AMENDMENT PROJECT
PROPOSAL INFORMATION
Organization Name: Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (VADP)
Organization Address: P.O. Box 12222
Richmond State: VA Zip: 23241
Executive Director: Michael E. Stone
Email: office@vadp.org
Phone: (434) 960-7779
Contact Name (if not ED): N/A
Number of People on Staff: F/T-2 P/T-0
Organization Website: www.vadp.org
Tax Status of Applying Organization or Fiscal Sponsor: [¥] 501(c)3 [ ]501(c)4
Federal EIN#: 54-1664106
Has your organization made the 501(h) election under the Internal Revenue Code to have lobbying
measured by expenditures? [v] Yes [ ] No
If applying as a 501(c)3, does your organization also have a 501(c)4? [ ] Yes [Vv] No
Grant Type: [¥] General Operating _[ _] Project Support
Grant Period: 01/01/2021 to 12/31/2021 Total Number of Months Covered by Grant: 12
Grant Amount Requested: $15,000
Organization Budget: $15,000 Project Budget (if applicable): N/A
Will your organization/project budget include any lobbying? [¥] Yes [ ] No
If yes, you must submit a bifurcated budget.
Which strategic area(s) have you been invited to apply for? (Please check all that apply.)
[ ] 1. Reduce executions/sentences (advocacy or litigation)
[VW] 2. Repeal (advocacy or litigation)
[ ] 3. Communications and/or unusual voices
Application Checklist: Please ensure that the
proposal:
Pee
b.
G
d
é
items are
J with your
Completed Proposal Information
Organization Budget for Upcoming Fiscal Year (2021)
Project Budget for Upcoming Fiscal Year (2021) (if applicable)
Financial Documents
a.
Current balance sheet (as of June 30, 2020 or after)
Profit and loss v. budget statement for previous year (2019)
Profit and loss v. budget statement for current year (2020)
Audit or 990 for most recent available year
IRS Tax Status Letter
Please return this document in MS Word format by 08/21/2020. Please label this document as
“Organization Name/Acronym 2021 Grant Proposal.” Please send your completed application and all
relevant documents to grantproposal@8thamendment.org.
Grant Purpose
(In one to two lines, state how funding to your organization will assist the national strategy and what
you aim to achieve.)
VADP will continue its work to (1) build more support for abolition from conservatives and
prosecutors and (2) pass legislation to abolish the death penalty in Virginia.
Background & Context
(Please give us an update as to where the state is on the use of the death penalty and the prospects for
change. In two paragraphs, tell us the three or four biggest acc ish 's of the organization over
the last year.)
VIRGINIA UPDATE
Virginia is poised to become the first Southern state to abolish the death penalty. No
one has been sentenced to death in Virginia in over nine years. There are only two
men on death row and both of their death sentences may be overturned in the federal
courts. In November 2019 Democrats seized control of the General Assembly for the
first time in twenty years, greatly increasing the chances for abolition. Our current
Governor, Ralph Northam, has said that he would sign an abolition bill if it reached his
desk. His term ends in December 2021.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE PAST YEAR
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.”
Thanks to Senator Stanley's powerful floor speech, five Republicans who opposed the
SMI exemption in 2019 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.
Stanley also promised to vote for abolition and challenged his fellow pro-life
Republicans to join him in opposition to capital punishment. At least two other
Republican Senators commented to the media afterwards that they would have to
rethink their positions based on Senator Stanley’s remarks.
During the 2020 legislative session, VADP also supported bills to abolish capital
punishment. But the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to defer consideration of
abolition 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
address in the 2020 General Assembly.
Despite these disappointments, VADP learned much about the positions of key
Senators. It appears there may well be 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 death penalty reform and abolition has been crucial to our legislative work.
Before the pandemic shut down the state in March, our Field Director had already
spoken to eleven groups with a total audience of 225 people, and signed up 106 new
VADP supporters. These were principally Democratic and Libertarian audiences in
Northern Virginia.
He is maintaining contacts in the Tidewater region to keep them updated on our
progress, working diligently to maintain these productive relationships so that he can
reschedule speaking events in the autumn either virtually or in-person if circumstances
allow it to happen. He is also cold-calling faith, political and civic group leaders in
other, previously untapped areas of Virginia.
During the pandemic VADP shifted gears to create a series of four Abolition University
online education sessions for supporters during April and May:
“* The National Death Penalty Abolition Movement and Virginia's Key Role
“* The Important Role of Murder Victim Family Members in the Abolition Movement
Conservative Opposition to the Death Penalty
“ The Key Role of Capital Defense Attorneys in the Abolition Movement
Video recordings of all four sessions are available for viewing on the VADP website.
