An SF Democracy Week convening
Innovators & Investors for Democracy Forum
Capital, innovation, and democracy for a flourishing future
Thursday, October 8 · 10:00AM-4:00PM · UC Law SF
A day for funders, family offices, foundations, philanthropic advisors, corporate representatives, civic and civictech entrepreneurs, and civic leaders, to help us figure out how to revitalize our democracy to strengthen our communities, economy, and country.
Cross-partisan by belief and design. Right, left, center, and none of the above. Co-hosted with the Center for Constitutional Democracy at UC Law SF.
Early bird pricing 20% discount available until midnight PST on Monday, Sep 28. 🎟️
Space is limited and we’re balancing the room across the spectrum and roles, so please register early.
Tickets and sponsorships are 501c3 tax deductible. Interested in sponsoring? See the sponsor info or email partner@democracyweek.net.
Co-hosted by
The Forum is hosted at UC Law SF in the Civic Center, a few minutes from City Hall and BART.
When
Thursday, October 8, 10:00AM-4:00PM
Where
UC Law SF, San Francisco Location details in registration confirmation.
Who
Civic entrepreneurs and leaders, funders, foundations, family offices
Part of
It’s much harder to build great companies inside a failing country
Every term sheet signed in the Bay Area and across the US relies on things few people think about: functioning courts, fair competition, rule of law, intellectual property rights, public investments in research and education.
Democracy is economic infrastructure, and our market economy is democracy infrastructure. The interplay has enabled the US to be the global leader in innovation and economic growth. Businesses thrive on stable rules, working institutions, and public investments in research, infrastructure, education, and more.
And any democracy needs an economy that delivers enough for enough people that they keep believing in it.
Unfortunately, the foundations of our innovation ecosystem and all our quality of life progress over the last two centuries have been eroding in recent decades: Public education, investment in research, infrastructure, net neutrality, and other enablers of fair competition, good governance, and more.
Rules, resources and business opportunities shouldn’t depend on your alignment with whoever won the last election.
And then there’s AI. We are building it faster than we are building the institutions and norms to live alongside it. On its current path it could hollow out our democracy and leave people disempowered, or worse. Used well, it could give us a democracy that works better than anything we have ever had: better information, better deliberation, better government, at a scale we couldn’t reach before. Many people think we’re currently headed towards further decline and collapse, but that outcome is not preordained. The people funding and building have more say in it than most. Let’s make sure it goes the second way.
We invite you to join us on October 8 to discuss, debate and start building what’s needed so we can build towards having a thriving democracy that supports innovation and human flourishing for years, decades, and generations to come.
Three needs, and this room can move all three
Need one
Startup energy in the civic space
Our democracy needs new thinking, creativity, experiments, and innovation, tech and otherwise. The startup mindset could work wonders here, applied with core principles of democracy and effective governance in mind.
Need two
Funding the people rebuilding it
Civic work has a funding problem. Grant cycles are slow, venture returns are hard, and a lot of good work dies in the gap. There’s no better investment right now, philanthropic or for profit, than protecting and revitalizing our democracy.
Need three
A culture shift, at scale
None of this works if civic life stays something most people don’t want to do. We need millions more to vote, show up locally, build tech for democracy, and tech that uplifts our communities, economy and country. Many people think we’re now headed for collapse, but we can change that trajectory and build towards a flourishing future.
What we’re here to do
Three objectives for the day.
- Get aligned on what democracy actually is, and on a framework we can use to guide decisions in our businesses, investments, work, and everyday life.
- Showcase civic innovations. Approaches, programs, and technologies worth supporting. No pitching, but highlights of some the good work that should be seen, and that could inspire other ideas.
- Strengthen this community. Cross-sector and cross-partisan, across fields that rarely come together. Leave motivated and connected to people worth building with.
Tickets are 501c3 tax deductible,and processed through our fiscal sponsor the California Doughnut Economics Coalition.
What the day includes
The full agenda will be announced soon, with fewer panels, more conversations, and a schedule designed to engage all minds in the room.
- Democracy and the economy. How they each support the other for long-term benefit, and what it costs us when either slips.
- Bring startup energy into the civic space. Creativity, experimentation, innovation, metrics, along with aligned funding, to support transformative and scalable projects, and culture shift at scale.
- The five pillars, discussed and refined in working groups. We’ll present the updated framework, then invite people into small facilitated groups to sharpen the questions under each and how we measure them.
- Lightning talks and showcase tables. Innovations and theories of change: the system we want to build, and the pathway to get there.
- Redesigning capital flows. Reimagining philanthropy and investment to support a revitalized democracy. Recoverable grants, evergreen vehicles, PRIs (program-related instruments), blended structures, a democracy fund thesis.
Groups are invited to come back with draft action plans, so the day ends with something to build on. Projects can apply to get support afterward through the Democracy Accelerator.
