Our Story

Leading • Building • Innovating

Leading

  • Raised $150+ million dollars into our organizations and are honored to advise leading philanthropic investors who believe in our work.

  • Built a national leadership training program for over 9,000 fellows and extensive network of influencers across nearly every sector, including policy, politics, and business.

  • Innovative opinion research on 210,000+ voters that has shaped Democrats’ policy and message.

Innovating

  • Indigov: Mark serves as Senior Advisor to Indigov, which provides a constituent management and communications tool for elected officials and government offices. It currently support ~1/3 of the US House, along with about a dozen Governors, a dozen state legislatures, and cities and counties across the country. 230 million Americans are covered by Indigov’s CRM.

  • Mobilizing Next Gen Voters: Our team has raised and deployed more than $17M over the past two election cycles to educate and mobilize Millennial and Gen Z voters. Our award-winning efforts have resulted in a significant boost in intent to vote for Democrats, including a 15% boost in intent to vote without mentioning a candidates’ name or image. By pioneering a Freedom-focused message frame that puts the voter as the hero of the story, we have found a way to reach otherwise disaffected voters. We built on our 2020 efforts through the midterms, partnering with March for Our Lives leaders David Hogg, Jackie Corin, and investor John Rosenthal, to continue this crucial work, and maintain the strategic partnership for the 2024 cycle.

  • BP Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill: Mark was hired by leading plaintiff attorneys to develop a paid communication plan and coordinate attorneys and their teams, governing agencies, and the courts to educate the people along the Gulf of Mexico on their rights after the BP Oil Spill settlement of $20.8 billion dollars.

Building

  • Building a Brand: Heading into the 2018 election cycle, one of the top political investors hired Mark Riddle to develop a plan for Democrats to reclaim the value “freedom.” Our team turned that plan into Future Majority (FM) - an influential outside, unbiased, data-driven strategy center focused on reclaiming freedom and making the American worker the hero of our story. We have built one of the most comprehensive data sets on how American voters feel about issues, their leaders, and their own lives by surveying more than 210,000 unique voters with over 30M data points. The research has resulted in leading Democrats taking back freedom in messaging, been at the forefront of winning elections since 2018, when then-DCCC chair Rep. Ben Ray Luján said our “research and messaging recommendations were very helpful as we developed the narrative to win back the House.” We have developed a statement of principles based on freedom, produced dozens of public “Playbook” recommendation reports, and published studies with leading economists. We partnered with writers in Hollywood to produce the short film Built Not Bought, a cornerstone of our message framework. Our work with policy makers from the White House, Congress, tech experts, labor leaders, and other stakeholders provides public research that helped with the passing of critical policy objectives like the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Plan, the CHIPS Act, and helping to lower the costs of healthcare through $35 insulin and taking on pharmacy benefit managers. We have raised over $70 million for this work.

  • Building a Presidential Effort: Our team led the way in 2019-2020 with a strategic research operation that identified Joe Biden as the leader needed in 2020 to beat Trump. This deep dive research included voice analysis, background research, message tests, extensive focus groups in Battleground States, and numerous meetings with leaders across the nation. The results led to us launching the leading pro-Biden super PAC in the primary and raising over $50M to support Biden, including running the ads with Congressman Jim Clyburn to win South Carolina and Super Tuesday, and ultimately the Presidency. Since then, we have regularly advised the DNC and White House on message and policy recommendations and helped inform the launch of President Biden’s 2024 kick off ad Freedom.

  • Building the Future: After a disastrous 2010 election for the Democrats, two leading philanthropic investors, recruited Mark to lead a startup organization called New Leaders Council with a goal of building a leadership bench in communities across the country. Under our leadership: 50 community chapters were built, training over 9,000 fellows, conducting 9 national conversations, raised and managed 10M+ dollars. In addition, we wrote a Compact for America, diversified the organization to majority minority, and handed over a sustainable organization that is still going strong today. These Leaders include not just elected officials, but leaders in business and political structures of those communities. Many of these individuals are now Mayors, State Legislators, Congressional leaders, and other high-level positions in local, state, and federal governments.