New Progressive Coalition Announces Changes

NPC is restructuring to focus exclusively on progressive donors who want to be effective political investors in social change. Emailed press release below. 

NPC is restructuring and entering a new phase. We have listened closely to the needs of both our individual and organization members. Individuals told us that they are still overwhelmed with information and donation requests and want to better understand the impact of their giving. Organizations told us that their biggest obstacle is still fundraising. After considering these challenges, we’ve decided that NPC can be most valuable to the progressive movement by focusing solely on cultivating a new generation of political investors.

Going forward we will be providing products and services exclusively to individuals wanting to target their political and charitable money and time more effectively. NPC’s focus will be on transforming donors into political investors by helping them make smarter decisions about how to invest in political change.

We will be opening up the NPC marketplace to any and all progressive organizations, free of charge. Our hope is that many more organizations will be able to benefit from NPC's resources and visibility and individual members will have more choices for investment opportunities.

As a result, NPC will cease, as of May 10, 2007, to provide direct services to organizations. NPC's team that serviced organization members, Ludovic Blain, Deborah Schneider, and Tom Taylor, will be moving on to other opportunities. I want to personally thank them for helping so many organizations, aggregating hundreds of resources that will benefit the progressive movement for years to come, and for making NPC what it is today. If you would like to reach out to them directly, their contact information is listed below.

We encourage organizations to keep their profiles updated as we continue to build our online presence. We will be announcing a plan shortly that will provide the capability for any organization to post their profiles in the NPC marketplace and access resources formerly only open to members. For current organization members, we will be issuing pro-rated refunds.

Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to entering this new phase with your help. Please let us know if you have any other questions or feedback.

Best regards,

Kirstin Falk
Chief Executive Officer

Comments

[klaus]

Democratic progress is best measured by charting the growth of the PROI polloi.

[Phil]

Or the populace crushed like grapes to make wine.

[klaus]

Ya gotta wonder.

For instance, Ludovic Blain, who has apparently joined MOOO, the brand new progressive organization "Moved On to Other Opportunities," seemed kinda hyped about PROI just one month ago:

http://www.ludovicspeaks.com/2007/04/my_job_featured.html

Wrong kind of return, I guess.

[Phil]

Thanks, Klaus, blogged it.

[Ludovic Blain]

Klaus, that was a potshot. Typical lurker style, just wanted to call it out when i saw it.

Phil, as you said in another post, "No good deed goes unpunished."

I've taken risks in my progressive career, and am proud about what I've learned, and what the movement has learned, from each one, even those, like NPC, that haven't worked. I've started up environmental justice groups, media justice groups, and worked on other issues before they were well-known or well-funded. My tenure at NPC had as a goal to shake giving away from people like you who, as you said, don't want a political return.

You apparently have the luxury to wish to go back to democracy in Athens. Many of us don't have your privilege to be wistful, and need to change politics, change policies, and change societies. Here in the real world we need political change, and to pursue all strategies to achieve it.

Lastly, Phil, you seem to be showing the same naivete about politics here as you are in the post on change.org. And when your critiques of philanthropy reinforce it's ineffective boundaries, you do us all a diservice. If only the religious fundamentalist, corporate and supremacist right wings limited their strategies to your vision, we'd all be in a better place.

[Phil Cubeta]

Thanks, Ludovic, for framing the issues so starkly. I think we agree that Machiavellian politics are the norm with both parties and with your "progressivism" as well. Those who stand against it are pre-political - outcasts from the process altogether. In the symbolism here, I as Diogenes live in a Dumpster, cast out like our democratic traditions. I can feel in your comment your disdain for what I stand for. I welcome that and encourage you to think through your contempt of democracy and to articulate it clearly.

[klaus]

Hi Ludovic. Thanks for calling me out, I've been cooped up here too long. A "lurker" is somebody who subscribes to a mailing list, and reads but never posts. I think you meant "troll." I thought you had been fired against your will, after naively supporting an agenda that led to your dismissal. I wasn't taking a potshot, I guess I just read everything too quickly. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I have to say, though, that the remark from the other post -"If politics are lost on you, let the folks play the game who know it" - seems kind of egregious.

[Phil]

Leaving politics to the oligarchs and their faithful servants is the one thing both parties agree upon. "Butt out, Citizen," is the message. "And, send money. We are not interested in your opinions; we will use the money we raise to manufacture the public opinion."