News about our Foundation

MAY 27, 2022: Doug Phelps, president and executive director of The Public Interest Network, announces the Fund for the Public Interest Foundation.

An update from Doug Phelps, president and executive director of The Public Interest Network

MAY 27, 2022

I wanted to let you know about the Fund for the Public Interest Foundation, created by The Public Interest Network and Fund for the Public Interest.

Fund for the Public Interest has been our network’s engine for organization-building via civic engagement since 1984. The mission of the Fund Foundation is to support the civic engagement efforts of like-minded organizations and allies, helping them make a difference and strengthen themselves through the process of building public support for specific causes.

Now, the Fund Foundation expects to pass two milestones:

  • $5.5 million in direct grantee support
  • 200 total grants, to these and many more great organizations:

The Fund Foundation’s programs include:

  • Direct and In-Kind Grants, which we’ve contributed to efforts like Marked by COVID’s ongoing amplification of the stories of loved ones lost to the virus, in order to promote accountability to public health guidelines;
  • Emergency Fund, which in moments of acute need has supported community groups and wildlife rescue and rehabilitation services; and
  • Calling for Action, through which The Public Interest Network’s groups donate our old-school telephone calling capacity to help organizations in our states and communities of interest to build and demonstrate support for timely causes.

The Fund Foundation’s Calling For Action program taps our network’s trademark expertise in grassroots outreach. To date, Calling For Action has donated $2.5 million in calling grants to groups ranging from Georgia River Network and Wild Montana Action to Generation 180 and the Solar Rights Alliance. And through 2021, the calling made possible by these grants has resulted in more than 114,000 phone actions — such as petitions signed over the phone or patched-through citizen calls to decision makers’ offices — for causes ranging from protecting student borrowers in Massachusetts to defending rooftop solar in Florida, most recently.

For more information about the Fund Foundation and the great groups and civic engagement work we’ve supported, please visit our website.

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