How does Stand Together spend its money?
Brian:
Stand Together tackles the root causes of our country’s challenges through a comprehensive approach — there’s no single solution or quick fix.
That’s why we provide financial support and other resources to organizations working to improve education, business, communities, and government — key institutions of society that are essential to helping every person rise. We support hundreds of highly effective organizations, and where they don’t exist, we help create new organizations to address unmet societal needs.
One thing that makes our efforts unique is that we don’t follow fixed budget formulas.
Our spending each year is driven by the best opportunities we see to make the greatest difference. We’re always looking for opportunities that will help far more people improve their lives in the short-term, but also transform the way society tackles our biggest challenges to help many more people over the long-term.
How that has shaken out for the past several years is that around 70 percent of the Stand Together community’s total annual spending goes toward efforts to ensure an excellent education for every person along with the work we support in communities to help neighbors beat poverty and addiction.
Each year, about one-third of the funds from our philanthropic community go to help organizations that support public policy — groups like Americans for Prosperity. That includes efforts to support the election of policymakers who will put people over politics and get good things done once elected, which makes up around 10 percent of the total funds spent. The funding for all of this is contributed by tens of thousands of generous supporters — about 700 of whom provide the bulk of the support. These include some of the country’s most successful business leaders and philanthropists.
Learn more about Stand Together’s issue areas.