Renew Democracy Foundation

“Anais Carmona and Courtney Lee-Ashley, work at companies that have consulting contracts with the firm where John Michael Gonzalez works as a consultant. John Michael Gonzalez has worked professionally with each of these Board Members in this capacity.”

“The Interim Executive Director oversees the initial draft of Form 990, shares with the Executive Committee (Board President and Treasurer) for feedback, then shares with the full board before filing.”

“The Board researched proper compensation for startup costs for similarly situated organizations using the GuideStar Compensation Report from September 2023 and determined $10,000 for 150 hours of work would be reasonable for work performed. The Board then unanimously passed a resolution approving the compensation, where Mr. Henson abstained due to conflict of interest.”

“No other documents available to the public.”

“The ReNew Democracy Foundation seeks to open doors for new voices from across the country who want to make a difference in pragmatic, solutions-oriented, center-left congressional offices by supporting these future leaders with educational development opportunities, mentorship and professional networking through the ReNew Democracy Fellowship, a nine-month paid fellowship in a solutions-oriented pragmatic congressional office. The Foundation seeks to support the development of future civic leaders with mentorship, education and policymaking experience so they in turn can benefit their communities. During the initial founding year, the ReNew Democracy Foundation designed the application process and recruited applicants from communities underrepresented among Congressional staff, including first-generation college graduates and first generation Americans for nine-month paid fellowships with the U.S. House of Representatives. During the initial founding year, the Foundation raised awareness of the new fellowship program and its mission among key stakeholders to set the stage for success for its initial cohort.”

“The future of our democracy and the economy it shapes depends on enacting bold policies that reflect the input and perspective of the diversity of our communities. Unfortunately, too many qualified, potential leaders are blocked by systemic barriers from ever having the chance to work in the halls of Congress. The ReNew Democracy Foundation seeks to open doors for new underrepresented voices from across the country who want to learn about democracy, Congress, pragmatic policy-making and ensuring their communities? interests are heard.”

“During the Foundation's first year, we successfully developed a thorough and accessible application process for our fellowship that discussed the educational benefits, pay structure and overall support that facilitated an equitable recruitment process and elicited applicant's approaches to public service, pragmatic policy-making, and unique perspectives they wanted to bring forward. Further, through an extensive recruitment process, the Foundation had over 250 applicants for five fellowships from all of the United States, including percentages of underrepresented communities that exceeded their national proportion, as well as attracted the interest of a dozen Member offices interested in hosting a fellow. The Foundation then conducted an extensive selection process, beginning with a metric-based evaluation of all applicants' ability to succeed, build resilience, creatively engage in the policy-making process, and eloquently present their ideas, followed by an interview process with multiple participants and redundancies to reduce personal bias and judge applicants by their capacity to succeed learning about pragmatic policy. At the conclusion of the Foundation's first fiscal year, we had selected five candidates to match with congressional offices.”