The Economic Opportunity Institute has received a $300,000 grant from the Satterberg Foundation, which will be distributed as three annual $100,000 disbursements for general operating funds. The grant comes at a critical time – EOI has made significant progress on multiple policy fronts in spite of a national political context that antagonizes communities of color, the LGBT community, women, the working class, indigenous nations, and the environment.

In Seattle, we have partnered with broad coalitions to ensure that workers have access to paid family and medical leave, paid sick leave, and a livable wage, while advancing progressive taxes so the wealthiest households pay their fair share in taxes. The Satterberg grant will fund EOI’s efforts to ensure equitable implementation of these landmark policy gains, while allowing us to advance other areas of our work, such as:

• Advocating for affordable, quality childcare with well-compensated teachers
• Reforming our state’s regressive tax system
• Fighting for women’s pay equity
• Advancing free community college tuition
• Supporting state supplemental Social Security
• Expanding affordable healthcare coverage to all Washingtonians

The resources provided by the Satterberg grant will also enable us to deepen our organizational commitment to racial equity, which we expressed in our 2016 Annual Report. We are currently working on a new tool to assist staff to develop proposals which are universal while speaking to needs of communities of color, and which consider potential unintended negative consequences of policy work.

“This foundational support from Satterberg will allow us to tackle the most pressing equity issues facing our state, at a critical time for working class, low-income, and middle-class Washingtonians,” said EOI Executive Director John Burbank. “We as an organization must be persistent, thorough, and optimistic in challenging systemic barriers to achieving shared opportunity and security as well as full economic, gender, and racial equity. We do this together, one policy step at a time. The Satterberg funding is a game changer for us and we are so grateful for their investment!”