Building Up Democracy: A Conversation with JPB Foundation’s Arianna Jimenez

Below is an excerpt from a recent conversation between JPB program leader Arianna Jiménez and Inside Philanthropy. Arianna Jiménez is the Senior Vice President of the JPB Foundation’s Democracy, Gender, and Racial Justice program. You can read more here.

[Inside Philanthropy] How would you describe the JPB Foundation’s approach to democracy programming?

[AJ]:We’re trying to balance the acute challenges for this election year with long-term, chronic challenges, so we have been attentive to moving tens of millions of dollars in civic engagement work at the same time that we’re working on developing a longer-term strategy that links the democracy work to communities that are working to build power.

The democracy ecosystem and philanthropy has been very focused on short-term election and civic engagement work: GOTV, voter registration. Those are incredibly important pieces, but without longer-term engagement in states and communities, there’s not an opportunity to build the kind of power necessary to build a strong democracy that meets the needs of all communities.

We want to impress upon people the importance of getting out of the boom-and-bust cycle of focusing on election years and impress upon people the importance of giving stable, multi-year grants, year over year…. One way that historically marginalized people are able to express their power is by voting. But it’s not the only way, nor should it be. JPB takes a much more expansive view of democracy to include not only elections, but government and the institutions that organize civil society. We’re focused on how the JPB Foundation, and philanthropy generally, take responsibility for supporting and building a healthy democracy in every state, every year.