New Media Ventures is now accepting applications for their Voices for Democracy pooled fund until the May 22nd deadline. "Voices for Democracy, a new pooled fund and open call to support trusted, community-centric media and messengers in seven key states: AZ, FL, GA, NC, NV, PA, and TX. Our goal is to find and fund early-stage nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies that are countering disinformation and serving their communities with culturally-resonant messages and messengers. Initial grants and investments will be $25K-$50K with the potential for follow-on funding." Learn more in the post below and on NMV's site here. ![]() New Media Ventures presents… Voices for Democracy Open Call Our democratic institutions and ability to meaningfully influence government policy are at risk, especially for overlooked communities in Southern and battleground states. Organizing is crucial, but we also need to support trusted local messengers who are meeting their communities where they are and with culturally-resonant messages. Through our new Voices for Democracy pooled fund, we are investing in and scaling an ecosystem of diverse, grassroots voices and media outlets. We will be accepting applications from March 22 – May 22, 2023. Apply today or sign-up here for updates. We are looking to fund early-stage nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies in categories including:
Learn more at www.newmediaventures.org/voicesfordemocracy.
0 Comments
HUGE THANK YOU to the early sponsors for NCDD2023! These leading organizations in the dialogue and deliberation community are generously supporting the 2023 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation. We are so grateful for their commitment to the conference and this community. We couldn’t do it without them! Our Platinum Producers are the Democracy Fund and the Interactivity Foundation. Our Sustaining Sponsor is the Institute for Constructive Advocacy and Dialogue at James Madison University. And our Conference Friends are National Civic League and Public Agenda. Want to join their ranks? Our sponsors are integral to the success of our events, and receive a generous list of benefits for their support. Learn more about sponsorship here. Platinum ProducersThe Democracy Fund The Democracy Fund is a bipartisan foundation established by eBay founder and philanthropist Pierre Omidyar to help ensure that the American people come first in our democracy. Today, technologies and innovations offer new opportunities for public engagement in a more vibrant democracy — even as serious challenges including hyper-partisanship, money in politics, and struggling media threaten the health of our political system. The Democracy Fund invests in organizations working to ensure that our political system is able to withstand new challenges and deliver on its promise to the American people. www.democracyfund.org The Interactivity Foundation The Interactivity Foundation believes in the importance and power of civic discussion. More specifically, we believe that the capacity of our country’s citizens to engage collaboratively in meaningful civil conversations about public matters is a necessary and vital component of our democracy. The Interactivity Foundation’s mission is to strengthen our democracy through the use of a small-group discussion process to explore diverse perspectives and generate an expanding set of divergent possibilities. We often abbreviate the name of the Foundation as “IF” to convey our focus on possibilities and that we are always exploring “what if …?” www.interactivityfoundation.org Sustaining Sponsors The Institute for Constructive Advocacy and Dialogue at James Madison University The Institute for Constructive Advocacy and Dialogue at JMU serves to advance the practice of designing and facilitating conversations that help communities talk and think together. ICAD believes that encouraging people to engage in problem-solving in their communities strengthens the promise of democracy. We educate and train students, faculty, staff and community members to be able to facilitate campus and community conversations, conversations that ask tough questions and that encourage people to come together to gain an understanding of each other as they seek to address challenges and envision possibilities. We also advance research about dialogue, deliberation, and collaboration, and partner with national organizations interested in ensuring these processes are inclusive, accessible, and benefit from collective wisdom. www.jmu.edu/icad Conference FriendsNational Civic League
The mission of the National Civic League is to advance civic engagement to create equitable, thriving communities. We achieve this by inspiring, supporting and recognizing inclusive approaches to community decision-making. Founded in 1894 by a group of civic leaders that included Theodore Roosevelt and Louis Brandeis, the National Civic League is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. Today, more than ever, the work of the National Civic League is critical to helping create vibrant and healthy communities and a strong democracy. www.nationalcivicleague.org Public Agenda Public Agenda is a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit research and public engagement organization headquartered in New York City. We strive to strengthen democracy and expand opportunity for all Americans. Public Agenda began to take shape in 1975 when social scientist and public opinion research pioneer Daniel Yankelovich and public official and statesman Cyrus Vance decided to do something about a fundamental problem they thought was endangering our democracy: the growing disconnect between governing elites and the general public. Through nonpartisan research and engagement, Public Agenda provides people with the insights and support they need to arrive at workable solutions on critical issues, regardless of their differences. www.publicagenda.org The National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation team has made the decision after receiving numerous requests to extend the workshop call for proposals deadline to next Monday, May 8th. This will be our final deadline!
