CENTER FOR POPULAR DEMOCRACY ANNUAL REPORT CONTENTS Introduction 1 Partner Organizations 2 Key Victories in 2016 3 CPD by the Numbers 5 True Equity & Opportunity 7 Promoting Immigrant Rights 8 Winning Education Justice 9 Promoting Climate Justice 10 Advocating for Housing Justice 11 A Resilient & Just Economy 13 Raising the Minimum Wage 14 & Passing Paid Sick Days Winning a Fair Workweek 15 Building a Full Employment Economy 17 Ensuring Access to Childcare 18 A Robust & Responsive Democracy 19 Fighting for Racial Justice 20 Defending Voting Rights 22 & Democracy Broadening Civic Engagement 23 Field Innovation 25 Fight Back! 26 Digital Strategies 27 Sustainability 27 Building the Capacity of the Field 28 Connecting Elected Officials for ‘Local Progress’ 32 Running Sophisticated Campaigns 33 Communications 33 Policy & Strategic Research 33 Financial Statement 36 Board of Directors 38 Staff 39 1 INTRODUCTION During 2016, CPD and CPD Action grew significantly, in size, scale, and most importantly, impact. CPD now has a staff of more than 70 with offices in New York City and Washington, DC, and additional staff in Minnesota, California, Pennsylvania, Texas, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Michigan, Puerto Rico and Illinois. CPD and together with our 501c4 sister organization CPD Action, had, at the end of 2016, a combined budget of over $20 million. At the same time, CPD’s network of allied organizations has also continued to grow significantly since our founding. We now have close to 50 partner organizations, spread across 35 states, representing a combined membership of more than 500,000 people. Our partners have a combined budget of more than $80 million, and a combined staff of more than 780. Notably, more than half of our partner organizations are led by people of color, and more than half are led by women. In 2016, our communities faced incredible challenges: the economy continued to fail working families; hate and anti-immigrant vitriol surfaced throughout the presidential campaign; low-income families faced a crisis of access to affordable, quality housing; and our public education system continued to be stripped of resources. All of these challenges, as ever, were painfully more acute for communities of color and for Black and Latino communities, in particular. On November 9th we woke up to an entirely new reality. The Trump campaign had been characterized by unprecedented levels of hate, disdain and threats of violence towards the very communities our organizations represent, protect and fight for. As 2017 unfolds and the Trump administration attempts to build a policy and legislative program to match its rhetoric of hate, CPD continues to drive strategies to capture the upsurge in resistance energy and activity, to catalyze action to the streets, to protect prior victories and to win new progressive change, and to elevate our collective voice and vision for justice. We are doing so with a renewed commitment to building lasting institutions that engage constituencies over time on the range of issues that are priorities for them and to ensuring the safety of our people, our institutions and our communities. 2 CPD ANNUAL REPORT 2016 PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS Action NC NC Make the Road Connecticut CT Enchantment, OLE NM Action Now IL Make the Road New Jersey NJ Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Alliance of Californians for Community Make the Road New York NY Noroeste, PCUN OR Empowerment, ACCE CA Make the Road Pennsylvania PA Rights & Democracy NH, VT Arkansas Community Organization AR Maryland Communities United MD SPACEs DC CASA PA, MD, VA Missourians Organizing for Reform Sunflower Community Action KS Center on Policy Initiatives, CPI CA and Empowerment, MORE MI TakeAction Minnesota MN Community Labor United MA Minnesota Neighborhoods Organizing Texas Organizing Project, TOP TX CTUL MN for Change, NOC MN United for a New Economy, UNE CO Delaware Alliance for Community New Florida Majority FL Vermont Workers’ Center VT Advancement, DACA DE New Virginia Majority VA VOCAL- NY NY FACE HI New York Communities for Change, West Virginia Healthy Kids and Good Jobs Now MI NYCC NY Families Coalition WV Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Ohio Organizing Collaborative OH Workers Defense Project, WDP TX Refugee Rights, ICIRR IL One Pennsylvania PA Working Partnerships USA CA Living United for Change in Arizona, Organize Florida FL Working Washington WA LUCHA AZ Organizers in the Land of CPD ANNUAL REPORT 2016 3 KEY VICTORIES IN 2016 WINTER SPRING SUMMER FALL COMMUNITY VICTORY COMMUNITY ACTION CPD partners with CPD, partners, and allies CPD and partners hold first- CPD launches Sustainability Neighborhoods Organizing secure $15 minimum wage ever People’s Convention Initiative to provide path for Change (NOC) to host increase in California, lifting in Pittsburgh, PA bringing for partners organizations Black Townhall with Bernie five million workers out of together 1,600 grassroots to build more stable Sanders in Minneapolis poverty leaders, organizers, revenue through large scale policy makers and