  • Great participation in all three events, with 75 organizational leaders at the launch, 60 folks at the first training and 40+ at the second.
  • We exceeded our goal for recruitment of our first SCPM  training team, drawing seven WOC from all over the country from a range of backgrounds,  including organizing in and around the courts—and the training team had a great first experience leading the trainings.