Quinn Delaney

Template:TOCnestleft Quinn Delaney

Ear to the Ground Project

Ear to the Ground Project was financially supported by the Center for Third World Organizing, the Movement Strategy Center, the Marguerite Casey Foundation, the Mitchell Kapor Foundation, the Common Counsel Foundation, the Solidago Foundation, Steven Phillips and Susan Sandler, Quinn Delaney, and Connie Cagampang Heller & Jonathan Cagampang Heller.

Supporting Jealous

Most of the big individual contributors to Maryland Together We Rise, a pro Benjamin Jealous PAC, are well-known donors from Northern California who have given to many other Democratic campaigns.

The largest single donor, with contributions totaling $250,000, was Susan Sandler. She and her husband, Steve Phillips, founded the Sandler Phillips Center, which advises donors to progressive politicians on how to maximize the impact of their contributions.

She also has been a major contributor to PACs backing Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) — both of whom have endorsed and campaigned with Jealous.

A PAC disclosure initially reporting that a $100,000 contribution came from Phillips was later amended to say that it came from Sandler.

Sandler contributed to the pro-Jealous PAC because Jealous “has been a national social justice leader and anti-poverty crusader for decades,” said Emi Gusukuma, the center’s executive vice president.

Gusukuma said Sandler also liked Jealous’s work advocating in Maryland and elsewhere on behalf of “the Dream Act, marriage equality and ending the death penalty,” as well as increasing voter participation among racial minorities.

Another donor, Mitch Kapor, is managing partner of the venture capital firm Kapor Capital, where Jealous is also a partner.

Kapor, founder of the Lotus computer software company, said it’s rare for him to give money to a PAC because, in general, “Politics is broken and the funding is broken.” He made an exception in this case, donating $50,000 to the pro-Jealous PAC, because of his personal familiarity with Jealous and because Phillips, a friend, asked him to do so.

The other two big donors to Maryland Together We Rise are Quinn Delaney, founder of the Akonadi Foundation, which she and her husband launched “as an outgrowth of their commitment to racial justice”; and Mark Heising, who has given more than $500,000 since 2008 to mostly Democratic candidates and PACs.

Heising’s daughter, Caitlin Heising, contributed $50,000 to the Progressive Maryland PAC.