SISTERS OF BON SECOURS, USA ©
Sisters of Bon Secours Ministry Grant Fund
1525 Marriottsville Road
Marriottsville, MD 21104
Accountability Report for the VADP Grassroots Education Project
Due Semiannually on: March 22, 2020
Grantee: Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (VADP)
Title: Michael Stone, Executive Director
Address: P.O. Box 12222
City, State, Zip: Richmond, VA 23241
. Please give a brief explanation of how the goal(s) and objective(s) for the project, as
described in the proposal, were achieved.
Thanks to this third-year grant of $20,000 from the Bon Secours Sisters, VADP has been able
to continue employment of Dale Brumfield, our full-time Field Director. He has continued to
meet local civic, business, and religious leaders in target legislative districts.
These districts were chosen because their legislators hold key positions in either the House or
Senate Courts of Justice Committees who vote on legislation to ban the execution of people
with severe mental illness and/or death penalty abolition.
Thanks largely to his work over the past three years, VADP achieved a significant step forward
in the recent 2020 Virginia General Assembly legislative session. More details about this
singular achievement are given in the impact section below.
The focus of the Field Director shifted in the past six months from rural and small towns in
western and southern Virginia to Tidewater and northern Virginia.
During 2019 the Field Director spoke to 27 public education events including:
— Clifton Republican Women and Chesterfield & Rockingham County Libertarians
— Seven local Democratic Party groups in Northern Virginia and Tidewater
— Greenspring and Westminster at Lake Ridge retirement communities in Northern Virginia
— Virginia Beach Kiwanis Club
— Three regional prison ministry summits put on by the Catholic Diocese of Richmond
He had a VADP display table at the conferences of the Virginia Community Criminal Justice
Association and the Virginia Federation of Republican Women. During 2019 he got 191 new
people to join VADP.
How have you achieved your measurements?
The Field Director maintains a Google spreadsheet of all contacts in the target legislative
districts. In addition, he submits a weekly report on his meetings and activities as well as
completed VADP membership forms. The Executive Director also meets with him every other
week to delve into the contacts made and to plan follow-up actions for each target district.
What impact did you have?
In January 2020 the state Senate passed a bill to exempt people with severe mental illness
(SMI) from the death penalty by overwhelming bipartisan 32-7 margin. In the floor debate,
Senator Bill Stanley (R - Moneta) said: “We do not have the power our Creator has to take life.
We do not have the ability, morally, legally or otherwise.” He promised to vote for abolition,
the first time any Republican state legislator voiced public opposition to capital punishment!
Thanks to Senator Stanley's powerful floor speech, five Republicans who opposed the SMI
exemption last year changed their vote and supported the 2020 bill. In fact, eleven of the
Senate's nineteen Republicans voted for this limit on Virginia's death penalty.
In addition, VADP supported legislation to abolish capital punishment. But the Senate
Judiciary Committee voted to defer consideration of the bill until the 2021 legislative session.
Leadership of the House Courts of Justice Committee then decided to defer both the SMI
exemption and death penalty abolition bills. Neither was granted a hearing.
Legislative leaders apparently felt that this was one controversial issue too many to win
approval in the 2020 General Assembly.
Despite these disappointments, VADP learned much about the positions of key Senators. It
appears there is sufficient support in both legislative chambers for ending capital punishment.
Privately, we have been assured by leaders in the Senate and House of Delegates that death
penalty abolition will be debated and passed in 2021.
The work of VADP Field Director Dale Brumfield building Republican and Libertarian support
for these bills has been crucial.
2. What changes, barriers, or modifications, if any, to the original project were made as it
progressed, or if there were barriers, what outcomes were there, and how did you
overcome them?
We have identified no major barriers to the original project.
3. Give a detailed explanation of use of funds. List cost elements of the project and expenses
for each (salaries and benefits, supplies, printing, etc.).
All of the funds from the Bon Secours Sisters Mission Fund are used to pay the salary of the
VADP Field Director.
Do you expect to expend the full amount of the award?
We have spent the entire $20,000 grant award.
. What are the future goals and objectives for this project (e.g., further program
lavel tab
de inable funding, etc.)?
VADP continues to seek funding from other sources to support this grassroots education
project. We have submitted a $10,000 grant to the Bama Works Fund of the Dave Matthews
Band which is administered by the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation. VADP also
intends to submit a grant application to the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation for their current funding
cycle which is due in mid-April.
We also have leads on a number of other potential funders thanks to a consultation with
FADICA, Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities.
Our organization continues its fund development work with direct mail appeals, major donor
cultivation, and special events.
. Please sign, date and return to:
Patrick Schmidt
Project Coordinator, Mission
1505 Marriottsville Road
Marriottsville, MD 2110
Signed:
Michael E. Stone, VADP Executive Director Date
