OUR COMMUNITY

ECOSYSTEMS ACCESS STRATEGIES FUND SUPPORTS

Civic Engagement

Massachusetts Census Equity Fund: The Census is a national count used to determine critical decisions, like political representation and what public and private resources go to communities. When a community is undercounted by the Census, it results in political inequality and less funding for those communities. The communities who are historically undercounted are often communities who experience barriers to accessing other resources.

Drawing Democracy Fund: The Drawing Democracy Coalition brings together the Commonwealth’s community organizations, civil rights lawyers, public policy advocates, data and mapping experts, and political scientists, with the shared goal of partnering with you to ensure that underrepresented communities have the opportunity to elect candidates of their choice who best reflect their needs and interests.

Democracy Affinity Group: Seeing the incredible successes of the Massachusetts Census Equity Fund and the fair redistricting efforts now underway with the support of the Drawing Democracy Fund, there is growing interest in exploring additional ways philanthropy and the nonprofit sector can collectively advance long term civic engagement and strengthen our democracy. Although still emergent, this group of funders and communities are looking to explore this desire, by forming an affinity group that will fund long term civic engagement infrastructure.

Mass Vote: MassVOTE works to promote a culture of active political participation by providing civic organizations the tools they need to organize, register, and educate voters, with an emphasis on historically disenfranchised communities. MassVOTE builds civic coalitions to advocate for democratic reforms that make the electoral process more accountable and accessible to all people.

Mass Voter Table: The Massachusetts Voter Table advances civic access, engagement, and representation to increase resources and power for people of color and working-class people toward achieving a multiracial democracy. The Massachusetts Voter Table is committed to a long-term organizing strategy that advances our vision of a more democratic and equitable society.

THE BROADER PARTNERSHIP ECOSYSTEM

All of the following organizations and collectives are involved with the Jobin-Leeds family and part of our broader ecosystem as well.

The Partnership for Democracy and Education

In 2006, Maria and Greg Jobin-Leeds created The Partnership for Democracy and Education, LLC. The Partnership structure weaves together our multiple endeavors to house research, advocacy, investing, funding and organizing. Together we support frontline organizations' leadership and organize funders towards shared values and vision of a vibrant, thriving, and inclusive democracy and economy. By practicing Impact Investing, Maria is helping to shift the finance sector to deliver more capital to women and people of color to grow their enterprises, investment funds, and community wealth. The capital can then be harnessed to complement our grantmaking programs in shifting power and wealth creation towards constructive, earth-sustaining goods and services, and the solidarity economy. With a more equitable distribution of wealth, we will see a more robust democracy.

When candidates and public leaders ask for contributions and relationships, Maria frequently invites a community leader to do the talking, allowing the candidates to have candid access to the community's concerns. The most exciting part of her work is getting the opportunity to promote and support strong grassroots women's leadership, by hosting fundraisers on her personal time, and mobilizing other donors. Once these women are in office, Maria generates support and public love by promoting their successes, policies, and careers. The leaders she supports still have an uphill battle to create policies and budgets that provide equitable opportunities and outcomes for our communities. That's where you can help.

When We Fight We Win

Longtime social justice activist Greg Jobin-Leeds in collaboration with AgitArte—an organization of working class artists and organizers—capture the stories, philosophies, tactics, and art of today’s leading social change movements. There are 35,000 copies of the book in print, and now have launched the podcast, as a way to counter the hegemony to mass media.

Schott Foundation for Public Education

The Schott Foundation for Public Education was co-founded in 1991 by Maria and Greg Jobin-Leeds and their parents. It began as a family foundation working to support an equitable public school system. In 1999 Schott became a public charity. Because the Foundation’s vision for change held that those most affected must lead the way in advocating for change, the Leeds and Jobin-Leeds families sustained their funding commitment but gave up a large degree of control, and Schott engaged a more inclusive and broad-based leadership. Schott is now entirely BIPOC led. The Schott Foundation’s mission is to develop and strengthen a broad-based and representative movement to achieve fully-resourced, quality PreK-12 public education.