CEO Election Reflections: Fund Democracy All Year Long
Today, millions of Americans will cast their ballots in an election with profound implications for the future of our country.
Across the nation, voters are making their voices heard, exercising a fundamental right and participating in one of the most visible expressions of our democracy.
But tomorrow, when the votes have been cast and the results begin to emerge, the work of democracy will be far from over.
In many ways, the most important work will just be getting started.
Our frontline partners have fought long and hard to protect the rights of people to have their voices heard at the ballot box, and I hold them in my thoughts and my heart today. Over the years, many of them have faced violence, intimidation, and disenfranchisement.
For too long, we have treated democracy as something that happens every two or four years. We invest enormous attention, energy, and resources in elections, only to overlook the people and organizations doing the less visible work of strengthening our democracy every day.
Community organizers. Neighborhood leaders. Grassroots organizations. Coalitions that bring people together across race, geography, and generations to confront injustice and shape the decisions affecting their lives.
These are the people building the infrastructure of our democracy. And they are being asked to do more with less at precisely the moment we need them most. If we want a stronger democracy, we must invest in the people and institutions that make it possible.
What gives me hope now, and through election season and beyond, is my enduring belief in the power of the people who sustain our democracy and the community organizing that powers it.
As Liberty Hill marks 50 years of standing alongside grassroots movements in Los Angeles, we are calling on philanthropy to think bigger, invest for the long term, and work together in new ways.
The question is not whether we can afford to build the infrastructure for multiracial democracy.
It is whether we can afford not to.
Building community power is a commitment to the future of our democracy.
And that commitment must begin today.
In Solidarity,
Shane Murphy Goldsmith