We want to give folks who need it an extra week to finalize their submissions, and we heard that having time over a weekend will be helpful. We hope this gives you the time you need to put those sessions together and get it in so our team can review it. The conference sessions are 90-minutes long. We have more information about sessions and the full details of what we look for on the Call for Proposals page here. The application to submit session proposals is available linked here. Find potential co-presenters and/or float your ideas by others via the Collaborative Document and the NCDD Main Discussion listserv. If you have been looking for collaborators but haven’t identified anyone yet – we encourage you to submit your proposal anyway. Our team may be able to suggest potential co-presenters or connect you with others proposals for a similar session. We have also received some questions about when applicants will hear back, and the timing of it with the early-bird deadline. We are hoping to send our final decisions out no later than Friday, May 26th. Our team is already reviewing the proposals we have received. As for the early-bird, we have not made a final decision, but will be considering how to best address this in the coming weeks. If the cost of attending the conference is the only barrier to joining, we do offer scholarship support. Check out the scholarship form linked here. Thank you for the enthusiasm and support of this conference – let’s make this our best yet! Are you looking to do a workshop at NCDD2023? Now is the time to get your proposals in! There are still a couple days remaining to submit your workshop session proposals for the 9th National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation happening October 13-15 in Atlanta. The deadline for proposals is THIS FRIDAY, April 28th.
Find potential co-presenters and/or float your ideas by others via the Collaborative Document and the NCDD Main Discussion listserv. We invite session proposals that will highlight the work being done to tap D&D into the peoples’ daily lives, build democratic participation, better expose D&D work, and more. Peruse the full details on the NCDD2023 Call for Proposals page. Once you are ready to submit your session proposal, head on over to the Application for Session Leaders. In case you missed it, we shared a post on the NCDD blog a few weeks back with several important reminders that are still relevant (check it out here). Learn more about the conference and what past conferences have been like at the NCDD2023 main page. Please feel welcome to share this announcement far and wide. We have had many exciting entries so far and we are thrilled to see what sessions you want to bring! NCDD Member Organization, The David Mathews Center for Civic Life (DMC) is accepting applications for the 2023-24 Innovators in Civic Education Fellowship. "This fellowship provides classroom and community-based educators with the resources and training they need to bring high-quality, civics-forward education to the classroom." The call for proposals closes Sunday, April 30th. Learn more below and find the full details at DMC's site here. Call for Proposals: 2023-24 Innovators in Civic Education Fellowship
The Mathews Center is thrilled to announce that applications are now open for our 2023-2024 Innovators in Civic Education Fellowship! This fellowship provides classroom and community-based educators with the resources and training they need to bring high-quality, civics-forward education to the classroom. Fellows will be given the opportunity to assist in the creation of future classroom resources for which they will be compensated. Fellows will receive a $650 stipend for participating in the two-day intensive, with housing and meals provided. View the full description at the link below and submit your application online using the form here. The deadline to submit proposals is April 30, 2023. For questions, please contact DMC Education Director Zara Greene at zgreene@mathewscenter.org. More: www.mathewscenter.org/call-for-proposals-2023-24-innovators-in-civic-education-fellowship/ We have had great proposals submitted already since we announced the call for proposals for the upcoming 2023 National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation happening October 13-15 in Atlanta, Georgia!
