NPC's Flagship Product: Political Mutual Funds

A lot of people have been asking us what New Progressive Coalition has been up to lately. Well, we have been busy developing our 2007 flagship product: NPC's Political Mutual Funds. Through these funds, donors can contribute money to baskets of vetted progressive organizations and track their political return over time.

By the end of the year, we will be releasing three NPC Political Mutual Funds focused on:

• Making a difference in the 2008 election and building the infrastructure that supports it
• Working toward having a green planet and energy independent country
• Helping move this country toward an affordable healthcare system.

The first funds were decided by our working group of industry experts as well as focus groups in Denver and San Francisco. Last month, we put out an open call for effective and innovative organizations working in these three areas. We had a tremendous response rate and had over 120 organizations apply. We invited 105 organizations to move on to the next phase and undergo a PROI™ analysis which will be used by the working group to determine what organizations will be included in our final product.

Each of these funds will be diversified to include organizations from the six sectors that make the up the progressive movement and range in size, age, geographic location, and legal status.

We are thrilled to announce the 99 organizations that made it to the 2nd round and attended a Political Mutual Fund Orientation webinar last week:

ActBlue
AlterNet
America Votes
American Medical Women's Association
America's Agenda Health Care Education Fund
America's Agenda Health Care for All
Arizona League of Conservation Voters
Ballot Initiative Strategy Center
BlogPAC
Bus Project
BuyBlue.org
Campaign for America's Future
Campus Climate Challenge
Center for Rural Strategies
Citizen Action of Wisconsin
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
Color of Change.org
Colorado Conservation Voters
Commonweal Institute
Conservation Council of North Carolina
Conservation Voters New Mexico
Consumers for an Affordable Health Care
Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund
Democracy: A Journal of Ideas
Democratic GAIN
Democrats Work
dotOrganize
Drum Major Institute for Public Policy
Emerge America
Energize America
FairVote
Faithful Democrats
Forest Ethics
Forward Montana
Green Media Toolshed
Health Action New Mexico
Healthcare for All Pennsylvania
Herndon Alliance
Institute for America's Future
Into the Blue
Justice Through Music
League of Conservation Voters
League of Conservation Voters (WA)
League of Conservation Voters Education Fund
League of Young Voters
Living Liberally
Mainstreet Moms
Map the Vote, LLC
MAPLight.org
Media Consortium
Montana Conservation Voters Inc.
My Rural America Action Fund
Netroots Nation
New Era Colorado
New Leaders Council
New Voice of Business
Non-Profit Voter Engagement Network
Northwest Health Law Advocates
Ohio League of Conservation Voters
Oil Change International
OMB Watch
Opportunity Agenda
Party2Win
Progress Now
Progressive America Fund/Open Ballot Project
Progressive Majority
Progressive States Network
ProgressiveU.org
ProgressOhioEducation, Inc.
PTP: Progressive Technology Project
Rainforest Action Network (RAN)
Redefining Progress
Roosevelt Institution
Science & Environmental Health Network
Secretary of State Project
Sierra Student Coalition
Small Business Majority
Speak Out California
Students for a New American Politics PAC (SNAP PAC)
Take Back Red California
Tennessee Health Care Campaign
Tennessee Justice Center
Traction
Twenty-First Century Democrats
U.S. Student Association Foundation (USSAF)
UHCAN Ohio
Universal Health Care Action Network
USAction
VelvetRevolution.us
Verified Voting Foundation
Vote Solar Initiative
Voter Action
Voto Latino
We Are America Alliance
Wellstone Action
Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC)
Women's Campaign Forum
Women's Campaign Forum Foundation
WUFPAC
Young People For

These organizations are receiving a complimentary PROI™ analysis and will be able to use this information in their own fundraising efforts regardless of whether they are included in our final product.

We're looking forward to giving people an easy and strategic way to make an impact.

Measure Your Impact with PROI™

Our customers told us that they are overwhelmed and overloaded by information and requests for contributions, and that they can't easily find organizations doing effective work on issues they care about most. So they don’t give.

Individuals easily understand the return on their contributions to candidates and electoral organizations because there is a winner and a loser in elections. It has been difficult, though, for individuals to understand the "value" of their contributions to progressive organizations like think tanks, leadership institutions, or advocacy organizations.

In response, New Progressive Coalition partnered with SVT Group and we have spent the past year developing our proprietary Political Return on Investment (PROI)™ methodology so that individuals can understand the impact of their progressive giving. In other words, PROI™ helps make visible to donors the currently invisible work of organizations. Our PROI™ methodology was specifically designed to help individuals improve their political investment choices and promote accountability among political organizations. Our PROI™ methodology also encourages political innovation by making individuals comfortable with taking risks on new leaders and ideas.

The PROI™ methodology quantifies data submitted by organizations across the sectors that make up a political movement, an approach aimed at breaking down traditional issue silos. The metrics and indicators developed for the PROI™ methodology were evaluated and rigorously tested by a group of leading political investors and organizations and over 600 hours were spent creating PROI™ and eliciting feedback from around the country.

Our PROI™ takes into account the best of traditional Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis, and improves on it by simplifying the reporting requirements. Organizations are able to easily complete the PROI™ process and donors are able to digest the analysis.

Unlike traditional SROI, however, the PROI™ of an organization is determined based on an organization’s specific goals and strategies, and not against any subjective political values. In other words, the methodology helps people find organizations creating the political change they are seeking, regardless of what that change may be.

NPC is currently using PROI™ as the methodology behind our flagship product: Political Mutual Funds. More to come on these funds later this week…

Breaking Down Traditional Issue Silos Encourages Innovation

There is no silver bullet in progressive politics.

