Application # B9715
Charlottesville Area Community Foundation
Grant Application
Application Name: VADP Grassroots Education - 139715
Organization Name: Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Inc
Fiscal Sponsor:
Organization ID# 94178
Application Party ID: 128399
Contact Person
Michael Stone
Contact Person Phone
434-960-7779
Contact Person Email
office@ vadp.org
Primary Contact
Michael Stone
Project Name
VADP Public Education 2020 Project
Please categorize your request based on the primary use of funds.
General Operations
Requested Amount
$10,000.00
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Application # B9715
What is the primary impact area for the project for which you are seeking funding?
Civic Engagement
Please indicate what locale you are primarily serving?
Locales
Albemarle Co.
Charlottesville City
Fluvanna Co.
Greene Co.
Nelson Co.
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Please summarize your funding request in a clear and concise paragraph (3-4 sentences) and include the
following information: a. Primary purpose of the funding request (name of project, general operations,
capacity building, etc.) b. Brief description of the need, program and/or project, and the target population
c. Description of intended impact of the program and/or project
VADP is a nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) citizen organization dedicated to educating the public about
alternatives to the death penalty. Our goal is to end capital punishment in Virginia through
education, organizing, and advocacy, becoming the first Southern state to abolish the death penalty.
We seek funding for our Public Education 2020 Project.
Funding will enable the VADP Field Director to educate grassroots civic, business, faith, and political
leaders in key legislative districts about flaws in the capital system and mobilize them to work for
repeal of the death penalty. Constituent advocacy across the political spectrum in key areas of the
state is essential to win bipartisan approval of abolition.
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Application # B9715
What current trends, needs, or challenges are you seeing in the community that your
program/organization will address? Please use local data to illustrate.
On J anuary 17, 2019 the Virginia state Senate approved, on a bipartisan 23-17 vote, a bill that would
exempt people with severe mental illness (SMI) from the death penalty. This was the first time in the
Commonwealth's history that a legislative chamber had voted to restrict capital punishment.
This vote was the culmination of three years of work with a coalition of Virginia mental health
organizations including NAMI Virginia, Mental Heath America of Virginia, Virginia Counselors
Association, and other groups. The public education work done by the VADP Field Director within
the districts of two Senators was crucial to winning their votes to support the SMI exemption bill.
The November 2019 state election produced a General Assembly that is far more likely to support
reform and abolition of capital punishment.
Bills have now been filed in both the House of Delegates and Senate to enact an SMI exemption to
the death penalty and another to abolish capital punishment. The Governor has said he would sign
these bills if they came to his desk.
Virginia has a clear path to victory in the 2020 or 2021 legislative session - if we can continue to build
public support for death penalty abolition among grassroots leaders in several legislative districts.
The greater Charlottesville area is one of these key areas where increasing public education can gain
greater constituent support for abolition.
Please indicate the population(s) that you primarily intend to serve using the requested funding. Please
include specific details about the demographics.
The VADP Public Education 2020 project will target the legislative districts of Delegates and Senators
who are key swing votes on the House and Senate Courts of J ustice Committees. The members of
these two committees must first pass bills to reform and/or abolish the death penalty before they
can be debated by the full House of Delegates and Senate.
Two legislators represent significant parts of the greater Charlottesville community: Del. Robert B.
Bell (House District 58) represents Albemarle County (part), Fluvanna County (part), and Greene
County (all). Senator R. Creigh Deeds (Senate District 25) represents Albemarle County (part),
Charlottesville City (all), and Nelson County (all).
The Public Education 2020 Project will engage key constituents in these areas as well as other Virginia
districts of legislators who will vote on death penalty-related bills.
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Application # B9715
Project Details: who, what, when, where, how
During the proposed grant year the VADP Field Director will provide educational programs to at least
1,000 people. He will also meet individually with at least 50 local civic, business, faith, and political
leaders
Our first priority will be to engage those who are already actively involved in the political process
through Republican, Libertarian, and Democratic Party organizations. Our second priority is to
engage influential "grasstop" figures such as faith community leaders, business owners, and civic
group members like the Rotary, Ruritan, and similar local organizations.
Based on past experience, we believe that at least 300 of the influential people reached through this
Public Education 2020 Project will join the 2,400 existing VADP supporters here in Virginia.
Total Project Budget
$44,800.00
Total Organizational Budget
$154,818.00
Project Start Date
7/9/2020
Project End Date
6/30/2021
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Please describe how you are engaging the people most impacted by your program/organization as
partners or co-creators of the program.
VADP's work and programs are guided by several constituencies -- capital defense attorneys, murder
victim family members, exonerees (i.e., those wrongly convicted of murder in Virginia), and our
legislative coalition partners.
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Application # B9715
The Virginia Catholic Conference and ACLU of Virginia are our closest allies. In addition, anumber of
mental health organizations -- principally NAMI Virginia - are partners in the work to exempt people
with severe mental illness from capital punishment.
Rapidly growing opposition to the death penalty (as measured by public opinion polls) is an
important additional element that guides our messaging and program design.