Since this is the first time we are convening again in person since the pandemic, we know how important this opportunity is for our network and wider community of practice. For this reason and in spirit of the conference theme - Our Return: Reconnect, Reflect, Renew, Recommit - we have decided to extend the deadline for the call for proposals to allow more time for the network to connect with others and craft their session proposals. The new deadline for the NCDD2023 Call for Proposal is Friday, April 28th. We encourage session proposals which will help attendees network, reflect on our work and practices, learn new skills, and/or explore new efforts, projects, and collaborations. Sessions which are interactive in nature, including sessions which get participants involved in experiencing a process, discussing challenges with one another, or working together to advance our community of practice are encouraged. We also strongly encourage using the Collaborative Document and/or the NCDD Main Discussion listserv to float your ideas by other NCDDers and members of the planning team. We may be able to match you up with potential co-presenters who can address the same challenge or issue you’re interested in focusing on. Some advice for potential session leaders:
We are thrilled to see what session proposals are submitted and we can't wait to see you in person at the conference! Join NCDD Sustaining Partner, the Interactivity Foundation, for their upcoming online discussion series on Economy & Democracy in America. "In this conversation series, we will explore key questions and concerns surrounding the relationship of the economy and our democracy. We will also imagine different pathways forward to address questions and concerns." The three events in this series are happening on April 19th, May 3rd, and May 17th; from 2-3:15pm Eastern, 11am-12:15pm Pacific. Read more and register via the Interactivity Foundation's website linked here. ![]() The Economy & Democracy in America – a Community Conversation Series How do you see the relationship between our economic system and the health of our democracy? What are the purposes and values that shape our economic system – and how do these mesh with the purposes and values of our democracy? What challenges flow from our economic system, and how do these affect the health of our democracy? How might we better meet these challenges? In this conversation series, we will explore these and other key questions and concerns surrounding the relationship of the economy and our democracy. We will also imagine different pathways forward to address these questions and concerns. Please join us via Zoom for these three interactive, small-group conversations to explore the relationship between the economy and democracy. Each session has a separate registration, since each can stand on its own. But the sessions build on each other, so please sign up for as many as you can attend. We’re launching this series as our contribution to the National Week of Conversation (NWOC), which runs from April 17-23. April 19, 2023 (2 – 3:15 pm ET): What concerns do you have, and what questions should we explore, about the relationship between the economy and our democracy? In this first session, we will ask participants to explore who does the economy serve – and why? What might be the consequences for democracy of rising economic inequality and insecurity? And what if these consequences are by design – and, if so, why? May 3, 2023 (2 – 3:15 pm ET): Questioning our assumptions about the economy. In this second session, we’ll ask participants to explore what assumptions do we have about the economy? When we say the “American dream,” do we mean an economic or democratic dream? Why? And what interests shape our economic system? May 17, 2023 (2 – 3:15 pm ET): Imagining a better system and different pathways forward. In this final session, we’ll ask participants to explore how might our economic system better support our democratic values rather than the other way round? What might this world look like? And how might we get there? Register for the series at: www.interactivityfoundation.org/the-economy-and-democracy-in-america-a-community-conversation-series/ NCDD Member Organization, the Kettering Foundation (KF) is hosting a great event for the April edition of their series Kettering Conversations with Democracy Innovators featuring Sharon L. Davies, KF's President and CEO, and Willis “Bing” Davis, a Dayton artist, educator, and owner of the Davis Art Studio and EbonNia Gallery. The hour-long event will be on Wednesday, April 12, at 9am Eastern, 6am Pacific. Please register by Friday, April 7th. Learn more in the post below and register for the event at this link. Kettering Conversations with Democracy Innovators
Please join us via zoom for the April 2023 Kettering Conversations with Democracy Innovators. In this new series, we will explore ways to strengthen democracy, focus on positive narratives amid democratic crisis, and consider opportunities to build upon the strengths of our diverse communities and nation to make them more inclusive and equitable. This month, Sharon L. Davies, President and CEO of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, will be in conversation with Willis “Bing” Davis, a Dayton artist, educator, and owner of the Davis Art Studio and EbonNia Gallery. Davis is an active, deeply committed member of the Dayton community whose work includes a focus on the education of young people, with an emphasis on African American art. The event will be held Wednesday, April 12, from 9 am to 10 am. The program will be recorded and shared following the event. Please register by Friday, April 7, 2023. If there are others in your organization who would like to attend, please feel free to share the link to this site so that they may register as well. If you have any questions, please reach out to Kate Schneider at kschneider@kettering.org Click here to register for the event. We are so thrilled for the upcoming 9th National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation (#NCDD2023) happening October 13-15 in Atlanta, Georgia. The NCDD team has been hard at work to make it a great event and we have some early conference details to share with you (some of which have important time-sensitive deadlines coming up). Call for Proposals is Live We’re interested