Advocacy plays an essential role in maintaining a strong and vibrant democracy — a task that is more important than ever. So, as we prepare for the enormous challenges posed by the incoming administration, allow me to set the record straight about Sixteen Thirty Fund.
There’s no better window into who we are, how we work, and the values we uphold than our annual tax returns, and we filed our 2023 990 form this week. From protecting abortion and voting rights to providing support for groups combatting climate change, Sixteen Thirty Fund continued to make progress on the biggest challenges our country faced in 2023.
As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, Sixteen Thirty Fund’s mission is to create meaningful and lasting solutions to the most pressing challenges of our time. We use a fiscal sponsorship model to achieve our mission, providing advocates and frontline organizations with the tools, resources, and operational capacity to efficiently and effectively pursue change. This model allows our projects to be nimble and rapidly respond when fundamental rights are thrown into jeopardy.
There was no shortage of these threats in 2023, and Sixteen Thirty Fund took action alongside our projects and grantees to lay the foundation necessary to defend our rights in 2024. We jumped in to support organizers on the ground in states like Missouri, Nebraska, Montana, and Florida as they prepared to bring key policies — like abortion rights, paid sick leave, and fair congressional maps — directly to voters. It takes time and resources to put issues on the ballot, and our early investments in these efforts contributed to local organizations’ success.
For instance, starting in 2023, Montanans Securing Reproductive Freedom began organizing a campaign to guarantee reproductive rights and collected more than 70,000 signatures to secure an abortion rights initiative on this November’s ballot. In Nebraska, voters collected more than 130,000 signatures to expand workers’ rights and paid sick leave in the state. Missourians for Healthy Families and Fair Wages sprang into action and submitted more than 210,000 signatures to get Proposition A on the state’s ballot this November, which aimed to raise minimum wage and expand paid sick leave for workers of Missouri. We’re proud to have their backs in those fights.
Oftentimes, Sixteen Thirty Fund projects even the playing field for everyday people by lobbying for policy change on a variety of issues ranging from gun safety to public education funding to paid family and medical leave. In 2023, we spent nearly $5.5 million on lobbying to support these efforts, but we also recognize that advocacy alone only gets us so far — sometimes it depends on getting the right people elected. And while it is not our primary purpose, projects that partner with us sometimes engage in political campaigns and elections. Our contributions to groups like Future Forward and Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy PAC aid in efforts to promote civic engagement and bolster our democracy.
We recognize that our campaign finance system needs to be changed. Sixteen Thirty Fund has been on the record actively supporting a massive rewrite of the rules to provide more transparency and disclosure in our elections. As we prepare to welcome the 119th Congress, Sixteen Thirty Fund will continue to advocate for reform that restores faith in our campaign finance system. No matter where you fall on the ideological spectrum, everyone reaps the benefits of democracy and transparency.
As we head into 2025, this type of pro-democracy and pro-transparency reform is more important than ever. The threats to our democracy are more serious, calculated, and aggressive than before, but Sixteen Thirty Fund’s projects and grantees will continue to defend our freedoms and do what we can to expand civil liberties and opportunities for all. We’re proud to support them every step of the way.
