The League is a left-of-center social policy advocacy organization. It is headed by activist Tracy Sturdivant and grew from the Make It Work campaign, which pressed for left-of-center economic policies targeted toward women.

It is a fiscally sponsored project of the New Venture Fund,¹ a left-of-center pass-through funding organization in the Arabella Advisors network of left-of-center “dark money.” ²

History

Tracy Sturdivant is the co-founder of Make It Work campaign, a project of the New Venture Fund. ³ Make It Work advocated for equal pay, childcare, and paid family leave mandates. The League was started as a replacement to Make It Work as “a new cultural engagement collective.” The League is comprised of five staffers, including Sturdivant. ⁴ The Make It Work campaign was a three-year campaign started in 2014. ⁵ The Make it Work campaign ended in 2017. ⁶

Tracy Sturdivant

Tracy Sturdivant is connected with the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way. She also has sat on the board for the Proteus Fund, Greenpeace, National Domestic Workers Alliance, and Higher Heights for America. ⁷ Tracy Sturdivant is the former executive director for State Voices, a network of state-level liberal advocacy groups. ⁸

Activities

In 2020, The League joined together with The Culture Change Fund, the Women’s Foundation of California, Blue Shield of California Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Compton Foundation, the General Service Foundation, the Libra Foundation, The California Endowment, to create Story at Scale, a gender-related social policy research project. The Story at Scale allows advocates to “shape stories to move and activate new supporters of gender justice.” The Story at Scale website features reports and video of activists telling their stories about gender. ⁹

The League works to represent LGBT persons, women, and people of color. The League connected through the Make It Work campaign, through Tracy Sturdivant, and highlighted equal pay and affordable childcare in the 2016 election. The League acts as a mirror to the work undertaken by the Make It Work campaign. ¹⁰

Funding

In 2019, The League received a grant from the Pop Culture Collaborative to transform “national narratives around women of color leadership.” ¹¹ The Compton Foundation has also funded The League, providing $50,000 in 2019. ¹²

1. “Storytelling Grant Highlights.” Compton Foundation. Accessed March 26, 2020. https://www.comptonfoundation.org/grants-awarded/grant-highlights/storytelling-grant-highlights/.
2. Markay, Lachan. “Over 100 Left-Wing Groups Sourced to DC Dark Money Outfit.” Washington Free Beacon. October 22, 2015. Accessed February 18, 2017. http://freebeacon.com/issues/over-100-left-wing-groups-sourced-to-d-c-dark-money-outfit/
3. “Terms of Service.” Make it Work. Accessed March 26, 2020. http://www.makeitworkcampaign.org/terms-of-service/.
4. “Tracy Sturdivant.” HuffPost. Accessed March 17, 2020. https://www.huffpost.com/author/tracy-sturdivant.
5. “Tracy Sturdivant.” SXSW 2020 Schedule. Accessed March 17, 2020.   https://schedule.sxsw.com/2020/speakers/2024226.
6. “The League.” The League. Accessed March 17, 2020. https://www.wearetheleague.org/.
7. “Tracy Sturdivant.” Netroots Nation. Accessed March 17, 2020. https://www.netrootsnation.org/profile/tracy-sturdivant/.
8. “The Immersive Design Summit.” The Immersive Design Summit. Accessed March 17, 2020. https://immersivedesignsummit.com/.
9. “New Gender Justice Narrative Research Project Releases Data and Advocacy Tools.” The Women’s Foundation of California, March 14, 2020. https://womensfoundca.org/news/story-scale-gender-justice/.
10. “The League.” Good Pitch. Accessed March 17, 2020. https://goodpitch.org/orgs/the-league.
11. “The League.” Pop Culture Collaborative. Accessed March 17, 2020. https://popcollab.org/grantee/the-league-2/.
12. “Storytelling Grant Highlights.” Compton Foundation. Accessed March 26, 2020. https://www.comptonfoundation.org/grants-awarded/grant-highlights/storytelling-grant-highlights/.