VADP is reaching out to 80 members of the Virginia House of Delegates who do not
serve on the Courts of Justice Committee. Most of them have never had to cast a
death penalty-related vote. Our goal is to open a dialogue with them on abolition and
determine an accurate floor vote count before the start of the 2021 legislative session.
So far, we have met virtually with 21 Delegates or their aides and have many more
meetings scheduled for the coming weeks. Of those 21 legislators, eight have
expressed strong support for abolition and three expressed opposition. The remaining
ten wanted more information. We will follow up with those undecided House
Delegates to assess their positions in the coming months.
These meetings revealed the first Republican member of the House of Delegates to
clearly express support for abolition, Del. Carrie Coyner. She may become a co-patron
for our abolition bill in the House. She helped identify several fellow House
Republicans that she thinks may be ready to support an end to capital punishment.
Organizational Information
(Give a brief history of how the organization was started and the role it has played in the death penalty
abolition movement over the years.)
On November 9, 1991, a steering committee of 13 committed citizens gathered and formed
Virginians Against State Killing. In 1994 the organization’s name was changed to Virginians
for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (VADP).
In its early years VADP was an “outsider” group, focused on protest against the frequent use
of capital punishment. Then board chair Jon Sheldon led a process that transformed VADP
into an “insider” organization with a more professional structure and expertise that has
earned bipartisan credibility with the media, legislators, and administration officials.
In recent years VADP has led a coalition of key organizations — including the Virginia Catholic
Conference, ACLU of Virginia, NAMI Virginia, and other mental health groups —ina
campaign to pass legislation to exempt people with severe mental illness from the death
penalty. We are now focusing primarily on death penalty abolition.
Staff/Organizational Bios
(Provide very brief bios of at least two to three key leaders who will oversee this work.)
Prior to becoming VADP Executive Director, Michael Stone worked for 25 years in social
ministry for the Catholic Diocese of Richmond from 1984 to 2009. He also worked four
years as a Field Organizer and consultant for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death
Penalty. In that role, he worked with abolition groups in Virginia and other states. Since
joining VADP in January 2015, he has worked to expand its funding base and to identify
opponents to the death penalty among conservatives and victim family members.
Dale Brumfield brings a varied background as a commercial insurance salesman, educator,
and writer to his position as VADP Field Director. A Virginia native, Dale has written nine
books, including The Virginia State Penitentiary: A Notorious History. He has authored
numerous anti-death penalty pieces for the Richmond Times- Dispatch, North of the James
magazine, Richmond Magazine, the Rappahannock Review and the conservative political
website BearingDrift.com. Since joining VADP in May 2017, Dale has focused on public
education among conservatives in key legislative districts across the Commonwealth.
Proposal
(State the goals of the work that will be achieved over the next year. (i.e. We will reduce death
sentences in the state by providing litigation assistance to trial attorneys; we will build support for
legislative repeal by leading a broad-based public education campaign in key areas of the state; we
will lift unusual voices in the media calling for change.) If applicable, please explicitly name the
partners with whom you will be working to achieve your stated goal and the geographical focus of
your work. This should be as brief as possible since you will be asked to give more detail in the
Benchmarks section below.)
VADP will continue to meet virtually with members of the House of Delegates who do not
serve on the Courts of Justice Committee. Our goal is to secure at least 51 votes in favor
of death penalty abolition for the 2021 General Assembly session.
VADP will continue to build grassroots support for death penalty abolition through public
education with local religious, civic, and business leaders in key legislative districts —
including Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and
Prince William County.
VADP will launch a death penalty abolition media campaign after the November 2020
election that focuses on key constituent groups — including conservatives, murder victim
family members, and prosecutors. VADP is collecting death penalty abolition
endorsements in sign-on letters from these three groups.
So far, we have the support of 19 conservative leaders (including a Republican candidate for
Governor and a former Republican Congressman), 21 prosecutors (including seven current
Commonwealth’s Attorneys and two former Attorneys General), and 14 murder victim
family members.
We plan to have a press conference announcing the signatories of the conservative and
prosecutor sign-on letters before the start of the 2021 Virginia legislative session.
VADP will work to abolish the death penalty in the 2021 Virginia legislative session with
the Virginia Catholic Conference and the ACLU of Virginia. Prospects have never been
better for ending capital punishment in Virginia. The widespread calls for criminal justice
reform in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd earlier this year have inspired
great support for abolition among numerous Virginia state legislators.
Our Senate abolition sponsor is confident that we have the votes to pass abolition in the
Judiciary Committee and on the Senate floor. In the House of Delegates leaders in the
Courts of Justice Committee have agreed to patron abolition. At this point, we estimate
48 votes in support of abolition in the House of Delegates. We have four months to
advocate with legislators to ensure that we have majority support for abolition by January.
