Faith in Public Life has laid off 90% of its staff, according to a story first reported by Sojourners.
The nonprofit founded in 2006 by Jennnifer Butler, a Presbyterian Church (USA) minister, is a left-leaning faith-based organization whose stated mission is “to advance the moral imperative for a just, inclusive and equitable country that allows each of us to live into our full humanity. We do this by building power and cultures of belonging among diverse influential faith leaders and resourcing them to expand the narrative on the vision for our democracy.”
With roots in the Center for American Progress, a progressive policy think tank originally led by John Podesta, Faith in Public Life was envisioned as “a sort of organizational anchor for the Religious Left, a strategy hub that would coordinate disparate groups and develop overarching media strategies for campaigns.”
That mission took on more urgent relevance after the 2016 presidential election, when Donald Trump’s surprise victory activated the Religious Left.
Among a variety of rallies and calls-to-action, Butler famously joined others in bringing a golden calf to the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City in October 2011 and then to McPherson Square in Washington, D.C., in December 2011.
However, Butler left Faith in Public Life in 2022 to focus on the fight against Christian nationalism. Then last year, she joined the Harris-Walz campaign as faith outreach coordinator. Today, she is a consultant, writer and speaker on religion, public policy and democracy.
Jeanné Lewis
Jeanné Lewis, who had a similar background in faith-based organizing, was named to lead Faith in Public Life.
In 2021, Faith in Public Life received a “significant multimillion-dollar gift” from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott and reported $6 million in revenue in its tax filings for the year — an increase from the $4.2 million the year before and the $2.8 million the year before that, according to IRS filings reviewed by BNG.
But for 2023, Faith in Public Life reported grants and contributions of only $223,802 — a dramatic drop from previous years.
Lewis told Sojourners: “If you had asked me last year, I never would have imagined this was a possibility. We did have some large grants that were coming to an end, but until very recently … we expected at least some of them to be renewed, if not all of them to be renewed. There has been a hesitation to make commitments on the part of institutional philanthropy since last fall, so even before the election. It was very hard to gauge what institutional philanthropies would or wouldn’t do, what they might be interested in, their priorities, or what they might commit to. And that’s been an ongoing issue over the last nine to 12 months.”
As a result of the layoffs, staff as reduced from 19 people to two, effective Aug. 1. Faith in Public Life Action, a related nonprofit, also will scale back programming, Lewis told Sojourners.
This news from Faith in Public Life came about the same time another justice-oriented nonprofit announced its closure. Also in August, Equal Justice USA announced its shut down due to the Trump administration’s revocation of more than $3 million in federal grant funding earmarked by Congress to reduce violence and crime.
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