Progressnow Colorado Education Fund

A campaign finance complaint filed in 2019 alleges that ProgressNow Colorado and the fund were involved in an arrangement to avoid campaign finance disclosure requirements for a contribution from Google co-founder Sergey Brin’s Sergey Brin Family Foundation in a failed campaign to pass a ballot measure severely restricting energy resource extraction. ¹

ProgressNow

ProgressNow, the left-of-center state policy and agitation group with which both the fund and its parent group ProgressNow Colorado are affiliated, was founded in 2003 as the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network. It is is a left-wing 501(c)(4) advocacy organization. ² In 2006, the group began to expand its network outside of Colorado by developing the ProgressNow Partners Networks in 21 states. ³

Endorsements

The fund is listed, along with its parent organization ProgressNow Colorado, as endorsing the liberal leaning group American for Tax Fairness,⁴ which supports increasing taxes to increase federal revenues and advocates against tax decreases. ⁵

Campaign Finance Complaint

A campaign finance complaint filed on January 23, 2019 by former Colorado State Senate policy director Charles Heatherly alleges that the fund, or its affiliated parent organization ProgressNow Colorado, received $170,000 from the Sergey Brin Family Foundation to advocate for the ultimately unsuccessful Colorado Proposition 112, which proposed a 2,500-foot setback for new oil and gas developments, a regulation that would prohibit much current gas extraction in the state. ⁶⁷

The campaign finance complaint alleged, “The Sergey Brin Family Foundation contributed $170,000 to ProgressNow Colorado, which used the funds to support Proposition 112. Rather than file as an issue committee, however, ProgressNow Colorado – or its affiliated organization ProgressNow Colorado Education Fund – treated its issue advocacy as a ‘contribution’ to Colorado Rising, a reporting issue committee.” ⁸

ProgressNow Colorado executive director Ian Silverii claimed the money was given for general operations (not to support Proposition 112), and that the ballot committee Colorado Rising had reported the contribution in error. ⁹

Leadership

Ian Silverii works as executive director of ProgressNow Colorado Education Fund and its parent organization ProgressNow Colorado. Prior to joining ProgressNow, he worked as chief of staff to former Colorado State House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst (D-Boulder). ¹⁰

Silverii replaced Amy Runyon-Harms, who worked as executive director of the fund and from May 2013 until January 2016. Prior to joining the fund, Runyon-Harms was the director of political outreach for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. ^{11 12}