From Ideas to Impact: The Moderate Power Venture Fund's Inaugural Year in Review

The Moderate Power Venture Fund (MPVF), one of five programs in Third Way’s Moderate Power Project, invests in entrepreneurial initiatives that address key gaps in the center-left ecosystem. MPVF awarded its inaugural round of grants in May of 2024 to a cohort of dynamic moderate organizations including Common Sense Coalition, The Next 50, The Welcome Party, and Young People’s Alliance. Over the past year, these groups have translated bold ideas into action—growing audiences, sharpening strategies, and strengthening the connective tissue of the center left. Below is a summary of how each organization put their grant funding to work, making impactful progress over the past twelve months.

The Next 50

The Next 50 (TN50) provides support for the next generation of civic-minded philanthropists and public leaders by building community, providing strategic advice, and facilitating leadership development.

TN50 used its seed grant from MPVF to transform its Civic Leadership Development Program (CLDP) from an early-stage concept into a comprehensive initiative supporting young, center-left elected leaders. The program engaged nearly half of its endorsed leaders through events, peer mentorship, and a newly developed Best Practices Handbook with over 100 pages of governance and work-life balance strategies. High-profile engagements included events with Rep. Pat Ryan and Secretary Pete Buttigieg, while peer mentors such as Rep. Sarah McBride provided guidance to participants.

Strategically, CLDP also formalized a partnership with NewDEAL Leaders, further embedding its work into the broader center-left leadership pipeline. The program secured an additional $425,000 from follow-on funders, validating its impact and enabling future scaling. These efforts fill a critical gap in the center-left ecosystem by institutionalizing support for rising leaders in battleground districts and creating replicable governance models for the next generation.

The Welcome Party

The Welcome Party conducts high-impact research, analysis, and convenings to protect American democracy and support a robust center-left faction of a Big Tent Democratic Party.

Welcome leveraged its MPVF investment to exponentially expand the reach and influence of its communications platform, WelcomeStack. Views surged from 142,000 to over 1.5 million, with more than $100,000 raised from subscribers and 60,000+ new followers added across social media. This growth validated Welcome's scalable fundraising and messaging strategy, with effective use of cohort analysis, creative design, and messaging focused on value and urgency.

The platform also positioned itself as a national thought leader, hosting influential polling on presidential alternatives and shaping moderate discourse. Lessons learned during this growth phase are now being applied to a new project aimed at reaching two million Democratic donor contacts. Welcome is also investing in creative talent to build a more distinctive brand identity across its expanding media ecosystem.

Young People’s Alliance

Young People’s Alliance (YPA) is a youth-led nonprofit that empowers young people through student-led advocacy and organizing and builds an on-ramp into politics for those who fall outside of the political extremes.

YPA met or exceeded expectations on almost all of its goals to build a dynamic, moderate youth movement. The organization mobilized 5,500 students through Democracy Days, held 20,000 one-on-one conversations, and informed tens of thousands more young people through a variety of outreach efforts. It launched the YPA Chapter Leader Fellowship with strong engagement outcomes and adapted its legislative strategy by introducing AI companion regulation at the state level and filing a high-profile FTC complaint that catalyzed a national conversation.

YPA also led focus groups to inform a grassroots American Dream Framework, culminating in a state-level Lobby Day. With 30 active campus chapters and full-time leadership in place, YPA has laid the groundwork for long-term sustainability and expansion. Their strategic pivot to align chapter efforts around a unifying platform and invest in research fellows signals a maturing organization ready to scale its influence in policy and civic engagement.

Common Sense Coalition

Common Sense Coalition (now rebranded as part of Good Growth Alliance) is a political strategy group dedicated to rebuilding trust and restoring sanity by focusing on the practical concerns of everyday Americans.

With MPVF funds, the Coalition advanced a multifaceted strategy to strengthen a compelling center-left brand identity. Key accomplishments included creating two messaging coordination platforms: an online forum called “Sanity Check” and bi-weekly calls that facilitated collaboration among a wide array of participating organizations, such as New Dems, Center Forward, and Inclusive Abundance. This infrastructure enabled ongoing, strategic alignment on messaging and political action across the broader moderate-progressive ecosystem.

The Coalition also launched the Team Common Sense Substack, growing its subscriber base from zero to over 2,000, including influential figures like members of Congress, high-profile donors, and political staffers. One notable piece, Democrats Have an Empathy Problem of Their Own, achieved wide reach with over 65,000 views.