“Donations to our fiscally sponsored projects allow them to respond to critical needs in our community. Thanks to the support of many donors, Community Initiatives serves inspired leaders as they build new programs to benefit us all.”

M. Melanie Beene
PRESIDENT AND CEO
COMMUNITY INITIATIVES

The Democracy Center



The Democracy Center works globally to advance human rights through a combination of investigation and reporting, training citizens in the art of public advocacy, and organizing international citizen campaigns. Through all of these efforts the Center is working to help build a global citizenry that understands the public issues before it and is able to take effective public action. A special emphasis of our work is economic globalization and the movement for global democracy and justice.

Since our founding in 1992 The Democracy Center has racked up a diverse array of achievements. We have trained and counseled thousands of social justice advocates on five continents — from immigrant activists and PTA moms in California, to public health workers in South Africa, to human rights advocates in Latin America. We founded the California Budget Project to provide progressive, quality analysis on budget issues. We have published two major books — The Initiative Cookbook (1996) and The Democracy Owners’ Manual (2002). We also led the successful global campaign to block the Bechtel Corporation from suing Bolivians for $50 million following the now-famous Cochabamba water revolt.

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