Fuse Innovation Fund Programs
Communications Hub Capacity and Training
Fuse works with the Win Win network to operate a “communications hub” designed to strengthen the progressive community’s communications capacity. The hub provides communications support for targeted advocacy campaigns, including: generating earned media and online and new media actions, providing message training for coalition members, and leveraging communications programming from coalition members. It also offers tools to support other groups’ work including: message development, training, a research library of poll and focus group results, a media contacts database, and a training program focused on online communications strategies.
Our Economic Future Coalition
Fuse organizes the progressive community’s coordinated response to Washington’s fiscal crisis. The Our Economic Future Coalition’s goal is to achieve more balanced solutions to our state’s fiscal crisis -- protecting critical state investments and services from devastating cuts, and building a state revenue system that is less regressive, more stable, and adequate to fund the essential functions of state government
We organize a coalition of over 100 groups, with a combined field, advocacy, and communications program. The Coalition’s work targets both the public and decision makers, and includes a significant research component aimed at identifying the solutions and messages that build public support for our goals.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
The 2010 Legislature faced one of the steepest budget challenges in the country, and had to adopt substantial revenue increases or make devastating cuts to health care, education, and environmental programs. Fuse coordinated an ambitious advocacy campaign that led legislators to approve $800 million in new revenues. We organized a coalition of over 100 groups, with a combined field, advocacy and communications program.
Our campaign generated extensive grassroots input, including a coalition rally of 6,000 people at the state capitol. We also generated extensive earned media coverage about why new revenues were required to protect our kids and the environment, care for the elderly and invest in the future. A progressive caucus of House members supported by Fuse played a pivotal role in achieving a higher level of new revenues, preventing much steeper cuts and a much deeper hole the following biennium.
On the needs front, Fuse needs a database that can bridge our online organizing and contributions platform with our offline organizing and fundraising efforts. It’s crucial to our ability to manage relationships, organize people, move volunteers up a leadership ladder, and expand our fundraising. A system that system that can synchronize our offline and online giving and action data is now available – combining Salesforce with Convio’s Common Ground interface, and we are working to finalize an RFP for designing and building the database architecture.