Tides Advocacy is holding a free virtual learning series to reflect on the experiences and ground covered from the past few years, with a focus on Restoring and Building Our C4 Power. Join us to connect on community-driven power building efforts, transformative political organizing led by Black communities and communities of color, and relationship building across the 501(c)(4) space.
Learn more about our free Strategy and Learning Sessions, C4 Grantmaking Practice Sessions, and Cohort program.
Missed Beyond Impact 2021? Check out this year's sessions here!
We are grateful for the leadership and strategic direction from our Beyond Impact Advisory Committee.
| Lennon Bronsema | Washington Conservation Voters |
| Lupe Lopez | Strong Women Action Network (SWAN) |
| Le Tim Ly | Center for Empowered Politics |
| Shareen Punian | DemLabs |
| Yadira Sanchez | Poder Latinx |
| Tamisha Walker | Safe Return Project |
| Erika Washington | Make it Work Nevada |
Wednesday September 29
11am - 12:15pm PT / 2pm - 3:15pm ET
Communities advancing racial justice are growing their influence on policy discussions and holding elected officials accountable through transformative strategies, spanning from prosecutor accountability to ballot initiatives centered on expanding voting rights. Movements are testing new organizational models to build power among BIPOC communities, finding 501(c)(4) structures as flexible, strategic resources for political and issue organizing. Funders have also increasingly responded to movement demands for long-term support connected to bold, power building goals.
This session will promote reflection on the role of C4 resources in racial justice and movement building work, good practices we want to maintain, and common barriers to moving resources to community-driven power building efforts.
Key learning objectives
- Build an understanding of the C4 funding landscape, and why C4 strategies have been critical in building power among BIPOC communities
- Surface lessons from effective C4 funding partnerships
Speakers
- Marcus Bass, Advance Carolina
- Michele Christiansen, Voqal
- Angie Junck, Heising Simons Action Fund
- Angela Lang, Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC)
- Janis Rosheuvel, Solidaire Action Fund
- Moderator- Ludovic Blain, California Donor Table
Wednesday September 8
11am - 12:15pm PT / 2pm - 3:15pm ET
2020 presented some expected and unexpected challenges as we worked to build long-term power within and across communities, building on years of work to radically shift how and when we engage with communities. In this context, organizations have continued to shift away from transactional engagement centered on electoral wins, towards a long-term view that centers both policy change and work to build a broader political base among elected officials and community leaders.
Power building organizations have continued to experiment and push boundaries of political organizing, raising key lessons and questions for our work moving forward.
- Virtual Organizing What have we learned about what’s effective in virtual organizing, and what ideas do we have on what we should continue?
- Long-term, relational organizing. With growing attention to deep canvassing and relational organizing, how might we keep the momentum for engagement with this work? How do we leverage the energy from electoral wins to carry us to the next ask? How do we build in resiliency to move organizing forward in the face of defeats?
- Organizing across divides. How are we organizing across digital, generational, messaging and language divides? How might we organize both single-constituency and multi-constituency groups?
- Narrative change. How are we shifting towards C4 messages in order to advance our long-term organizing work? How are we engaging with funders and supporters to explore the importance of C4 organizing, especially during non-election years.
This session will explore how organizing shifted in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, the uprisings, and elections, with a focus on what worked well and should be included in our C4 playbooks moving forward.
Key learning objectives
- Walk away with tangible ideas and recommendations for their own C4 long-term organizing
- Exchange perspectives and key lessons with other organizations doing similar work
Speakers
- Qiana Johnson, Life After Release
- Brionté McCorkle, Georgia Conservation Voters
- Andrea Miller, Center for Common Ground
- Kayla Reed, Action St. Louis & M4BL Action Fund
- Moderator: Le Tim Ly, Resilient Strategies LLC & Center for Empowered Politics
Wednesday August 25
11am - 12:15pm PT / 2pm - 3:15pm ET
The months after an election are a strategic moment to solidify a growing base and community political leadership. This happens through programs aimed at transforming passive voters into active supporters; supporters into volunteers; and volunteers into future leaders, holding elected officials accountable.
