Liberal Group Gives City Of Lansing $443,000 For Voter Outreach

Here’s how one liberal advocacy group is seeking to influence local elections in Michigan.

The Center for Technology and Civic Life recently gave $443,742 to the city of Lansing for its elections work, according to WILX-TV.

It lists three founders on its website.

Executive Director Tiana Epps-Johnson was an Obama Fellow for The Obama Foundation, a nonprofit founded by former president Barack Obama. Epps-Johnson was also the New Organizing Institute’s election administration director from 2012 to 2015.

The Washington Post called the New Organizing Institute “the left’s think tank for campaign know-how” in a 2014 article.

BuzzFeed reported in a 2015 article that the New Organizing Institute “was responsible for training many of the Democratic Party's digital organizers.”

Donny Bridges, a second founder of the Center for Technology and Civic Life, was the election administration research director at the New Organizing Institute from 2012 to 2015. A third founder and its director of government services, Whitney May, also worked for the institute.

The Center for Technology and Civic Life has been funded by the Knight Foundation, Google and Facebook.

Vox reported Sept. 1 that Facebook gave the Center for Technology and Civic Life $250 million.