Open call for lightning talks and showcase tables. Building something, testing an approach, or have a theory of change worth discussing? Please propose a session or talk (the non-solicitation rule still applies).
The five essential pillars of our democratic republic
We’re organizing part of the day around the five “First Principles” of our democracy, and building towards having a Democracy Impact Assessment that’s a cross-partisan framework built with feedback from across the spectrum, helping us protect and revitalize the essential elements of our country. Select any pillar, on the wheel or by name, for more details.
Pillar 01
Culture
A Culture of Liberty & Democracy
Rights that hold up in practice, and neighbors who can disagree and still get things done together.
- People show up. Voting, volunteering, jury duty, school boards, and local races with more than one name on the ballot.
- People know their neighbors. Enough trust to disagree and still be friends and build something together.
- Real ways to work things out. Places where people talk through hard questions, and where the solutions actually reach decision makers, or the people are the decision makers (citizen assemblies, etc).
- Speech, assembly, worship, association. These hold up in practice, including for people whose views are unpopular where they live or work.
- Groups can organize freely. Without being pressured by the powerful interests they criticize.
Pillar 02
Economy
Economic Liberty & Shared Prosperity
Freedom to build, a fair shot at competing, and prosperity that actually reaches people.
- A better product can still win. New entrants aren’t locked out by incumbents.
- Ownership is broad-based. We’re an entrepreneurial nation, nationwide. There shouldn’t be a small number of winners, in a small number of places.
- Opportunity is reachable. Work, tools, and capital are available without the right degree or the right contacts.
- People can see where their money goes. Anyone with a pension or a 401K can find out how it’s invested, and make their own choices.
- We invest in the shared foundations. Communities can absorb economic shocks, including from automation, and the country keeps funding the things everything else is built on.
Pillar 03
Information
Free Speech & Information Integrity
A free press, and information people can actually trust.
- Someone is covering your community. Media independent of the people they report on. 213 counties have no local outlet at all, and another 1,524 have only one.
- Outsiders can check the algorithms. The systems deciding what tens of millions of people see can be examined from outside the company that runs them.
- You can tell what’s real. An ordinary person can work out whether an image, a video, or a message is authentic and where it came from.
- Privacy holds. Limits on what gets collected about you, and on who can demand it later.
- The rules are written and consistent. What gets amplified and what gets taken down follows stated rules, applied the same way whoever is speaking.
Pillar 04
Elections
Free & Fair Elections
Easy to vote, hard to cheat, every vote counted, and power that isn’t for sale.
- Voting is easy for everyone eligible. Including the people whose jobs make it hardest.
- Elections are secure and run by the rules. That now includes clear rules for how campaigns and others use AI. Persuasion costs close to nothing, and agents can act, not just post.
- Voters pick their representatives. Rather than representatives picking their voters through unfair partisan redistricting.
- You can see who’s paying. Including money routed through trade associations and other intermediaries.
- Results are respected. Certified outcomes stand, and the people who run elections are safe doing it.
Pillar 05
Government
A Government That Works for the People
Same rules for everyone, and a government that delivers what people are paying for.
- The same rules apply to everyone. Regardless of your name, income, or friends.
- Courts stay independent. They can rule against whoever appointed them without being punished for it.
- Power stays where voters put it. A legislature that legislates, and oversight that works.
- Decisions happen in the open. Spending, contracts, and lobbying on the record, so capture is visible when it happens.
- Government delivers. It builds and maintains what people depend on, at a reasonable cost and on a reasonable schedule, and people can see and challenge decisions made about them, including decisions made by software.
The measurement work
From a shared framework to a usable score
Under each pillar sit five things we think are the most essential elements, and ones that we think can be measured. That’s the draft Democracy Impact Assessment: 5-7 questions per pillar that let a company, a fund, or a civic initiative see where it stands and what it could do better. Each is scored against written anchors using publicly disclosed evidence. We’re building towards a Democracy Impact Index that compares across organizations.
It isn’t a blacklist. It’s an areas-for-improvement effort, and it runs both ways: if we’re asking a founder what their product does to civic life, the people writing the checks should answer the same question about what they back.
It’s also unfinished, and we’re asking for your help. We’re inviting people, including at this Forum, to help shape what gets measured, and what might be missing. The goal is to have a MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive) framework such that if we have all five elements we’ll have a thriving and robust country and democracy, and if any is missing we’ll have an imperfect or partial democracy, or no democracy at all.
If you invest, this framework could help you develop a portfolio that aligns with your values, and helps you achieve your fiduciary duties, since collapsing our democracy will put all our financial endeavors at risk.
Initial Speakers & Conveners
People who have built companies, funded them, run them, and worked in politics on both sides. More being confirmed. Have something to share, a recommendation of someone we should invite, or want to partner on this effort? Please send us a message.