The 2020 election was a movement building opportunity -- how can we sustain and build a bench of community leaders who can engage in a variety of tactics and tools towards building political power? How have we leveraged C4 organizations to build communities’ political leadership?
This session will explore approaches and models for bench-building and leadership development, from the candidate recruitment pipeline, to recruitment, training and retention of community members and co-governance models for political organizing. We will discuss key lessons and questions from campaigns and programs led by Black, Indigenous and people of color progressive movements.
This session is intended for executive directors, senior level staff members and organizers who are interested in implementing leadership development programs.
Learning Objectives
- Engage with concrete political leadership development models that participants can integrate in their organizations
- Exchange perspectives, approaches, distinctions and key lessons in bench-building efforts across diverse C4 organizations
- Reflect on how participants can integrate a culture of learning to support their work and organizations
Speakers include
- Ana del Rocío, Oregon Futures Lab
- Lupe Lopez, Strong Women Action Network
- Branden Snyder, Detroit Action
- Jonathan Paik, Orange County Civic Engagement Table Action
Wednesday August 11
11am - 12:15pm PT / 2pm - 3:15pm ET
Black-led and people of color-led movements in Arizona, Florida, and Georgia have built power and advanced racial justice through political organizing, integrating electoral justice, policy, and community engagement work at the state and local level. They are transforming power structures by applying political pressure locally, from holding government officials accountable long after election day by opposing harmful criminal legal system legislation, to amplifying the political leadership of communities disenfranchised by proposed state voting laws.
This work is rooted in deep, long-term political organizing – it ensures that electoral victories translate to tangible change in community representation, towards a vision of collective liberation. Without efforts to deepen political organizing every year, electoral and policy wins will be limited and short-lived.
As we push for radical transformation in our political and economic systems, how can we best center state and local political organizing?
This panel discussion will explore the role of local political work in shifting the long-term balance of power, with a focus on the infrastructure and resources needed to support BIPOC-led work.
Speakers
- Romy Avila, Tides Advocacy
- Lola N’sangou, Mass Liberation Arizona
- Carolina Ramirez, Movement Voter Project
- Yadira Sanchez, Poder Latinx
- Aisha Yaqoob Mahmood, Asian American Advocacy Fund
Key learning questions
- How might we shift the public narrative around our work to focus on powerful local and state efforts as central to meaningful political strategy?
- How have organizers in Arizona, Florida and Georgia pushed radical transformation and grown BIPOC community influence in politics?
- What state infrastructure can help build power among BIPOC communities and advance racial justice?
- How do we build public and funder support for state and local organizing?
Can 501(c)(3) foundations make grants to C4 organizations? Does your 501(c)(3) have an affiliated 501(c)(4)? Are there opportunities to expand grantmaking practices to partner with groups building political power? A grantmaking compliance strategy is foundational to deep partnerships with power building groups.
Sign up for a free consultation with Tides Advocacy’s legal and compliance team to help strategize for this fall.
Need more time to dive deeper into session topics?
We have 20 spots available for our C4 Cohort Program.
This is an informal space to connect with fellow Beyond Impact participants and deepen our collective knowledge on each session topic with a smaller group of peers. Participants will join 45 minute discussions immediately after each Beyond Impact Session.
Through this program, we’re seeking to:
- Cultivate connections between Beyond Impact participants
- Deepen participants’ knowledge on the session topics through interactive discussions
- Encourage peer support and collective problem solving
Each cohort group will consist of five participants and a facilitator. Cohorts will meet four times throughout the Beyond Impact series for 45 minutes after each strategy and learning session. These meet-ups will be informal, with some guiding questions to prompt discussion and open space to surface reflections.
To support our community building goals, we ask that you sign up for the Cohort Program if you can commit to attending all Beyond Impact sessions and the cohort meet-ups.
Event planning - Girl Friday Events
Graphic design and logo - Marissa Katarina Bergmann - aimari.com
Missed Beyond Impact 2020? Check out last year's sessions here!
Please review our Community Guidelines
Questions? Contact our team at [email protected]