in finding creative ways to highlight the best of what’s happening in public engagement, group process, community problem-solving, civic tech, arts-based dialogue, and more — and we know you have lots of ideas! Check out what we're looking for in the blog post here. We look for the most collaborative, engaging sessions that get people involved in exploring models, discussing challenges and innovations, and more. Most workshops at NCDD conferences are collaborative efforts involving multiple presenters. Consider using the NCDD Main Discussion listserv to put out feelers for potential co-presenters if you’d like. NCDD has also created a Collaborative Document to help with making connections. Have fun and get collaborating! Once your session proposal is ready, submit your workshop session application at this form linked here. Submissions are due Friday, April 14th. Sponsorship Opportunities Are Available Help us make the conference an even greater success by becoming a sponsor of the 9th National Conference on Dialogue & Deliberation! We work with the leading innovators in the field, and our sponsors are the benchmarks of that progress. By sponsoring NCDD 2023, you will be featured as one of the pioneering leaders in dialogue and deliberation. Learn more about our many sponsorship opportunities and check out our snazzy info guide at www.ncdd.org/sponsorship. Share your input on NCDD2023! As usual, NCDD conferences are co-created with our members and practitioners in this work. We would love to hear from you on what you'd like to see at the conference by filling our this short survey linked here. Conference Planning Team Want to know what it's like co-building one of the leading conferences in the dialogue, deliberation, and engagement work? Then make sure you let us know ASAP if you would like to be part of our incredible planning team before we officially launch in the next two weeks - you won't want to miss our first call! Let us know in the survey mentioned above (and linked here), you may also email Courtney and/or Keiva (our emails are at the bottom of this post). Early Bird Registration Friendly reminder to take advantage of the limited “Early Bird” rate and register today. This is our best general admission rate for the conference and will be available through May 31st. Student rate is also available. Register at: www.ncdd.org/ncdd2023. If you have any conference related questions, please contact NCDD communications coordinator, Keiva Hummel at keiva@ncdd.org. If you’d like to talk about broader NCDD topics, please reach out to NCDD's executive director, Courtney Breese at courtney@ncdd.org. Need a little extra boost in your day and want to get hyped about the conference? Watch this. Please join us in wishing congratulations to NCDD Member Organization, the National Civic League, on the exciting announcements shared last week! From the press release, "The National Civic League is adding two new divisions: a Center for Democracy Innovation and a Washington, DC office! The Center for Democracy Innovation will be led by Matt Leighninger, a veteran thought-leader in the field of democracy and civic engagement, and the Washington office will be led by the current Director of the All-America Cities program and Communications, Rebecca Trout." Learn more in the post below and on the NCL site here. ![]() National Civic League Announces Expansion to Preserve and Advance Democracy Center for Democracy Innovation The new Center for Democracy Innovation will work to sustain democracy by inviting people to help redesign the “civic infrastructure” of their communities, scale democracy through strategies for inclusive engagement to improve equity and governance, and measure the quality of democracy and engagement, particularly in ways that lift up the views and ratings of residents. Much of the Center’s work will be done through hands-on technical assistance in communities. The work of the Center will continue Leighninger’s history of learning from and with communities about ways to improve democracy, as someone who has worked with over 100 communities in 40 states. His first book, The Next Form of Democracy, is a firsthand account of that wave of democratic innovation that emerged in the 1990s and 2000s. His second, Public Participation for 21st Century Democracy, co-authored with Tina Nabatchi, is a guide and textbook that surveys the role and potential of engagement in K-12 education, health, land use planning, and the work of state and federal governments. Most recently, he worked with the League on the 9th edition of the Model City Charter, helped organize the Legislators’ Forum on Innovations in Democracy on Capitol Hill, and partnered with the Institute for Citizens and Scholars on the Mapping Civic Measurement project and report. Washington DC Office The new DC office will house the League's external affairs work, increasing the organization’s visibility and collaboration with national organizations, federal agencies, and legislators. By having a larger footprint in the nation’s capital, the League will be better positioned to establish formal and informal collaborations with DC-based organizations and individuals on projects related to democracy reform and civic engagement. Through the All-America City Award program, the League is well-acquainted with the innovative work happening all around the country and is looking forward to bringing this perspective to national conversations and efforts to strengthen democracy. The new DC office will be directed by Rebecca Trout, who brings eleven years of non-profit leadership experience in the areas of stakeholder engagement, strategic communication, and process development and improvement. During her five years at the League, Rebecca has spearheaded the successful planning, execution, and evaluation of four annual All-America City Award events, a three-day peer-learning conference recognizing communities for inclusive, innovative civic engagement work. She has grown and strengthened the network of past All-America Cities by connecting them with one another and with resources around local good governance practices and civic engagement strategies and will continue to direct the All-America Cities program as part of her national governance portfolio. Learn more at www.nationalcivicleague.org/innovating-for-democracy/. |
Categories
All
|