Chris Yeh
Blitzscaling Ventures
Founding General Partner of Blitzscaling Ventures, and co-author of both Blitzscaling and The Alliance with Reid Hoffman. He has founded, advised, or invested in more than 100 startups since 1995.
Peter Lupoff
Beatrice Advisors, Lupoff/Stevens Family Office
Partner at Beatrice Advisors and founder of the Lupoff/Stevens Family Office, after years as a Managing Director at Millennium Management. He teaches impact investing at UC Berkeley’s Haas School, advises students at Harvard Kennedy School, and sits on the board of Investors’ Circle.
Melissa Hooper
UC Law SF, Center for Constitutional Democracy
ED at the Center for Constitutional Democracy at UC Law SF, our co-host for the Forum. She founded the Rule of Law Action Network at the German Marshall Fund, and previously worked at USAID on combatting democratic backsliding, at Human Rights First, and as a Senior Fellow at the Edley Center for Law and Democracy at Berkeley Law.
Nicole Ozer
ED, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a legal expert on AI, privacy and surveillance, and digital speech. She launched the Center for Constitutional Democracy at UC Law SF, our co-host for the Forum, as its inaugural ED, and before that founded and led the Technology and Civil Liberties Program at the ACLU of Northern California.
Micah Weinberg
Carnegie California, UC Berkeley Goldman School
Nonresident scholar at Carnegie California, and Senior Strategic Advisor to the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, where he works on its Democracy Policy Initiative. He’s building a new tool for deliberative democratic engagement with the state, and was previously CEO of California Forward.
Sarah Bonk
Founder, Business for America
Founder and CEO of Business for America, a coalition of companies and business leaders working on a government that functions. She spent close to 15 years at Apple before starting it.
Bill Shireman
Solution Citizen, Circle America
Co-founder of Solution Citizen and Circle America, and a member of the San Francisco Republican Party. He has spent decades getting business, environmental, and political adversaries to build things together.
John Gable
Co-founder, AllSides
Co-founder and CEO of AllSides, which rates media bias and puts left, center, and right coverage side by side. Former Republican strategist for three US Senate Majority Leaders, the RNC, and President George H.W. Bush, and a former Netscape and Microsoft Office executive.
Nicole Garzino
Strategy & Foresight leader
Strategy and foresight leader, advisor, and organizational coach with 20+ years of experience across philanthropy and social impact. Currently Chief Development & Marketing Officer at Braver Angels, leading growth, audience development, messaging, public engagement, and fundraising. Former leader at NorCal Grantmakers and Battery Powered, an innovative SF-based donor-funder collective.
David Nabti
Founder, Democracy Week
Founder of Democracy Week and the Democracy Accelerator. He has spent 20 years building startups, accelerators, and civic organizations; co-organizer of national youth conventions alongside the 2000 Republican and Democratic National Conventions; 2008 delegate for Obama; now part of the cross-partisan pro-democracy “purple movement”.
Want to speak, moderate, facilitate a working group, or suggest someone we should have on stage? Propose a session or tell us.
Cross-partisan from the heart
We’re not trying to get everyone to agree on every policy, but we are trying to align on core cross-partisan first principles to protect and revitalize our democratic republic, and the role that tech, AI and venture capital can play in that. Concentrated power, money distorting elections, gerrymandering, rules that don’t apply to everyone equally, and distorted information systems are real problems in red states, blue states and purple states.
Democracy Week is organized under a nonprofit fiscal sponsor. We don’t endorse candidates or parties. We do encourage everyone to vote, organize, and get involved, wherever you land on the political spectrum, while prioritizing country over party, and people over politics.
We’re building on work already underway across the civic and democracy movement, including our own past events and the people in our partner community. Think we’re off balance or missing something important? Please tell us.
How to take part
Attend
This Forum is for a mix of civic entrepreneurs, civic leaders, funders, and program managers. We want to nurture connections and relationship building in a community of trust, so the Forum will have a non-solicitation rule, and operate under the Chatham House Rule, except for most of the discussions on stage (unless as requested).
Sponsor or Partner
We’re looking for sponsors from across the political spectrum. Sponsorships cover seats for civic organizers and founders who couldn’t otherwise attend. Sign up below, or email partner@democracyweek.net.
Share your work
Lightning talks and showcase tables are open by proposal. Building a tool, running a cross-partisan campaign, testing an approach worth copying? Put it in front of this room. Projects can also get support afterward through the Democracy Accelerator.
Democracy Week & DW Accelerator Community Partners
October 8, at UC Law SF
A day with people who don't vote the same way, but agree on building a country and future together. Please join us.
Co-hosted with the Center for Constitutional Democracy at UC Law SF. Part of SF Democracy Week, October 5-11, running alongside SF Tech Week.