Recent historical research by VADP on use of the death penalty by the 133 local political jurisdictions
in Virginia helps us understand how prosecutors use capital murder charges in their communities.
For example, 19 localities (14% have never had an execution. Another 15 localities (12% have not had
an execution in over 100 years. Only 46 jurisdictions (35% have had an execution in the past 50
years.
Here are the last execution years for localities in the greater Charlottesville area:
* Charlottesville (1952)
* Albemarle (1922)
* Buckingham (1992)
* Fluvanna (1936)
* Greene (2000)
* Louisa (1902)
* Nelson (1942)
* Orange (1922)
Please describe your planned work (outputs) and how you will measure your progress toward each.
The VADP Field Director will present at least 25 public education events to at least 1000 people in
target legislative districts (including Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Fluvanna County, Greene
County, and Nelson County).
Meet individually with at least 50 local faith, business, and civic leaders in these same target
legislative districts.
The Field Director will submit a weekly written report to the VADP Executive Director and meet at
least once a month with him. In addition, the Field Director maintains a shared Google document
that lists each presentation, location, and number in attendance as well as a list of meetings with
local leaders and their outcomes.
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What outcomes do you expect to see as a result of this work? Note: outcomes measure the level of change
that occurred as a result of your planned work.
Based on past experience, we expect that at least 400 of the 1,000 attending our public education
events will sign up with VADP. In addition, we expect to identify at least 25 local leaders who will
contact their elected legislators to advocate for death reform and/or abolition bills.
How do you anticipate these outcomes will impact the target population? Note: impact measures the long-
term value of the outcomes on the population engaged, or how the outcomes changed the wider
community.
Those who join VADP will receive regular communications via e-mail and postal mail about our
progress toward death penalty reform and abolition as well as action alerts to contact their
legislators on key legislation.
We anticipate that this new information will enable them to be more effective citizen-advocates for
criminal justice reform.
Are you aware of other organizations doing this work? If so, please describe why your organization is
particularly well positioned to do this work/carry out these goals at this time?
VADP, established in 1991, is the only organization dedicated solely to abolition of the death penalty
in Virginia.
VADP leads a coalition of organizations that share this goal including the Virginia Catholic
Conference, ACLU of Virginia, and J ustice Forward Virginia.
VADP also works with a number of mental health organizations to exempt people with severe
mental illness from the death penalty. These groups include NAMI Virginia, Mental Heath America of
Virginia, and Virginia Counselors Association.
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Meeting recurring costs:
The $40,000 salary for the VADP Field Director is the major expense for this Project.
For the past three years VADP has received financial support for this project from the Sisters of Bon
Secours and Daughters of Wisdom. Each of these religious institutions have fully funded our grant
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Application # B9715
requests in the past three years. However, due to time limits, neither is able to provide additional
support in 2020.
Weare now asking Bama Works to provide funds to continue this work. VADP will also submit a
grant request to Ben and J erry's Foundation for this Project.
In addition, VADP is working with a pro bono fundraising consultant to identify existing donors who
have the capacity to greatly increase their giving to our work.
Finally, VADP board members are planning a series of "friend-raising" events where the Executive
Director will meet with small groups of potential supporters in Roanoke and other parts of the
Commonwealth during 2020.
New Program Costs beyond this Grant:
N/A
If you have a budget surplus that exceeds your organization's funding request, please explain the need for
funding at this time?
In 2019 VADP income exceeded expenses by only $503. In 2020 we must replace $35,000 in grants
from two sources for which we are no longer eligible for funding.
Additional Information:
Since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the states to reintroduce capital punishment in 1976, Virginia
has executed 113 people - second behind only Texas. Those sentenced to death are overwhelming
poor, people of color, and those suffering from mental illness.
However, thanks to changes in public opinion, the death penalty is increasingly falling out of favor. A
November 2019 Gallup Poll found 60%of Americans support life in prison without parole while only
36%supported the death penalty.
No one has been sentenced to death in Virginia since September 2011, over eight years ago.
Only 35%of the 133 political jurisdictions in the Commonwealth have had someone executed in the
past fifty years. Over 25%of localities have never executed anyone or their last execution took place
over 100 years ago.
As is the case in other death penalty states, capital punishment is only sought in a relative handful of
localities whose prosecutors fervently believe in its application.
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Application # B9715
In November 2019 new prosecutors were elected in two counties that have used capital punishment
the most in the past two decades -- Fairfax and Prince William counties. These prosecutors clearly
stated their intention to never seek the death penalty.
Perhaps most frightening is the likeihood that innocent men and women have already been
executed. As of this writing, 166 death row prisoners have been exonerated because they were
found innocent of the crime for which they were sentenced to death.
The death penalty is a failed government program that is prohibitively expensive, random and
discriminatory in its application, and ineffective in deterring violent crime. In addition, the mandatory
appeals in capital cases turn killers into media celebrities and ensure that the family members of
murder victims endure years of glaring media attention while the required appeals wind their way
through state and federal court systems.
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SUBMIT APPLICATION
Signature
Date
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