I have watched each election cycle where political players place their hopes on one charismatic candidate or one magic organization that will solve all of our political challenges. Progressive giving patterns have reflected this tendency as well.

Yet it has become clear to me that only a network approach will create the political impact that we are all seeking. Information moves too fast, issues have become too complex, and the challenges so vast.

So at New Progressive Coalition, we developed a Sector Approach to help clarify the different roles that individuals and organizations play in politics, and to help people better understand how to navigate this chaotic environment. We believe that a healthy movement is made up of six vibrant sectors that are connected to and dependent on one another:

Advocacy & Organizing: Organizations that work for the widespread support and adoption of progressive positions

Electoral: Organizations that focus on winning progressive electoral victories and encouraging greater civic participation

Idea Generation: Organizations and individuals that generate and encourage the adoption of strong and credible progressive ideas

Infrastructure & Capacity: A robust network of technical assistance and service providers who improve the impact and efficiency within the other sectors

Leadership Development: Organizations that build a continuous pipeline of progressive leaders

Media: Distribution channels that disseminate progressive content and ideas and expand the market for consumption of progressive thoughts and opinions

This sector approach is the basis for much of what we do at NPC. In a sense it is an organizing principle that allows us to foster collaboration by breaking down the traditional issue and constituency silos that exist. Not only does this help organizations reduce duplication of effort and the time spent reinventing the wheel, but it encourages political innovation where real breakthroughs can occur.

How We Define Progressive

If I receive an invite in the mail for a conference whose purpose is to finally define progressive, I decline. And if I happen to be at a political conference [which is rare], and someone raises their hand and asks, “can you define progressive,” I know it isn’t going to be productive.

When we first started New Progressive Coalition, I spent a lot of time in group discussions dominated by the topic of what it means to be progressive. I came to realize that this search for the perfect definition of a term that means many things to many people is a complete quagmire. These debates and discussions about labels divide us instead of embracing the people who define themselves as progressive for very different reasons and values. How does it help our country to spend time labeling people as moderate, centrist, or liberal instead of looking for different types of innovative and pragmatic solutions to our political problems?

The more labels we create, the more personal bias we add, which limits the ability for innovation to be fostered. It is just another political silo that limits the amount of people who can participate and collaborate.

So at NPC we define progressive based on its literal meaning.

PROGRESSIVE: CHANGE FOR THE BETTER; FORWARD THINKING

Most of the time, we don’t know innovation until after it has occurred. I think we should spend less time arguing what it means to be progressive and more time investing in the innovative and effective organizations that are making an impact.

Progressive Investor: A New Type of Leader

At New Progressive Coalition, we are continually asked, "what do you mean by 'progressive investor'?"

Progressive "investors" are proactive about their contributions and give to make an impact. “Investors” are strategic with their resources because they perform due diligence, make calculated risks, and demand accountability and transparency. “Investors” look beyond the next election and strive to build long-term relationships with progressive organizations because they are committed to making a difference. Most importantly, “investors" are forward thinking and seek out innovation because they know it is critical to solving our political challenges.

Here in the Bay Area, we get to witness a lot of groundbreaking innovation that wouldn’t happen without investors taking risks on bold new ideas by little known entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen enough in politics. Instead, progressive contributions rise and fall with election cycles and when the polls close, so do people's pocketbooks. Political change is stifled because of the scarcity and cyclical nature of funding patterns.

We need innovation to move forward, to progress, and this can't happen until there is a generation of investors willing to take risks. At NPC, we are seeking people who want to be progressive investors, leaders looking to use innovation to advance the status quo and create political change.

Why 77 Federal?

Working in Washington, DC I experienced politics at its best and at its worst. The best part of politics is the amazing and talented people that sacrifice daily to make this country a better place. We give up the stock options and financial security because we believe that we can make a difference. The worst part of politics is the absolute resistance to innovation. And I don’t just mean adoption of the latest technology; I mean an entire culture that penalizes you for taking risks and being willing to fail. I found DC to be a place that is threatened by new ideas and resistant to doing things differently.

I left DC disillusioned and frustrated with the political status quo and headed back to California.

Upon my return, I had the incredible opportunity to work with Deborah and Andy Rappaport on an idea called the New Progressive Coalition, LLC. We were incubated in Redwood City at Skyline Public Works, and the first version of NPC was launched in October 2005. Like many start-ups in their first year, we tried to do too many things and learned hard but valuable lessons. In May 2007, we restructured the company to exclusively work with donors (instead of both donors and organizations.) Those were trying times, but we survived, and it was those early experiences that have given us the knowledge and wisdom to succeed moving forward. But ideas are easy; it is executing them without running out of money that is the tough part. And that is still a challenge for NPC.

So why name NPC’s blog 77 Federal? NPC is located at 77 Federal, in Licorice Square, right in the heart of SOMA in downtown San Francisco. In this start-up culture, we are surrounded by entrepreneurs, artists, students, and professionals of all backgrounds. This place exudes a “can do,” entrepreneurial attitude. You walk into South Park Café and you feel that things are happening. No one settles for the answer “it can’t be done.” Instead, the answer here is “how will we do it?”

At NPC we are trying to change politics as usual. As Newton said, “a body remains at rest unless it is disturbed by an outside force.” For us, that force is the thousands of talented and passionate individuals who are waiting for the opportunity to inject politics with their ideas and expertise. NPC is simply here to give them the information and tools they need to make an impact.

Remember, California is the same place that invented solar energy twenty years ago by that group of “crazy hippies” that just happened to be pretty right on. 77 Federal represents a bolder vision for politics. So stay tuned, we have a lot to change, West Coast style.