Open Your Tent for Supporters Wide, Says Leader of Progressive Group

Vanessa Daniel thinks the reproductive-rights movement has it all wrong in focusing too narrowly on abortion and contraception rights.

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“It’s very hard to build a wide and expansive, numerically significant base when you’re only inviting people in through a single-issue door,” she says.

She started the Groundswell Fund to raise money for grassroots organizing groups that link reproductive rights with other progressive issues like environmental justice, civil rights, criminal justice, immigration, and LGBTQ rights. Since its founding in 2003, the fund has awarded $32 million in grants, mostly to groups led by women of color, low-income women, and transgender people.

Conventional thinking that single-issue groups are more effective underestimates the average person’s ability to deal with complexity, Ms. Daniel argues.

“Young people get it immediately,” she says. “It’s almost like, ‘What do you mean LGBT rights are over here and economic justice is over here?’ They really see the connections.”