Organizing for National Impact

Strengthening Democracy

Responding to an urgent and imperative need to renovate our democracy.

National Impact works to strengthen American democracy through three interconnected pillars: research and intelligence that grounds the movement in community needs and ecosystem realities, practitioner networks that center state-level leaders as primary decision-makers, and strategic coordination that ensures the democracy ecosystem works together rather than in silos. Each pillar reinforces the others, creating a comprehensive approach to democracy renovation that is grassroots-centered, strategically coordinated, and built for long-term impact.

// PILLAR ONE

Research & Intelligence

National Impact’s Research and Intelligence work is foundational to the democracy ecosystem. Our leading work of State Democracy Scorecards and Landscape Analysis Reports provide critical information not just to the three prongs of our work (Respect Voters Coalition, State Renovators Table, and Council on Common Purpose) but also to the larger democracy ecosystem.

The State Democracy Scorecard is a comprehensive diagnostic of the health of democracy in a given state, measured against PID’s 360° Democracy Standard. It integrates expert analysis of existing policy with community-based intelligence gathering to produce a multi-layered diagnosis of democracy deficits.

The State Democracy Landscape Analysis maps the democracy ecosystem of a given state: its actors, activities, and expertise. This shared intelligence allows a variety of organizations to identify complementary approaches, eliminate duplication, discover opportunities for collaboration, and make informed decisions about where to invest capacity and resources. Where the scorecard diagnoses what needs fixing, the landscape analysis identifies who can fix it and how.

// PILLAR TWO

State Networks

By linking them with the larger democracy ecosystem, we help our state partners coordinate their work and learn from renovation and reform efforts in other states. These connections also help grow durable networks and ongoing coalitions, rather than single-issue campaigns.

The Respect Voters Coalition (RVC) is a practitioner-led network dedicated to protecting, strengthening, renovating, and expanding the ballot initiative process across the United States. Since its formation, RVC has convened ballot initiative practitioners through five coalition meetings.

(November 2024 through April 2025), building a comprehensive understanding of what works and what fails in direct democracy campaigns. The coalition operates through a four-pillar strategic framework: Defend (protect existing processes from legislative attacks), strengthen (build grassroots organizing capacity), renovate (modernize processes for accessibility), and expand (bring meaningful ballot initiative processes to new states).

The State Renovators Table is a peer-led network of state-based democracy leaders committed to reorienting the pro-democracy ecosystem around grassroots needs rather than national, single-issue agendas. Rather than serving as extensions of siloed national campaigns focused on “silver bullet” solutions, these state renovators are building pluralistic, cross-ideological Democracy First coalitions that stitch together currently fragmented policy areas, including both renovation and protection efforts.

// PILLAR THREE

Council on Common Purpose

The Council on Common Purpose serves as the strategic coordination hub for democracy renovation work across the United States. By bringing together national renovators, protectors, and state practitioners, the Council catalyzes a healthy constitutional democracy through coordinated action at both federal and state levels, with particular focus on identifying and supporting high-impact opportunities in tipping point states.

The Council serves as the coordination mechanism for aligning priorities across the democracy ecosystem. Through regular convenings, Council members identify shared strategic opportunities at federal and state levels, coordinate response to emerging threats and opportunities through rapid response protocols, develop shared narrative frameworks that bridge protection and renovation messaging, and create visibility into organizational activities through shared calendars and dashboards.

The Council explicitly works to strengthen connections between federal and state-level democracy work. State democracies, through their election laws and civic culture, shape the incentives for federally elected representatives. Yet federal and state renovators often operate in isolation from each other. The Council bridges this gap by coordinating federal advocacy campaigns with state-level implementation support, ensuring federal policy proposals account for state implementation realities, creating pathways for state practitioners to inform federal strategy, and mobilizing national resources to support state-level opportunities.

The Council recognizes that election protection and democracy renovation must work in tandem rather than as separate tracks. While protection groups focus on immediate threats, renovation organizations work toward structural change. The Council creates space for these communities to identify how protection work can incorporate renovation elements, position renovation goals as necessary responses to system vulnerabilities that protection work exposes, coordinate messaging so protection narratives don’t inadvertently defend dysfunctional status quo, and ensure both communities understand threats and opportunities in real-time.

// LATEST NEWS

NEWSROOM

PID MA Action Adds David Green as Interim Organizing Director

David will lead the PID MA Action organizing team as it works to pass four ballot measures in November.
MAPLE Launches Free Legislative Hearing Transcripts

Transcripts of all MA state legislative hearings are now accessible with a new feature of MAPLE, the Massachusetts Platform for Legislative Engagement.
Statement on Killings of Alex Pretti & Renee Good

The killing of Alex Pretti and Renee Good at the hands of federal agents in Minnesota is a tragedy for their loved ones and for all of us who treasure our unalienable rights of life and liberty.
Democracy Renovation Questions Advance Toward 2026 MA Ballot

MA’s Secretary of State announced that all four key democracy renovation ballot measures have taken the next step toward the November 2026 ballot.
Statement on Murder of Charlie Kirk

The horrifying murder of Charlie Kirk is a dark tragedy for him, his family, and our nation. We wholeheartedly condemn his assassination and call on all of us to choose non-violence.
Partners in Democracy Expands Statewide Organizing Team

June 20, 2025 (Boston) — Partners in Democracy, a leader in democracy renovation in Massachusetts and in states around the country, has welcomed Annika Jensen as Organizing Manager and Deysi Gutierrez as Coalition Organizer.
Partners In Democracy Hires New, Full-time President & CEO

Cambridge, MA — At a time when state-level efforts to protect democracy are more critical than ever, Partners In Democracy is investing to ramp up its democracy renovation work. PID is pleased to announce the hiring of Jerren Chang as the organization’s new, full-time President and CEO.