Nebraska Civic Engagement Table (NCET)

Its top leadership is comprised of former executives of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland. ⁶ Through a broad umbrella of partners and members, NCET is connected to dozens of other similar voter mobilization groups. ⁷

Affiliations

The Nebraska Civic Engagement Table is the Nebraska chapter of the national left-of-center organization State Voices. ² It received more than $1 million from the left-of-center Wallace H. Coulter Foundation and several hundred thousand dollars in funding by the Open Society Foundations founded by George Soros. ³ It was a member of the left-leaning network Democracy Alliance. ⁸

Activity

Protect Our Rights

As of 2024, the Nebraska Civic Engagement Table (NCET) donated $107,706 to the Protect Our Rights Initiative, a campaign advocating in favor of the passage of Initiative 439 on the November 2024 ballot, which would create a state-level amendment to guarantee the right to abortion access in the state. Other donors of the initiative included Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska ($904,579), ACLU Nebraska ($803,300), Nebraska Appleseed ($431,856), and the Women’s Fund of Omaha ($263,734). The labor union-backed Fairness Project also contributed $75,569. Initiative 439 was defeated with 50.99% of the vote against the initiative. ^{9 10}

Other Donations

In 2024, NCET donated $21,000 to Nebraskans for Paid Sick Leave, a campaign to pass a ballot initiative requiring employers to provide paid sick leave to employees ¹¹ That same year, NCET donated $20,917 to Support Our Schools, a campaign opposing a ballot measure that if passed would retain a law maintaining a $10 million education scholarship fund. The Initiative was defeated, and the law was repealed. ¹¹

In 2022, NCET donated $40,338 to Raise the Wage Nebraska, a campaign for a ballot measure that was passed to raise the minimum wage from $9 per hour to $15. ¹¹

Also in 2022, NCET donated $3,582 to Nebraskans for Free and Fair Elections, a campaign to oppose a ballot measure to change the Nebraska Constitution to require photo ID to vote. The measure passed. ¹¹

Coalitions

NCET is a member of several advocacy coalitions including the Voting Rights Coalition, the Voter ID Education Coalition, and the Get Out the Vote Coalition. ¹²

Grants

In 2023, NCET donations include $15,000 to the Black Voters Matter Institute of Community Engagement, $7,500 to the Heartland Workers Center, $7,500 to Common Cause, $7,500 to Centro Hispano, $8,000 to ACLU Nebraska, $7,500 to Elevate Omaha, $7,500 to the New Family Alliance, and $50,000 to the Second House Collaborative. ¹³

Members

As of January 2024, the Nebraska Civic Engagement Table had 66 member organizations. ¹⁴ The members of the Nebraska Civic Engagement Table are advocacy groups doing left-of-center voter mobilization work in Nebraska. NCET allowed members access to its resources and staff to “build power in their communities.”¹⁵

Members included left-leaning groups such as Planned Parenthood of the North Central States, ACLU Nebraska, Bold Alliance, Center for Rural Affairs, Common Cause, Heartland Workers Center, League of Women Voters of Nebraska, and Nebraska Appleseed.⁷

Partners

The Nebraska Civic Engagement Table also has a partnership program for aligned nonprofits that do not engage in civic or voter engagement activities, especially those that represent ethnic and racial minority groups, such as Inclusive Communities, Black Men United, and Community Action of Nebraska. ¹⁶ Community Action of Nebraska was the local affiliate of the left-leaning National Community Action Partnership, which asserts that systemic gender, race, and additional inequities are barriers that must be overcome. ¹⁷

NCET was connected to other national left-progressive organizations such as Black Lives Matter. In its 2020 annual report, NCET devoted a page to Black Lives Matter, claiming that there is a “long history of state violence committed against black people,” and that “police violence has continued to claim the lives of people who deserved much better.” ⁵

Leadership

Meg Mikolajczyk is the executive director at the Nebraska Civic Engagement Table. Mikolajczyk, ¹⁸ deputy director Angie Remington, ¹⁹ and former board president Katie Weitz, ²⁰ all worked with Planned Parenthood of the North Central States (now known as Planned Parenthood of the Heartland) prior to their work with NCET. ¹⁸

Brad Christian-Sallis has served as the director of power building at NCET since April 2023. Christian-Sallis previously worked at the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. Prior to this, Christian-Sallis worked for Civic Nebraska and the New Leaders Council Omaha. Christian-Sallis previously worked on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. ²¹

Robia Qasimyar is the board chair for NCET. She is a program associate at the Weitz Family Foundation. ²²

Katie Weitz is NCET’s former board president ²³ and the president of the Weitz Family Foundation. ²⁴ Weitz sat on the board of Planned Parenthood, ²⁵ and celebrated her 42nd birthday by raising over $100,000 in funding for Planned Parenthood Voters of Nebraska. ²⁶

Funding

According to 2022-2023 annual report, the Nebraska Civic Engagement Table reported $1,236,200 in revenue, with $1,171,300 coming from organization grants, $35,800 coming from individual donations, and $29,100 coming from membership dues. ²⁷

In the same report, the organization disclosed all donors who contributed at least $5,000 during that period. This includes the Annette and Paul Smith Charitable Fund, Clean and Prosperous America, the Cooper Foundation, Katie Weitz, the Fred and Eve Simon Foundation, the Holland Foundation, Humanities Nebraska, the Adams RBG Empowerment Fund, John and Diane Scott, the Lincoln Community Foundation, the Lozier Foundation, the Movement Voter Project of the Tides Foundation, the Sherwood Foundation, State Voices, Todd and Betiana Simon, and the Weitz Family Foundation. ²⁷

NCET has previously received funding from the Woods Charitable Fund. ²⁸