History
Empower Fund focuses on revitalizing organizing to help civically engage hard-to-reach and historically marginalized communities through non-partisan relational organizing– the practice of tapping into personal networks of friends and family to create change.
Our field organizers recruit and mobilize tens of thousands of everyday people, who in turn engage their personal networks to share information important to civic life, from access to government benefits and voter registration, to updates on issues impacting their day-to-day lives.
We also support the wider non-profit movement by sharing the software and expertise so that other communities and nonprofits can run their own relational programs, and ultimately leverage their personal relationships to build power and increase civic participation. Our cutting-edge technology platform, the Empower App, stands at the forefront of the industry and is trusted by over 1,500 organizations nationwide.
We’re organizers, strategists, trainers, and engineers all grounded in community, and with the belief in the power of collective action for civic engagement.
2011
Our team built the first Relational Organizing tool in the industry
In 2011, our team was looking for a new way to find and engage hard-to-reach people to help them register to vote. We revived the age-old idea of relational organizing with a modern twist to get in touch with the people that weren’t listed on the voter file, but their friends and family knew how to get to them. It soon became clear that a tool was needed to track these efforts so we built the first version of what would eventually become the Empower App - the first relational organizing tool in the industry. Empower remains the most tested relational organizing tool with a world-class development team to back it up.
2016
We begin research on Relational Organizing with the Analyst Institute
After seeing the success of these programs grow, we initiated a research partnership with an independent research firm, Analyst Institute, to quantify the efficacy of this style of communication. The first experimental returns prove very promising.
2018
The efficacy of Relational Organizing proves to be significant
By 2018, we conducted eight more experiments to test the efficacy of relational organizing and found that relational organizing had a particularly significant impact on youth, BIPOC, and highly mobile communities.
2020
We reach 1 million people
In 2020 alone, we reached 1 million people using relational organizing, forever transforming the way the progressive movement organizes.
2021
We launch our direct organizing programs
In addition to providing tech and training to our partners, we engaged 13,000+ volunteers to promote vaccine access and education, resulting in 55,000 confirmed relational organizing connections.
2023
We make history with our programs
We ran successful non-partisan paid relational organizing programs in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, resulting in hundreds of thousands of conversations. Our programs in Pennsylvania and Kentucky are the first of their kind and size to happen in each state.
Today
Our work continues
Empower Fund continues to work with groups in all 50 states to plan and implement effective relational organizing programs while we continue to spearhead the largest and most successful direct organizing programs in history.