AMENDMENT PROJECT
PROPOSAL INFORMATION
Organization Name: Virginia Interfaith Center for
Public Policy
Organization Address: 1716 E. Franklin Street,
Richmond, VA 23223
Executive Director: Kim Bobo Email:
kim@virginiainterfaithcenter.org Phone: # 804-643-2474
Contact Name (if not ED): Email:
Phone:
Number of People on Staff: 2?2 F/T 222 P/T
Organization Website: https://www.virginiainterfaithcenter.org/
Tax Status of Applying Organization or Fiscal Sponsor: 4 501(c)3_[ ]
501(c)4 EIN #:
Does your organization use a fiscal sponsor? [ ]Yes MM No
Fiscal Sponsor Name (/f Applicable):
Fiscal Sponsor Address:
Fiscal Sponsor Contact: Email:
Phone:
Has your organization made the 501(h) election under the Internal
Revenue Code to have lobbying measured by expenditures? [ ]Yes [ |]
No
If applying as a 501(c)3, does your organization also have a 501(c)4? [ i]
Yes [ ]No
Grant Type: [ ] General Operating MI Project Support
Grant Period: xx/xx/20xx to xx/xx/20xx Total Number of Months
Covered by Grant: 12
Grant Amount Requested: $30,000
apization Budget: ?2? Project Budget (if applicable):
Will your organization/project budget include any lobbying?[ ]Yes [ ]
lo
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)
M1 2. Repeal (advocacy or litigation)
[ ]3. Communications and/or unusual voices
Application Checklist: Please ensure that the following items are
completed/included with your proposal:
. 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)
b. Profit and loss v. budget statement for previous year (2019)
c. Profit and loss v. budget statement for current year (2020)
d. Audit or 990 for most recent available year
e. IRS Tax Status Letter
BWNH
Please return this document in MS Word format by xx/xx/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.)
Funding for this Criminal Justice Organizer position will significantly increase
support among Black clergy and faith communities for death penalty abolition in
Virginia and enhance chances for repeal in the General Assembly.
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
accomplishments of the organization over the last year.)
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.
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.)
Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy (VICPP) is a non-partisan coalition of
23,000 members including 700 faith communities and 1,000 clergy of all faiths
and people of goodwill, all working for a more just society.
Founded in 1982, VICPP is the largest statewide advocacy voice for the faith
community in Virginia. The organization focuses primarily on issues of
economic, racial, social and environmental justice. VICPP’s grassroots work is
organized through local chapters and affiliates, partner congregations and
individuals across the Commonwealth.
We work with Virginians of all faiths including Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus,
Sikhs, and Buddhists, people who are “spiritual, not religious” and people of
goodwill. We are a racially and ethnically diverse group that includes
immigrants from around the world. Our board and staff reflect this diversity.
Historically, VICPP has been a leader on poverty issues, working on expanding
school breakfast programs, reducing predatory lending, and advocating
Medicaid expansion. Today we focus on racial justice, environmental
sustainability, immigrant rights, and economic justice issues like requiring
employers to offer paid sick days.
In the past, VICPP worked with Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
(VADP) and other organizations to reduce the use of capital punishment. In
recent years, however, VICPP was not as involved with the death penalty
because we strategically focused our limited resources on other issues where
we felt there was a greater chance for success.
Staff/Organizational Bios
(Provide very brief bios of at least two to three key leaders who will oversee this
work.)
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.
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.)
Engage the faith community in criminal justice reform with a particular outreach
focus on engaging African-American faith leaders.
Work closely with the Virginia Black Legislative caucus on their proposed reforms
and tap their connections with faith leaders.
Develop education materials and organize educational programs for engaging
faith leaders and making the racial equity case for criminal justice reform.
Organize sign-on letters & media events to demonstrate faith leader commitment
for policy changes
Work with the policy director to nail down legislative priorities for the 2021
General Assembly session
Represent VICPP and VADP key coalitions.
Lead the work in the General Assembly - supervising witness volunteers, meeting
with legislators, arranging testimony in committee hearings.
What VADP submitted last year:
VADP will continue to build conservative grassroots support for
death penalty reform and abolition through public education
with local religious, civic, and business leaders in key legislative
districts - including Chesterfield County, Virginia Beach, Fairfax County,
and Prince William County. The VADP Field Director has scheduled
education sessions in the fall with Virginia Beach Republicans, NoVA
Libertarians, Warren County Democrats, and the Virginia Community
Criminal Justice Association (VCCJA) 2019 conference. He is reaching out
to many other organizations in those target areas for speaking
engagements.
VADP will launch a death penalty abolition media campaign after
the November 2019 election that focuses on key constituent
groups - including conservatives, murder victim family
members, exonerees, and faith leaders. VADP is collecting
endorsements of sign-on letters that focus on these four groups.
Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty is helping us with the
conservative letter. Faith in Public Life and the Virginia Council of
Churches is distributing our faith leader letter. The Mid-Atlantic
Innocence Project is working with us on the exoneree letter.
VADP will work to limit the death penalty in the 2020 Virginia
legislative session with the Virginia Catholic Conference and the ACLU
of Virginia. For the first time in over a decade, VADP and its two key
partners will work with legislators on bills in both chambers to abolish
the death penalty. If control of the House of Delegates changes in
November 2019, there is a reasonable chance that we can pass these
bills out of committee and have a serious floor debate on the merits of
capital punishment. In the event that this abolition effort fails, VADP will
again seek enactment of a bill to exempt people with severe mental
illness from the death penalty along with NAMI Virginia, Mental Health
American of Virginia, and other state mental health organizations.
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.)
Dod
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.)
SEE
VADP has pledged $10,000 in funding for this position.
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.)
2K
What VADP submitted last year:
Field Director has individual meetings with at least ten civic, faith, and
business leaders in each of the four target legislative districts -
Chesterfield County, Virginia Beach, Fairfax County, & Prince William
County.
Field Director gives at least two public education events in each of four
target legislative districts - Chesterfield County, Virginia Beach, Fairfax
County, & Prince William County.
VADP has at least three media exposures - press release, press
conference, and/or op-eds - on (1) execution history by locality and (2)
signatories on abolition sign-on letters from conservatives, murder victim
family members, exonerees, or faith leaders between the November
2019 election and start of the General Assembly in mid-January 2020.
Confirm a Republican co-patron for the death penalty abolition bill in the
House of Delegates and state Senate by December 2019.
Have a floor debate and vote in at least one legislative chamber on the
SMI exemption bill and/or death penalty abolition bill during the 2020
General Assembly session.
Convene at least 70 people at our October 5th annual awards luncheon
featuring keynote speaker Renny Cushing from New Hampshire and
honoring our legislator of the year (Sen. Barbara Favola) & citizen
advocate of the year (Tom Petersik of Chesterfield County).
Raise at least $60,000 before end of the 2019 calendar year to ensure
that there will be no VADP staffing cuts in the 2020 fiscal year. A
$15,000 DPMF grant would almost certainly ensure that we will reach
this goal.
