In the spring of 2015, six women gathered in a Southeast Portland kitchen and formed a regional giving circle, called ninety-nine girlfriends. A year later, Lisa Adatto and Laura Rogers met for the first time as co-leaders of one of the new organization’s grant review teams. While working together in pursuit of strongly held values, their friendship grew and after the 2016 grant-making cycle they continued to stay in touch. In June of 2021, they met to catch up. In short order, Rogers realized it was to be a consequential exchange “so I took notes and saved them.”
Adatto had been working on a memoir about how her grandmother had led her family out of Hitler’s Germany, and how that decision affected subsequent generations. The family history resonated deeply as national events unfolded around the 2020 election. Both women felt a sense of urgency to add a new voice to strengthen the focus on democracy. But first, they knew they needed one more person to help form the effort. They reached out to another Girlfriend, Wynne Furth, who they knew through her work on local environmental issues.
On January 6, 2021, following a fiery speech by the former President – who insisted, along with his followers, that he had been the real winner of the 2020 presidential election – rioters marched from the White House to the U.S. Capitol. The events at the Capitol convinced the three women that many Americans did not understand how much would be lost without the electoral process under the U.S. Constitution. “Without a strong democracy, a lot of things that we all care about won’t thrive,” Adatto reflected.
Since national legislative efforts to protect the vote appeared to be floundering, the group decided to focus on corporations that provide financial support to campaigns of those U.S. Congressional representatives who refused to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election even though courts had ruled it was free and fair. After several months of refining their ideas, the three friends moved swiftly to create Thriving Democracy, an Oregon nonprofit benefit corporation. They hired a marketing firm and a law firm and set up the website thrivingdemocracy.org.
Thriving Democracy’s plan is to spotlight these corporate actions with the hope that community members will influence them to do better. All it takes to share your voice, the women point out, is to send an email, write a letter, post on social media, or pass along the Thriving Democracy billboard message. Best of all, Thriving Democracy is making it easy to take action.
Both ninety-nine girlfriends and Thriving Democracy remain resolutely nonpartisan. Similarly, each is focused on local improvement, which struck Rogers as “pivotal for us with regard to democracy.” Meanwhile, all three women remain enthusiastic members of ninety-nine girlfriends which they credit with helping them imagine Thriving Democracy. “Ninety-nine girlfriends has the ability to open up this local world and introduce members to wonderful people and fascinating issues,” says Furth. Adatto said she has been “buoyed by this group of people who want to make things better.” And Rogers said they’re following the girlfriends’ model of making sure that what they accomplish can be replicated elsewhere.