Millennial Action Project (MAP) is a political advocacy group which promotes legislation focused on issues of importance to young people. MAP claims to be a non-partisan organization but is funded by left-of-center nonprofit groups and promotes many left-of-center policy goals, especially liberal expansionist immigration policy, government job training programs, environmentalist regulations, and gun control. MAP has organized legislators in Congress and at the state-level to form voting blocs to pass targeted bills. ¹

Legislative Caucuses

Congressional Future Caucus

The Congressional Future Caucus is a bipartisan Congressional caucus that focuses on “post-partisan” legislation concerning millennials. ² Its membership includes 20 Republicans and 22 Democrats. ³ The bills it has supported would increase government investment in low-income communities, increased government funding on suicide-prevention research, and reduced student debt. ⁴

State Future Caucus Network

The State Future Caucus Network is a network of state-level legislative caucuses across 29 states. Each caucus consists of legislators who are under 40 years of age and vote to support millennial-focused bills. ⁵ MAP hosts “Red and Blue Dialogues” throughout the country where Democratic and Republican legislators meet publicly to discuss key issues. ⁶ Each summer, MAP holds the Future Summit national conference to gather its caucuses to discuss and coordinate strategy. ⁷

In 2018 alone, the State Future Caucus expanded into seven new states. ⁸

Leadership

Board member Shane Bateman is the chief financial officer and senior vice president of finance and administration at the Center for American Progress, an ostensibly non-partisan Washington DC-based think tank with strong ties to the Democratic Party establishment. ⁹

MAP’s advisory board includes numerous former politicians from both major parties:¹⁰

• Olympia Snowe, former Republican U.S. Senator from Maine
• Bill Bradley, former Democratic U.S. Senator from New Jersey
• Jennifer Granholm, former Democratic Governor of Michigan
• Jon Huntsman Jr., former Republican Governor of Utah
• Carlos Curbelo, former Republican U.S. Representative from Florida
• Chris Gibson, former Republican U.S. Representative from New York
• Barbara Lawton, former Democratic Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin

Funding

MAP receives funding from prominent nonprofits with left-of-center political objectives. MAP’s largest donor is the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the sixth-largest grantmaking foundation in America. Its first grant was given in 2015 for $50,000 “for new leadership on climate change.” From 2016-2018, the Hewlett Foundation gave $1 million to MAP for “general operating support.” ¹¹ Prior to 2016, MAP’s annual revenue was below $180,000. In 2016, its revenue was close to $1 million, and stayed above $700,000 the following year. ¹² The Hewlett Foundation also gave an additional $75,000 in 2018 “for a three-year strategy and operations plan.” ¹³

Democracy Fund, a policy-oriented foundation created by liberal eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, donated $138,000 in 2015 and again in 2016. In 2019, Democracy Fund increased its donation to $175,000. ¹⁴

MAP also lists numerous “partners,” most of which are major corporations like Google, Uber, Lyft, WeWork, and Twitter. Other partners are think tanks, including the William J. Brennan Center for Justice, a left-of-center judicial activist fund, and the Bipartisan Policy Center, a left-of-center Washington, DC-based think tank. ¹⁵ Two current staff members of the Bipartisan Policy Center, communications director Loren Long¹⁶ and corporate relations manager Tiffany Jones,¹⁷ used to work at MAP.

Though not listed as a partner, MAP works with Unite America, a left-of-center PAC based in Colorado that advocates for restructuring much of America’s voting and electoral system. ¹⁸¹⁹

1. “About Us.” Millennial Action Project. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://www.millennialaction.org/about-us.
2. “Congressional Future Caucus Legislation.” Millennial Action Project. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://www.millennialaction.org/cfc-legislation-.
3. “Congressional Future Caucus.” Millennial Action Project. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://www.millennialaction.org/congressional-future-caucus.
4. “Congressional Future Caucus Legislation.” Millennial Action Project. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://www.millennialaction.org/cfc-legislation-.
5. “Mission” Millennial Action Project. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://www.millennialaction.org/state-future-caucuses.
6. “Red & Blue Dialogues.” Millennial Action Project. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://www.millennialaction.org/red-and-blue-dialogues.
7. “2019 Future Summit.” Millennial Action Project. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://www.millennialaction.org/events/2019futuresummit.
8. “Millennial Action Project Report 2019.” Issuu. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://issuu.com/millennialaction/docs/map_2018_annual_report.
9. “Shane Bateman.” Millennial Action Project. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://www.millennialaction.org/boardofdirectors/shanebateman.
10. “Our People.” Millennial Action Project. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://www.millennialaction.org/our-people#partners.
11. “Millennial Action Project.” William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://hewlett.org/grants/millennial-action-project-for-general-operating-support/.
12. “Millennial Action Project.” ProPublica. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/472802851.
13. “Millennial Action Project.” William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://hewlett.org/grants/millennial-action-project-for-general-operating-support/.
14. “Millennial Action Project.” Democracy Fund. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://www.democracyfund.org/portfolio/entry/millenial-action-project.
15. “Our Partners.” Millennial Action Project. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://www.millennialaction.org/our-partners.
16. “Loren Long.” Bipartisan Policy Center. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://bipartisanpolicy.org/person/loren-long/.
17. “Tiffany Jones.” Bipartisan Policy Center. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://bipartisanpolicy.org/person/tiffany-jones/.
18. “National Group Wants to Back Virginia Centrists, Boost Bipartisanship.” Millennial Action Project. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://www.millennialaction.org/press-archives/national-group-wants-to-back-virginia-centrists-boost-bipartisanship.
19. Troiano, Nick. “Unite America 2020: Scaling the Democracy Reform Movement.” Unite America. Accessed March 3, 2020. https://www.uniteamerica.org/news-article/uniteamerica2020.