April 7, 2021
Supermajority Education Fund, a nonprofit project fiscally sponsored by New Venture Fund, provides resources, training, and education to help women—especially young women and women of color—tap into their power so they can become change leaders in their communities and take action to protect our democracy.
Established in 2019, the Supermajority Education Fund has quickly amassed a group of 4 million women supporters—and these women are now helping set a powerful agenda for leaders to follow.
How did Supermajority build such a powerful coalition so quickly? By ensuring that women have the resources, research, and community they need to make change in their communities, workplaces, and the voting booth.
Just last year, Supermajority Education Fund launched Majority Leaders, a program to train young, racially-diverse women leaders who are committed to achieving gender equity in their communities.
During the seven-week leadership development program, participants in Majority Leaders received training on equity-building topics such as relational organizing, combatting disinformation, and the importance of centering women of color in the work of gender equity. More than 2,000 women applied to the program, a formative experience for emerging leaders. Out of those applicants, 1,500 joined the program, a third of which were new to organizing.
After completing the Majority Leaders program, participants noted in surveys that the program helped them to see themselves as leaders in their communities, have the knowledge to make change, and provided the skills to take action to protect our democracy.
Ariana, one of these emerging leaders, said, “The Majority Leaders program was a really pivotal moment in my life. It was actually the third training where we learned the Majority Rules that inspired me to leave my role at the law firm I was employed at in Washington, D.C. and seek new opportunities. I was fortunate enough to take what I learned in this program and join the Iowa Democratic Party as a Digital Organizer, where I led the phone banking program for the coordinated campaign between Joe Biden and Theresa Greenfield.”
Having 4 million women as part of their group has provided a deep bench for the fund to conduct actionable research and identify the top issues women want leaders to prioritize. The What Women Want 2020 list, released in advance of the 2020 election, showed that women want leaders to prioritize and address systemic racism and inequality; provide immediate and long-term economic relief; expedite access to quality, affordable health care; and protect and expand the right to vote.
In 2021, Supermajority will prioritize advocating for economic relief for women in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Women, particularly women of color, have faced the greatest fallout from COVID-19’s economic devastation. In 2020, women lost 5 million jobs—and just in December, Black and Latina women accounted for all job losses recorded that month.
Supermajority will also focus on amplifying the impactful stories of these women, like the story of the many mothers that have had to make the difficult decision of leaving their jobs in order to take care for their families. The organization will demand that the government provide the relief women need to support their families and stay safe.
Ensuring Long-lasting Multi-Racial Coalitions of Women
Along with providing resources, training, and education to help women tap into their power through its Education Fund, Supermajority also supports women becoming political activists through its 501(c)(4) arm.
For organizations like Supermajority and others to thrive, it’s essential that they look like the communities they serve. To build a multi-racial coalition of women, organizations must have people of diverse backgrounds represented within their own organization first.
Supermajority’s executive director, Amanda Brown Lierman, says, “Multi-racial organizing is not easy work, but it is necessary work. And we know that we don’t have all the answers, but we believe that we can work together to find them by listening, learning, and uplifting stories that are different from our own.”
By having women, particularly women of color, at the decision-making table, organizations like Supermajority can advocate for programs and policies that are intersectional and reflect a variety of experiences, as those are the policies, processes, and structures that do the most good.
