Lunch + Launch 2026: Building and Celebrating CP's Next-Gen Fighters

Lunch + Launch 2026: Building and Celebrating CP's Next-Gen Fighters

A CP Community Event

The Trump 2.0 administration is a 24/7/365 mix of dictatorial demagoguery, centralized power, militarism as a foundational weapon, and forcible suppression of opposition. At Common Power, we have a rising-leadership program built for creating a new generation equipped for this moment: Action Academy. Started in 2020, Action Academy is a 10-week summer intensive internship program – all on zoom, to make it widely accessible -- for developing leaders, with three pillars: education + strategic organizing + public action. In February and March 2026, we received 650+ applications for our 2026 summer cohort: a nearly 50% increase on our 2025 cohort, which itself was nearly a doubling of our previous high-water mark. These 2026 applicants hail from 35+ states, 370+ colleges/universities, and 15+ countries, and are two-thirds BIPOC and female. This is our moment, this is the program, and we are determined to build an army – a nonviolent one -- of next-generation leaders for democracy.

Please join us for a "lunchtime zoom" of inspiration and fundraising, hosted by Action Academy staff leaders Larcy Douglas and Blossom Pianwi, and featuring student leaders from this summer's cohort! And THEN PLEASE TAKE ACTION by helping us raise funds for two dimensions of this year’s work:

· Fund A Student to Enroll Summer 2026. We pay students a $1000 stipend for their participation in Action Academy. Unpaid internships replicate patterns of wealth and inequality; paying students is how we build a diverse cohort and enables the participants to devote their full selves to learning, stretching, and taking the first steps of action. It’s an essential way we at Common Power build actual common power. We are dedicated to creating an army of next-generation democracy fighters who understand the challenges, see pathways for possibility, and are committed to doing the hard work of building a just and inclusive American democracy. These sponsorships are c3 (tax-deductible) funds.

· Sponsor A Student to Mobilize Voters. In our political work, Common Power trains and leads volunteers to mobilize voters in crucial elections across America. We do this in teams, and next-generation leaders – starting in their late teens – are essential to building the America we seek: diverse across age, race, geography, and economics. We are working in 25+ states in 2026, with one goal: to win the federal midterm elections in the US House and US Senate. Upon graduating from Action Academy, students are democracy fighters eager to join teams of everyday volunteers knocking doors to win elections. The students just need funds to do so! These sponsorships are c4 (non-tax-deductible) funds.

We seek to raise $1.5 million by June 23, when Action Academy begins for summer 2026. It's a huge goal for us! In straightforward terms, every dollar of funding support = more next-gen leaders we can include and cultivate. We have 22 full-time staff at Common Power, and nearly half of them are graduates of Action Academy!

As part of this fundraiser, we are thrilled to announce that thanks to super generous donors, as part of this event we have a fund (a) to triple match every donation $500 to $1500, (b) to double match every donation $1500 to $10,000, and (c) to match every donation $10,000 to $25,000. We would be honored to receive your support (we love IRAs and stock donations!).