2019 - The State of the Alliance

Posted by Debilyn Molineaux on January 30, 2019 at 12:45 PM

Thank you for reading -- and participating on the journey to create healthy self-governance in the United States.

Many of us never expected to be advocates for strengthening the democratic ideals and institutions here at home. Yet that is exactly what is needed for our country to realize the values identified by our founders.

While our country has been battered by the unrelenting forces of corruption, foreign exploitation and a degrading sense of civility, the state of the Bridge Alliance is strong. And in 2019, it will become stronger.

In less than four years, Bridge Alliance has:

Grown from 30 founding organizations to nearly 100 organizational members, including some of the most influential groups in our nation’s capital.
Expanded Bridge Alliance membership and includes impactful projects, staff and volunteers in every state.
Developed a grant making program to encourage collaborations and pilot projects that has led to larger, scalable projects.
Co-sponsored a media publication (The Firewall) to focus explicitly on stories, projects and solutions that strengthen democracy.
Hosted peer-to-peer sessions for members, to share knowledge and best practices to increase the capacity of our members.
Convened two summits -- one in Dallas (2017) and one in DC (2018).
Developed an outline for healthy self-governance work that cites specific work by sectors and segments; making it easier to see the interconnectedness between organizations within the field.
Worked with the Congressional Management Foundation to establish the Democracy Awards; a ceremony designed to recognize exceptionally run congressional offices and outstanding constituent services.

For 2019, Bridge Alliance has plans to continue developing the infrastructure necessary for the democracy field to grow and flourish. A sample of our new and expanding work includes:

Pilot projects designed to tackle challenges across the democracy field such as:
- A diversity and opportunity task force dedicated to increasing the amount of diversity and inclusion to insure the democracy field is genuinely representative of the country as it pertains to race/ethnicity, sex/gender, social identity, religion, ideology and age.
- Social media leverage campaigns that support democratic ideals and are designed to create a vast cross-partisan constituency.
- New Power modeling within the democracy field itself -- based on principles outlined in “Understanding New Power” by Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms.
Convenings with members who work within each of the Alliance’s three focus areas (Electoral Systems/Campaigns, Civic Engagement and Governance/Policymaking) as well as cross sector convenings, to keep the democracy field aware of itself, learning and evolving consciously.
A collaborative, nationwide roadshow and listening tour with Committee for Responsible Federal Budget, to engage the audience in creative solutions and support leaders and organizations working to solve our nation’s challenges.
Philanthropic outreach.
Capacity training and skills building webinars.
Peer-to-peer sessions with more focus on best practices.

As we grow and offer more services to our members -- and the democracy field as a whole -- we have increased our staffing. With the appointment of Debilyn Molineaux as Executive Director in January, our ability to execute our 2019 plan has been significantly enhanced.

As Debilyn stated at the time of the announcement:

I’m delighted to be working full time; 2019 provides us a unique opportunity to strengthen our democratic institutions through increased citizen engagement, and smart campaign/election reforms while improving service to the people from our public officials. Together, we are re-imaging the country we’d like our children to grow up in”

We look forward to working with you to achieve healthy self-governance. Together, we can do this!

Warm regards,

Debilyn Molineaux

Executive Director and Co-founder

David L. Nevins

President and Co-founder