A Statement from New Profit and America Forward on the Election

Boston (November 9, 2020)—We congratulate President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris on the outcome of this historic election. We celebrate that America has reached a transformative and long overdue milestone with Vice President-elect Harris becoming the first woman, as well as the first Black woman and first person of South Asian heritage, to ascend to the White House.

The American people have spoken in the form of unprecedented turnout for a Presidential election, and we are grateful for and humbled by those who braved barriers to cast a ballot, those organizations that supported this most fundamental exercise of citizenship, and the election workers who served honorably to protect our democracy.

Our community of innovators and advocates looks forward to working closely with the new Administration, and both parties in the 117th Congress, to identify and implement the most effective solutions to advance equity, foster innovation, expand opportunity, and keep moving all of America forward.

The past nine months in America have been defined by unprecedented challenges, enormous loss, and trauma. We recognize that while we’re facing the same storms, we’re not all in the same boat. The burdens of inequitable access to health, economic stability, and safety have made this election more consequential for some of the communities who struggle the most for representation in it. We stand together with them in a continued march to confront deeply entrenched inequities.

We take courage from the fact that, across the country, our communities remain strong and ready to co-design and lead the way to a more equitable future. Students, workers, families, educators, and community leaders are persevering in the face of unimagined disruption to their daily lives. Organizations, like all of those in the New Profit community and the America Forward Coalition, are working tirelessly to adapt and continue providing vital support to the communities they serve. We will continue to stand behind those social entrepreneurs, other leaders, and communities.

We are also energized by the fact that, even in the midst of a global pandemic, millions more Americans than ever before are engaging in civic participation. Through our support for Civic Lab and the Action Tank organizations and leaders, and through the ongoing advocacy work of our nonpartisan policy initiative America Forward, New Profit will continue its long-term, high priority investments in civic participation, policy engagement, and rebuilding civic trust in our country. We believe all are critical to unlocking transformative change across other inequitable systems.

We have hard work to do ahead, and we commit to reaching out across lines of differences and division to forge solutions that can truly drive America towards a more equitable future.