The National Network Assembly is a Democratic Party-aligned organization that hosts an annual meeting of left-of-center organizations and operates a weekly Sunday webinar in the same vein.
Background
The National Network Assembly’s flagship event is its annual meeting of staffers from left-of-center organizations. Typically, meetings last for four days and consist of presentations and workshops oriented toward assisting organizations in their pursuit of various liberal causes. Examples of past technically oriented workshops include “Making Friends with the Facebook Algorithm,” “Data Futurism: On Grassroots Technology, Consent Culture, and Afrofuturism.” Past policy-driven workshops include “Gun Violence Prevention Movement Priorities and Calls to Action,” “With and for our immigrant community,” “Dismantling white supremacy: strategy session,” and “The South is Key to Winning Rural America.” Other past sessions, directly oriented at helping organizations work with and for Democratic Party groups include “Building Relationships with Democratic Party Groups” and “How to Register Democrats with Field Team 6.” 1
As of May 30, 2022, the official website of the National Network Assembly, referenced in the organization’s Facebook and Instagram pages, is no longer accessible. 2 3 4
The Sunday Network Assembly
The Sunday Network Assembly, the organization’s weekly Sunday webinar, like the organization’s annual meeting, both draws upon for presentations and caters largely to center and left-of-center organizations. Past webinar titles include “White Accomplice Community of Practice,” “Swell Collective: Reclaiming Personal Power During World Chaos,” “Connecting Mutual Aid with Campaigning: How Covid 19 has changed the way we work,” and “Indigenous Political Engagement Summit: Updates and What’s Next.” 5
Participating Organizations
Organizations with staff members who have presented at the National Network Assembly annual meeting include Democracy Partners, a political consulting firm founded by Robert Creamer, a longtime liberal campaign operative married to U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) who pleaded guilty to bank fraud in 2005, and former Clinton White House aide Mike Lux; RagTag, a group of left-of-center programmers and lawyers who volunteer to provide technical development and support for left-wing groups; Field Team 6, a pro-Democratic Party get-out-the-vote group that seeks to maintain Democratic control of the U.S. Congress; March for Our Lives, a gun control advocacy network founded and fronted by survivors of the 2018 Parkland, Florida, high school mass shooting; The Sunrise Movement, a left-wing environmentalist advocacy organization that endorses liberal and far-left Democratic Party candidates for public office; Black Voters Matter Fund, a social welfare group that advocates for increased voter registration within African-American communities; Center for Popular Democracy, a left-of-center organization involved in voter mobilization and policy development supportive of the Green New Deal; and Democracy Labs, a project of Tides Advocacy that that provides polling data and voter file information to liberal and progressive politicians running for office. 6
Action Together Network
The National Network Assembly’s fiscal sponsor though which it accepts donations is the Action Together Network, a network of left-progressive activists and organizations founded in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election and led by New Jersey-based activist Andrea Catone.
Notably, however, the Action Together Network is in turn fiscally sponsored by the Movement Voter Project, a 501(c)(4) left-progressive donor-oriented voter-turnout group, which employs Catone as its director of donor organizing. 7 8 9
References
- “Public Session View.” Airtable. Accessed May 30, 2022. https://airtable.com/shrPgoG3cwlint0TV/tblYYsYa7IaVvcLy3.
- Homepage. The National Network Assembly. Accessed May 30, 2022. https://www.nationalnetworkassembly.org/.
- National Network Assembly. Facebook. Accessed May 30, 2022. https://www.facebook.com/NationalNetworkAssembly/.
- National Network Assembly. Instagram. Accessed May 30, 2022. https://www.instagram.com/nationalnetworkassembly/.
- “The Sunday Network Assembly.” The National Network Assembly. Accessed May 30, 2022. https://nna2020.swellcollective.org/.
- “NNA Presenters Public Gallery.” Airtable. Accessed May 30, 2022. https://airtable.com/shrZwNZvi8dJGOZ3m/tbllVr7vmdPdK2K1k.
- “Action Together Network.” ActBlue. Accessed May 30, 2022. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/atn.
- “Andrea Catone.” National Network Assembly. Accessed May 30, 2022. https://nna2019.sched.com/speaker/andrea793.
- “The 2020 National Network Assembly.” ActBlue. 2020. Accessed May 30, 2022. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/nationalnetworkassembly.