Racial Justice Alignment
(In no more than one paragraph, please explain how your work advances racial justice, and what efforts
you are making to empower leaders of color and/or impacted persons to become leaders in your
campaign.)
VADP has made significant strides in strengthening our focus on racial justice in the past year. In
September 2019 an African-American attorney, Kristina Leslie, became the first person of color to
chair the VADP board of directors.
After the police killing of George Floyd earlier this year, VADP sent a statement — The Nation's Racism,
Virginia's Death Penalty — to over 2,000 supporters and have it posted prominently on our website.
The statement clearly addressed the long history of racial disparities in the use of Virginia’s death
penalty: “Of the 1,390 documented executions carried out in Virginia since 1608, only four involved a
white person killing a black man or woman, all of them since 1997.”
In July, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the newspaper with the widest distribution within the
Commonwealth, published an op-ed by our board chair, Death penalty repeal is essential to racial
healing. The op-ed was distributed widely both within Virginia and across the country. A copy of
this op-ed is given as a follow-up to all of our virtual meetings with legislators.
Recently, VADP finalized a Memorandum of Understanding with the Virginia Interfaith Center for
Public Policy (VICPP) on a new initiative to explicitly link death penalty abolition with wider criminal
justice reform efforts. A newly created position, Criminal Justice Organizer, will focus on the
African-American community, particularly religious leaders and their congregations. This new staff
person will be located at the Interfaith Center, but will work in close collaboration with VADP. As
part of the MOU, VADP has pledged $10,000 toward this joint effort.
Funding & Expenses
(Please briefly describe the other sources of income listed in your budget, including grants, major
donors and other fundraising efforts. Give a very brief outline of fundraising effort going forward (no
more than three sentences.)
In 2019 VADP raised 61% of its income from individuals, 31% from grants, and 8% from faith
communities. Increases in individual giving over the past few years has been driven by
two postal appeals, an annual report mailing to major donors, “friend-raising” events, an
annual awards luncheon, and one-to-one meetings with major donors. Giving from faith
communities has leveled off in the past two years while identification of potential new
grant sources continues to be a challenge.
So far in 2020 it has been difficult to find alternative funding sources to raise the $35,000
provided in past years from the Sisters of Bon Secours and the Daughters of Wisdom from
whom we are no longer eligible for grants. We had been cautiously optimistic that the
Bama Works Fund of the Dave Matthews Band and the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation would
provide funding. Unfortunately, both retooled their 2020 giving in light of the pandemic
and focused their support on existing grantees.
Thankfully, VADP secured a $23,000 SBA Paycheck Protection Program loan that should be
fully forgivable. This loan and a one-time $10,000 gift from a former donor have covered
the budget shortfall for this calendar year.
A recent Virtual Cocktail Hour with Senator Tim Kaine resulted in ticket sales and donations
of $2,200 that has significantly helped with our summer cash flow.
Our October 24th annual awards luncheon will be an all-virtual event. We will sell tickets
and hope to raise at least another $1,000 in special event ticket sales and donations.
Benchmarks
(What are the specific outcomes that will be achieved by the end of the year? Please list at least three
quantifiable outcomes. Example: We will have assisted in 30 pretrial cases, or we will have conducted
20 public education events, or we will have placed 20 voices in the media highlighting problems with
the death penalty.)
Field Director has meetings with at least five civic, faith, and business leaders in each of the
target legislative districts — Charlottesville, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, Fairfax
County, & Prince William County — before the 2021 Virginia legislative session.
Field Director gives at least one virtual or in-person public education event in each target
legislative district — Charlottesville, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, Fairfax County,
& Prince William County.
Convene at least 75 people for our virtual annual awards luncheon on October 24th
featuring keynote speaker Cassandra Stubbs, Director of the ACLU Capital Punishment
Project. At this event we will honor our legislator of the year (Republican Senator Bill
Stanley) & citizen advocate of the year (Rachel Sutphin, a murder victim family member).
VADP has at least three media exposures — press release, press conference, and/or op-eds —
about signatories of abolition sign-on letters from conservatives, murder victim family
members, and prosecutors between the November 2020 election and start of the General
Assembly in mid-January 2021.
Meet with at least 50 members of the House Delegates to discuss death penalty abolition
and compile an accurate floor vote count before the start of the 2021 legislative session.
Confirm patrons (including Republican co-patrons in each chamber) for death penalty
abolition bills in the House of Delegates and state Senate by December 2020. Ensure that
these bills are filed early so that we have the bill numbers by January 1st.
Have floor debates on death penalty abolition in both the Senate and House of Delegates
and pass an abolition bill in at least one chamber during the 2021 legislative session.
Raise at least $45,000 before end of the 2020 calendar year to ensure that there will be no
VADP staffing cuts in the 2021 year. A $15,000 DPMF grant would almost certainly ensure
that we will reach this goal.
