Informing to Empower
Informing to Empower was founded in 2016 as an educational 501(c)3 organization with a mission of using digital media to help build a stronger democracy by empowering voters to be better informed about candidates and important issues.
In December, 2024, Informing to Empower (ITE) dissolved and transferred its intellectual property, websites and democratizing media platforms to Progressive Source Communications, with an agreement that ITE’s legacy content remain on the web and accessible to the public for as long as Progressive Source remains in business.
Informing to Empower’s is to harness social networks for citizen empowerment, instead of as a source of misinformation. We believe that facilitating the expansion of transparency in the political realm is the most effective way to bring accountability and integrity to government.
In 2020, Informing to Empower’s launched and marketed its innovative non-partisan Candidates Video Debate format in two dozen congressional primary and general election races across 15 states. The freely accessible web-based format presents one to two minute-long videos of every candidate’s answer to questions in an easy to access, easy to compare and easy to share format.
In 2021, we created and marketed InformYourVote.org for the New York City mayoral primary election. More than 150,000 New Yorkers viewed our non-partisan candidate debate videos, making us the most widely used online voter education resource for the largest ranked choice voting contest in U.S. history.
Informing to Empower also worked with Indiana Town Halls in late 2021 and early 2022 to create two easily accessible virtual Town Hall presentations by Senator Mike Braun and Congress Member Andre Carson.
In 2022, Informing to Empower created a new educational project called the Climate Solutions Advocacy Institute (CSAI) to market public awareness of transformative climate solutions. Our two phase approach was:
1. To help students and faculty in environmental science departments and law schools dream innovative, scientifically-vetted public interest climate solutions into legislative being.
2. To create narratives and use evolutionary media, in the form of short web videos and microsites, to build and focus the massive public awareness politically required to assist state governments in the implementation of large scale climate solutions.
CSAI’s university program was launched with a graduate practicum course called, “Climate Solutions Advocacy: Be the Media,” during the Spring, 2022 semester at the University of California’s top ranked College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. World renowned climate scientists Anthony Wexler and Thomas Tomich joined CSAI founder and evolutionary media innovator Jonathan Greenberg to develop workable solutions to the climate crisis, such as our Direct to EV Charging Solar Farm Solution.
In the Fall 2022 semester, with the cooperation of UC Davis Law School Dean Kevin Johnson, CSAI’s Jonathan Greenberg taught an experimental new practice to law students called, “Drafting a Solar Farm Bill.”
The class objective was to create a white paper to advise CSAI on its development of a solar farm solution to allow California to meet its urgent goal of creating 100% renewable electricity for the state’s enormous needs by 2045.
In September, 2022, a concurrent practicum course, open to all UC Davis grad students, called “Revolutionary Organizing for Climate Solution Implementation” (ECO 290) was taught by CSAI’s co-founders Jonathan Greenberg and Anthony Wexler, as well as Colin Murphy, Deputy Director of UC Davis’ Policy Institute for Energy, Environment, and the Economy.
The class researched and conducted direct outreach to build support for EV charging solar farms, while gathering feedback from numerous stakeholders and grassroots organizations about the solution.
CSAI’s collaborative law and environmental graduate practicum program was followed by an evolutionary media advocacy campaign to build support around a proposed transformative climate solution program focused on grid-bypassing, market driven rural community solar installations.
After an unsuccessful attempt to convince the California state legislature to modify existing law to permit distributed energy resource microgrids around locally owned rural solar farms, CSAI attempted, in 2023, to bring a ballot measure directly to the public. The result was the Renewable Energy Acceleration Law (REAL) of 2024.
REAL would have updated the California Public Utility Code to permit “over the fence” sale of low cost solar power for a new generation of small solar family farms on agriculturally zoned land. These farms, up to 100 acres in size, would be permitted to sell the electricity that they generate to neighboring properties and rural EV charging stations within a two mile radius.
By legalizing the local sale of electricity for small grid-bypassing solar farms, REAL would have leapfrogged over the transmission capacity gridlock that has slowed the deployment of renewable energy in the state. Without any government money, REAL would have enabled solar family farms to attract as much as $2 billion a year of new investment, providing resilience in a state plagued by fires and the blackouts they cause.
REAL would have advanced climate equity in regions with some of the highest rates of asthma in the nation by powering rural EV charging stations to speed the replacement of heavy polluting diesel trucks and tractors, while also reducing hazardous dust on drought-fallowed farmland.
To qualify for the 2024 ballot, the REAL campaign would have needed to gather 600,000 signatures in the six months, starting September, 2023. While successful in raising awareness, the REAL campaign did not make it to the final 2024 ballot because it was unable to secure enough the $6 million in private funding that would have been required to hire a signature gathering company.
Informing to Empower’s past projects include InformYourVote.org. During the 2021 New York City mayoral primary, more than 150,000 New Yorkers viewed our non-partisan candidate debate videos, making us the most widely used online voter education resource for the largest ranked choice voting contest in U.S. history.
In 2020, Informing to Empower’s innovative Candidates Video Debate format first launched, covering two dozen congressional races nationwide.
For more information contact Info@ProgressiveSource.com