artists recruitment of new members ACTION VICTORY representing people’s CPD Action joins national CPD partner ACCE, in organizations from around ACTION allies to deliver 120,000 coordination with LAANE, the country CPD partners register signatures demanding plays leading role in the Raise 550,000 voters and work ICE stop raids on Central the Wage Coalition in Los VICTORY to ensure these new voters American refugees Angeles, winning raises for CPD, partners and turned out on Election Day 800,000 workers in LA and, coalition allies draft and VICTORY expanding on this victory for pass legislation to provide VICTORY CPD and Maryland workers in LA county, raising Community School funding Seattle becomes the second Communities United lead wages for an additional guidance to school districts city in the country to pass a coalition to successfully 100,000 and win $7.5 million a comprehensive fair override veto of legislation to expand Community workweek policy for retail re-enfranchising 40,000 ex- ACTION Schools in Maryland and food service workers, offenders in Maryland Following Fed Up campaign thanks to the leadership of advocacy, 127 members of VICTORY Working Washington, UFCW VICTORY Congress sign letter urging Washington, DC 21, SEIU 775, CPD’s Fair CPD’s Fed Up Campaign greater diversity and public guarantees a 30 hour Workweek Initiative and succeeds in limiting Federal representation in key Fed workweek for commercial larger coalition Reserve interest rates raises leadership posts building workers, making in 2016 history as the first minimum REPORT ACTION hours law in the country Cities for Citizenship releases VICTORY CPD supports partners in toolkit to support cities and CPD supports Make the Philadelphia to shut down counties in launching and Road NJ in passing a the entrance to the largest strengthening citizenship municipal ID program in fossil fuel refinery on the initiatives by sharing lessons Plainfield and Elizabeth, NJ East Coast learned and best practices from across the country VICTORY CPD, Action United and VICTORY allies win earned sick days CPD joins allies to pass in Philadelphia, impacting minimum wage, earned 200,000 workers sick days, and fair scheduling reforms in VICTORY Arizona, Colorado, San Vermont becomes fifth state Jose, CA, Washington State to win earned sick days, and Maine, delivering raises impacting 60,000 workers for close to 3 million workers across the state 4 5 CPD BY THE NUMBERS MEDIA DIFFERENT ARTICLES TRAINING AND MENTIONING SUPPORT CPD SESSIONS FOR 601 OVER 468 STAFF OF OUR PARTNERS OP-EDS PUBLISHED IN 2016 BY CPD STAFF 30 21 DURING 2016 MONEY RAISED FOR OUR STATE $ PARTNERS* 12,547,358 OF STATE GROWTH OF PARTNERS ARE LED BY A PERSON CPD ACTION’S % OF COLOR 60 DIGITAL CAMPAIGN LIST ARE LED BY TO 205,000 52% A WOMAN NAMES 70 % STAFF IN 7 STATES WITH A BUDGET OF 22 POLICY AND RESEARCH 57 $16 MILLION REPORTS PUBLISHED * INCLUDES FUNDS RAISED BY CPD ACTION TRUE EQUITY & OPPORTUNITY TRUE EQUITY & OPPORTUNITY 8 PROMOTING IMMIGRANT RIGHTS In 2016, CPD’s work to protect and empower immigrant also working with local partners to establish similar programs communities became more urgent than ever. From the in Boston and the DC area. Supreme Court decision in US v Texas striking down CPD continued to support our partners’ campaigns to create President Obama’s deferred action program, to the racist and municipal ID programs in cities around the country. After xenophobic rhetoric that fueled the election of Donald Trump, months of organizing by Make the Road New Jersey (MRNJ), this has been a year of extraordinary challenges in our fight the city of Elizabeth, established their municipal ID card for justice and equity. Yet even in the face of these challenges, through an ordinance with some of the strongest privacy CPD partners have continued to organize, to build power, and protection provisions of any program in the country. In the to win important victories to improve the lives of immigrants. last twelve months, thanks in large part to the momentum For the third year in a row, CPD—along with a coalition of generated by IDNYC, campaigns to launch new municipal ID local organizations including our partner Make the Road card programs have been launched in more than a dozen cities. New York—successfully advocated for full funding for the In order to support our partners and allies in promoting policy New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP), the that protects and includes immigrant communities, in the fall first publicly funded universal representation program for CPD published “Promoting Equality: City and State Policy to immigrants in detention. In addition, the coalition was able to Ensure Immigrant Safety and Inclusion.” The report offers an nearly triple the funding that NYIFUP receives from the state overview of a wide range of legislative and policy initiatives legislature. With the funding increase we launched a second that state and local governments can, and have, taken up upstate satellite of the program to serve those fighting in response to the needs and demands of their immigrant removal proceedings in Ulster County.