Levi Strauss Foundation Invests Over $1 Million For 2020 Voter Engagement

Original post ran on Levi Strauss & Co.'s blog Unzipped

By: Jason McBriarty, Director, Levi Strauss Foundation @ Levi Strauss & Co.

The Levi Strauss Foundation advances pioneering social change on the issues and events of our time. Our community partners across the globe embody and bring to life Levi Strauss & Co.’s values – originality, empathy, integrity and courage. We aim to take courageous risks in service of these values and strive for meaningful impact over the course of decades – with our core program areas focused on advancing social justice, improving the lives of apparel workers and ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The current political environment – rife with disruptive change and tension – serves as a consequential backdrop to live these values in real time. It’s also “in our jeans” to spur and celebrate authentic self-expression. That’s why the Foundation is taking a stand alongside marginalized and disenfranchised communities in the United States and investing more than $1.0 million to voting rights and engagement for the 2020 election.

This funding will support the activation of all citizens in the democratic process, registration of new voters and removal of barriers to voting. Each community partner supported through this portfolio is leading high-touch, high-impact engagement efforts targeting marginalized communities who are too often left out of the democratic process. Together they seek to educate, empower and activate millions of voters across the nation.

“Black communities are often talked about, but rarely spoken to. A lack of critical engagement in the issues that matter to our communities is a form of voter suppression,” says Alicia Garza, Principal at the Black Futures Lab, and one of foundation’s grantees. “The Levi Strauss Foundation is making an investment in the communities that are so central to a healthy democracy where we all have a say in the things that are important to us and to our families. It’s a courageous act of leadership that we hope others will follow.”

The Levi Strauss Foundation is honored to support the following organizations:

• Black Futures Lab: Builds Black communities into constituencies that influence the way power operates–locally, statewide and nationally.
• Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute: Advances civic engagement in predominately Black communities through blanket canvassing, authentic messaging and community organizing.
• Brennan Center: Works to make voting free and fair – and fights restrictive policies that make it harder to vote.
• Fair Count: Ensures everyone is counted in the 2020 Census through power-building, technology innovations, community partnerships and faith engagement.
• Justice for Migrant Women: Protects migrant women’s rights through education, public awareness and civic engagement.
• Live Free: Organizes faith-based and student leaders to engage vulnerable communities in the democratic process.
• Movement Resource Project: Invests in and builds the capacity of local grassroots organizations who perform cutting-edge civic engagement work in vulnerable communities.
• National Domestic Workers Alliance: Ensures the voices of women of color are heard in the democratic process through leadership development, grassroots organizing and narrative change.
• Native Organizers Alliance: Builds the capacity of Native tribes, traditional societies and community groups to make transformational change through organizing and trainings.
• One Fair Wage: Promotes the participation and voices of low-wage workers in the democratic process through community organizing and narrative shift.
• Power California: Harnesses the energy of young voters of color and their families to foster an equitable, inclusive and just society for all.
• re:power: Advances inclusive politics by training emerging leaders in grassroots organizing, movement technology and campaign management.
• She the People: Engages a vibrant network of women of color — voters, organizers, movement builders, elected leaders — to transform democracy and turn non-voters into voters.
• Sister Rising: Leads a campaign to educate, empower and celebrate Native American women in 2020.
• Supermajority: Builds the power of women of all backgrounds, races and ages through civic engagement, advocacy and community organizing.
• United We Dream: Mobilizes low-propensity Latinx, youth and New American voters through leadership development, community organizing and narrative shift.