Formerly known as Public Campaign, Every Voice Center is a left-of-center 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. ¹ The organization is related to and partners with the 501(c)(4) Every Voice. Together, the two groups work for the promotion of attempts to restrict campaign donations and promote public funding of election campaigns.

History

Every Voice Center was established in 1997 as Public Campaign. ² Nick Nyhart founded it and the Public Campaign Action Fund alongside a number of other activists. Nyhart was director of the Northeast Action Money and Politics Project from 1992 until he founded the Public Campaign organizations. ³ Public Campaign Action Fund changed its name to Every Voice in 2014 with Public Campaign becoming Every Voice Center soon following. ⁴  The affiliated Super PAC Friends of Democracy merged with Public Campaign Action Fund during this transition. ⁵

Campaigns and Partners

Every Voice Center efforts to promote campaign finance reform and and public engagement have taken the form of the two proposals backed by left-wing Democratic legislators. ⁶ The Government By the People Act was reintroduced in Congress on January 24, 2017 by Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Maryland) as H.R. 20—previous efforts have been made in numerous sessions of Congress, including 2014 and 2015—and was referred to the subcommittee on communications and technology. ⁷ The Fair Elections Now Act was last introduced to congress in 2015. The primary policy proposal of these efforts is the matching of small donor campaign contributions through public funds and providing a $25 tax credit for small donations to encourage such contributions, in an effort to resist the alleged ramifications of the Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court decision. ⁸

Supporters of the proposal include a laundry list of liberal groups and public-employee labor unions, including the League of Conservation Voters, William J. Brennan Center for Justice, National Organization for Women, Common Cause, Public Citizen, NAACP, U.S.-PIRG, American Federation of State, County, & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Consumer Watchdog, and Democracy 21. ⁹

Every Voice Center received a $225,000 donation from the MacArthur Foundation in 2015 for a 3 year duration. ¹⁰ It also received $50,000 in 2016 from the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation. ¹¹ The group also received a grant of $556,000 from the Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros Foundation.¹²

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3. “Staff,” Every Voice Center, accessed July 20, 2017, http://www.everyvoicecenter.org/staff/.
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5. Nicholas Confessore, “Spending Big to Fight Big Donors in Campaigns,” The New York Times. July 28, 2014. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/29/us/spending-big-to-fight-big-donors.html.
6. Every Voice Center, Ballotpedia, accessed July 20, 2017, https://ballotpedia.org/Every_Voice_Center.
7. H.R.20, Congress.Gov, accessed July 23, 2017, https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/20.
8. “Sarbanes Reintroduces Government By the People Act (H.R. 20)” Sarbanes.house.gov , Jan. 24, 2017. https://sarbanes.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/sarbanes-reintroduces-government-by-the-people-act-hr-20.
9. Every Voice Center, Ballotpedia, accessed July 20, 2017, https://ballotpedia.org/Every_Voice_Center.
10. Every Voice Center, MacArthur Foundation, accessed July 20, 2017, https://www.macfound.org/grantees/2160/.
11. Every Voice Center, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, accessed July 20, 2017, http://www.rbf.org/grantees/every-voice-center.
12. Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros Foundation, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), Part XV