About Empower Fund

Empower Fund is a national leader in non-partisan, friend-to-friend relational organizing—helping people strengthen trust, build connections, and engage their communities through shared values.

Organizing Empowerment Fund Inc. is a section 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

Learn about our programs
Two women sitting outside on a yellow bench, wearing sun hats and clothing, looking at a smartphone, with greenery and a birdhouse in the background on a sunny day.
Green asterisk-shaped icon with eight points on a black background.
A pink asterisk or star shape with eight points on a black background.

Who we are

Empower Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to advancing community-centered civic engagement through personal connection. Our work focuses on empowering people to engage those they know and trust—friends, family members, neighbors, and peers—in thoughtful conversations that inform, inspire, and activate participation in public life.

Non-partisan engagement grounded in shared values

Relational organizing that centers trust and personal connection

Community-driven education led by people within one’s network

Three people sitting at a wooden table in a cafe, two women and one man, engaged in conversation, with drinks and a small flower vase on the table.

What we do

A large red billboard with white text that reads, "Community is Strength." There is a smaller line of text below that states, "Be strong. Let's look out for one another." The billboard is mounted on a black wall beneath a building with large windows.

Since our founding, Empower Fund has partnered with hundreds of organizations—ranging from grassroots groups to national networks—to strengthen civic participation through relationship-based engagement. We provide strategic guidance, technical support, and innovative tools that help organizations reach people in ways that are personal, credible, and effective.

Our commitment is rooted in the understanding that lasting change starts with relationships. Empower Fund doesn’t just mobilize people—we help them connect, educate, and inspire those around them. Through our flagship tools and programs, we equip individuals to lead transformative conversations that bridge divides, inform communities, and encourage active participation in public life.

Through our flagship programs and tools, we equip leaders and community members to:

Two people holding hands with a heart above them

Facilitate informed, values-based conversations

Cartoon illustration of three people with one person having a checkmark above their head.

Encourage participation that is grounded in trust and understanding

Four people standing in a line holding a flag.

Bridge divides and reduce polarization

Empowering communities since 2011

  • In 2011, our team was looking for a new way to find and engage hard-to-reach people to help them register to vote.  We revived the age-old idea of relational organizing with a modern twist to get in touch with the people that weren’t listed on the voter file, but their friends and family knew how to get to them. It soon became clear that a tool was needed to track these efforts so we built the first version of what would eventually become the Empower App - the first relational organizing tool in the industry. Empower remains the most tested relational organizing tool with a world-class development team to back it up.

  • After seeing the success of these programs grow, we initiated a research partnership with an independent research firm, Analyst Institute, to quantify the efficacy of this style of communication.  The first experimental returns prove very promising.

  • By 2018, we conducted eight more experiments to test the efficacy of relational programs and found that a relational approach had a particularly significant impact on youth, BIPOC, and highly mobile communities.

  • In 2020 alone, we reached 1 million people using relational organizing, forever transforming the way the progressive movement organizes.

  • In addition to providing tech and training to our partners, we engaged 13,000+ volunteers to promote vaccine access and education, resulting in 55,000 confirmed relational organizing connections.

  • We ran successful non-partisan paid relational friend-to-friend programs in Pennsylvania and Kentucky, resulting in hundreds of thousands of conversations. Our programs in Pennsylvania and Kentucky are the first of their kind and size to happen in each state.

  • In 2024, Empower Fund activated thousands of Community Mobilizers across the country, each working within their own friends and family to foster informed conversations around issues that matter most. These individuals engaged family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors in discussions about public services, local priorities, and the broader importance of participating in civic life.

  • Empower Fund continues to work with groups in all 50 states to plan and implement effective friend-to-friend programs while we continue to spearhead the largest and most successful direct relational programs in history.

Learn more about partnering with us

Some of the organizations we’ve partnered with

Whether you’re part of a grassroots organization, a national network, or simply curious about relational organizing, we’d love to connect.

Connect with us