Center for Popular Democracy

The Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) is an American advocacy group that promotes progressive politics.^[3][4][5] CPD is a federation of groups that includes some of the old chapters of ACORN.^[6] The group's stated goal is to "unapologetically demand transformational change for Black, brown and low-income communities."^[7] The organization is allied with teachers' unions and has published studies criticizing charter schools.^[8][9]

Center for Popular Democracy

Abbreviation	CPD
Formation	2012
Founded at	New York City, United States
Type	Nonprofit
Purpose	Progressive political advocacy[1]
Headquarters	Brooklyn, New York
Co-executive directors	Damareo Cooper Analilia Mejia
Revenue	$28.7 million[2] (2023)
Expenses	$29.8 million[2] (2023)
Endowment	$35.9 million[2]
Website	populardemocracy.org

Campaigns and actions

The organization gained national prominence during the protests over Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the United States Supreme Court. One of the organization's co-executive directors, Ana Maria Archila, confronted U.S. Senator Jeff Flake over his support for the judge^[10][11] and other activists had questions for U.S. Senator Rand Paul.^[12]

Private prisons

CPD has run a years-long campaign against private prisons, and prison companies have warned investors that activist groups are a threat to their future profitability.^[13] This notice to investors came after lenders like JP Morgan Chase bowed to pressure from CPD and other groups and agreed to stop doing business with prison companies.^[14]

Local Progress

Local Progress started as a project of CPD, and works to organize grassroots groups with progressive politicians. It was founded in 2012 to connect progressive politicians so they could share policy ideas and model legislation.^[15][16][17] Previous Local Progress board members include Brad Lander, Helen Gym, Gregorio Casar, Phillipe Cunningham, Tefere Gebre, and Lorena González.^[18] In 2022, Local Progress spun off from CPD and became its own distinct 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 organizations - now known as Local Progress and the Local Progress Impact Lab] .

Funding

CPD has received funding from the Bauman Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Democracy Alliance,^[6] and the Open Society Foundations.^{[19][20][21][22]} It also receives funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.^[23]