Faith In Action (PICO National Network)

It claims to be the largest organization of its kind in America. Its focus on left-leaning environmental, health care, policing, and other policy and cultural priorities are viewed through a racial lens. ¹

Faith in Action was founded in 1972 as PICO National Network. It changed its name in 2018. ²

History

Faith in Action has gone through several name changes since its founding by Catholic priest John Baumann. It was originally called the Oakland Training Institute and was renamed the Pacific Institute for Community Organizing (PICO). From 2004 to 2018 it was known as PICO National Network. ³

Baumann has said he founded the Oakland Training Institute in light of cultural changes across the United States and within the Catholic Church which took place when he was a seminarian in the 1960s. Early in his religious education, he was tutored by left-wing activist Saul Alinksy and people involved with Alinsky’s community organizing structure and philosophy. Baumann used what he learned to found the Institute. ⁴

PICO’s influence has been noticed at a high level throughout much of its history. For example, it was highlighted by the Clinton White House in 1997. ⁵

Funding

Since its founding, Faith in Action has received significant support from left-leaning foundations. Examples include:

• The environmental and income-focused Nathan Cummings Foundation gave $375,000 from 2017 to 2018. ⁶
• The Open Society Foundations has provided financial support to Faith in Action for multiple initiatives. ⁷ One of the most notable grants it provided was intended to influence Pope Francis’ 2015 visit to the United States. ⁸
• The W.K. Kellogg Foundation gave over $2.1 million in 2015 for a two-year grant. ⁹
• The Open Philanthropy Project gave nearly $1.4 million in 2016. ¹⁰
• The Marguerite Casey Foundation gave $1.5 million in 2018 for a three-year grant. ¹¹
• Google’s non-profit gave two million dollars in 2017 to a PICO partnership initiative which included many influential gun control groups, domestic violence prevention groups, and the now-shuttered Organizing for Action. ¹²

These and other donations totaled over $20 million for Faith in Action in 2016 (known as PICO at the time). The rest of the organization’s $21.2 million budget came from revenues earned for its programming. ¹³

Over $13 million of Faith in Action’s $16.4 million in expenses in 2016 came from its training, grants, and staff involvement in its chapters and other groups across the nation and internationally.

Democracy Alliance

Democracy Alliance is a collective of wealthy left-progressive donors that meet at semi-annual conferences for the purpose of providing a list of recommended recipients to major donors. Faith in Action is on Democracy Alliance’s list because it motivates political involvement among the middle class religious community. ¹⁴

Mission

Faith in Action’s primary mission is to create social and legal changes in areas where it believes African-Americans have been disadvantaged by racism, such as in health care, gun violence, and incarceration. Its core belief is that “systemic racism” is holding minority Americans back. ¹⁵

Most of its work is centered on training and organizing local individuals and groups to take action in their communities. Examples of its initiatives include:

• LA RED, which urges local governments to not work with federal immigration officials to enforce laws against illegal immigrants. ¹⁶
• Flipping the Formula, which engages in voter education and get-out-the-vote efforts. It organizes these efforts through volunteers associated with Faith in Action. ¹⁷
• The group is part of Field Team 6, a coalition of lobbying and state election advocacy organizations working towards registering more Democrat voters within key swing states and counties before the 2022 Midterm Elections. ¹⁸
• Faith in Action’s Ohio chapter got 700,000 signatures to put a prison reform amendment before Ohio voters in 2018. The amendment aimed to release non-violent drug offenders and change drug possessions to be misdemeanors instead of felonies. ¹⁹ It also promoted rehabilitation programs for inmates, early release for some inmates, and reallocation of projected prison savings to drug treatment programs. The initiative was defeated by voters almost two-to-one. ²⁰
• The Faith in Action Fund is Faith in Action’s political action fund. Its primary focuses are on getting out the vote, raising awareness of voting rights and opportunities in minority communities, and organizing local activists to engage with local and municipal leaders. ²¹
• Faith in Action’s international organizing takes place in Rwanda, Haiti, and El Salvador. ²²

Leadership

Father John Baumann was Faith in Action’s founding Executive Director. As of 2016, Baumann was on Faith in Action’s Board of Directors. ²³

Baumann’s successor was Scott Reed, who served in the same role for 40 years until 2018. Shortly before he left PICO, Reed told Nonprofit Quarterly that the group began focusing more on race in the decade prior to his departure. ²⁴

Reverend Alvin Herring took over as Faith in Action’s Executive Director in 2018. He was previously director of race-based organizing and activism departments at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and at PICO. ²⁵

Rich Wood was the most highly compensated member of the Faith in Action board in 2016. ²³ A professor of sociology, he authored a 2002 book based upon years of study of how PICO and the Center for Third World Organizing conducted their activism. ²⁶