The Social and Economic Justice Leaders Planning Group, also known as the Social and Economic Justice Leaders Council, ¹ is an activist project of the left-of-center funding and fiscal sponsorship group New Venture Fund. ² The group focuses on cultivating relationships and building leadership to support left-of-center policy. ³

Founding

The Social and Economic Justice Leaders Planning Group was founded in 2017 through a collaboration of Color of Change, an online left-of-center organizing organization; Community Change,  a left-wing national advocacy organization; Planned Parenthood Federation of America, an abortion provider and advocacy group; Service Employees International Union, one of America’s largest, most controversial, and most politically involved labor unions; the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, an umbrella organization for over 200 mostly left-wing lobbying and advocacy organizations; and MoveOn, a left-wing digital organizing group. ⁴

Parent Organization

New Venture Fund is a nonprofit managed by left-leaning philanthropic consulting firm Arabella Advisors. Critics characterize New Venture Fund as a “dark money” conduit through which left-wing donors can donate money without having to disclose their identity or where the money is going. ⁵

Activities

Social and Economic Justice Leaders Planning Group is a coalition of left-wing groups that trains activists and employees in leadership and activism. ⁶ The group convenes leaders of organizations to nurture relationships and aid future collective action. As of 2021, the group claimed to be creating a leadership cohort collected from member organizations, policy shops, academia, and government for the purpose of organizing long-term campaigns that would “mainstream a post-neoliberal economic paradigm.” ⁷

The issue focuses of the group include education, human rights and civil liberties, policy, and research and social science. ⁸

A 2020 document issued by the group described the Trump administration as “consistently flouting the rule of law” and condemned the “continued violence of systemic racism,” “the increasing rise of white nationalism,” and “the global rise of proto-fascist governments.” ⁹

The group also stated that “far-right attacks on basic democratic institutions… are the result of many years of investment and planning.” To combat the perceived rising threat of fascism from conservatives, the group calls on left-wing activists and leaders to focus on long-term planning and shared infrastructure. ¹⁰

The group’s strategy involves gathering thinkers, stakeholders, and interrelated organizations together to inspire new thinking to execute their vision in a coordinated fashion. This coordination allows the group to align strategies, allocate resources efficiently, and stay focused on mission. To train leaders to have the “muscle memory” to operate effectively together in the future, the group uses an experiential model of scenario planning in which participants have the space to co-create complex strategies. These scenarios imagine how the future could unfold to aid leaders in thinking about how their organizations might respond. ¹¹

The group’s three main goals for the scenario planning process are to build muscle and working relationships across movement organizations, strengthen the capacity of organizations, and provoke new thinking to prepare for the future. ¹²

Funding

The Social and Economic Justice Leaders Planning Group has received a recurring series of grants from the Democracy Fund. The Democracy Fund is a public policy-oriented foundation chaired and principally funded by eBay founder and former chairman Pierre Omidyar that contributes to left-wing media organizations, groups seeking to infringe on campaign speech rights, and left-of-center voter registration organizations. ¹³

In 2020, the Social and Economic Justice Leaders Planning Group received $75,000 from the Democracy Fund. In 2021, the group received $400,000 from the fund, and in 2022 the group received $500,000 from the fund. ¹⁴

Additionally, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation gave $200,000 to New Venture Fund for the Social and Economic Justice Leaders Project in 2021. ¹⁵ The Hewlett Foundation gave another $350,000 to New Venture Fund for the group in 2022. ¹⁶

1. “Social and Economic Justice Leaders Planning Group.” Democracy Fund. Accessed August 25, 2023. https://democracyfund.org/grant/social-and-economic-justice-leaders-planning-group-3/.
2. “Social And Economic Justice Leaders Project”. 2020. Idealist. Accessed August 25, 2023. https://www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit/d4508229b7ae46d9a4bb847792ed5b0b-social-and-economic-justice-leaders-project-washington#.
3.  “New Venture Fund: For Social & Economic Justice Leaders.” Accessed August 24, 2023. https://hewlett.org/grants/new-venture-fund-for-social-economic-justice-leaders/.
4. “Social & Economic Justice Leaders,” Economic Opportunity Funders. September 2020. Accessed August 25, 2023. https://eofnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Shaping-the-Future-Overview-of-SEJ.pdf.
5. Staff, CRC. 2019. “CRC Special Report Unveils Vast “Dark Money” Network On The Left”. Capital Research Center. https://capitalresearch.org/article/crc-exposes-left-wing-dark-money/.
6. ^[1]“Social And Economic Justice Leaders Project”. 2020. Idealist. Accessed MAugust 25, 2023. https://www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit/d4508229b7ae46d9a4bb847792ed5b0b-social-and-economic-justice-leaders-project-washington#.
7. “New Venture Fund: For Social & Economic Justice Leaders.” Accessed August 24, 2023. https://hewlett.org/grants/new-venture-fund-for-social-economic-justice-leaders/.
8. “Social And Economic Justice Leaders Project”. 2020. Idealist. Accessed MAugust 25, 2023. https://www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit/d4508229b7ae46d9a4bb847792ed5b0b-social-and-economic-justice-leaders-project-washington#.
9. “Social & Economic Justice Leaders,” Economic Opportunity Funders. September 2020. Accessed August 25, 2023. https://eofnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Shaping-the-Future-Overview-of-SEJ.pdf.
10. “Social & Economic Justice Leaders,” Economic Opportunity Funders. September 2020. Accessed August 25, 2023. https://eofnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Shaping-the-Future-Overview-of-SEJ.pdf.
11. “Social & Economic Justice Leaders,” Economic Opportunity Funders. September 2020. Accessed August 25, 2023. https://eofnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Shaping-the-Future-Overview-of-SEJ.pdf.
12. “Social & Economic Justice Leaders,” Economic Opportunity Funders. September 2020. Accessed August 25, 2023. https://eofnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Shaping-the-Future-Overview-of-SEJ.pdf.
13. Democracy Fund, Return of a Private Foundation (Form 990-PF), 2015, Part VIII Line 1 and Schedule B.
14. “Grants Database.” Democracy Fund. Accessed August 25, 2023. https://democracyfund.org/for-partners/grants-database/?fwp_grants_search=Social%20and%20Economic%20Justice%20Leaders%20PRoject.
15. “New Venture Fund: For Social & Economic Justice Leaders.” William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Accessed August 25, 2023. https://hewlett.org/grants/new-venture-fund-for-social-economic-justice-leaders/.
16. “New Venture Fund: For Social and Economic Justice Leaders Project.” William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Accessed August 25, 2023. https://hewlett.org/grants/new-venture-fund-for-social-and-economic-justice-leaders-project/.