Democracy Alliance | |
Basic facts | |
Location: | Washington, D.C. |
Affiliation: | Democratic |
Top official: | Gara LaMarche, President |
Founder(s): | Rob Stein |
Year founded: | 2005 |
Website: | Official website |
The Democracy Alliance (DA) is an invite-only network of progressive donors (known as partners), who pay annual dues and agree to give a set amount of money each year to DA-endorsed organizations.[1] DA spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller told Politico in 2014 that, "The Democracy Alliance was organized to provie a forum for people with a shared set of principles to coordinate their resources more efficiently and effectively to achieve their common goals."[2]
Following President Donald Trump's election in 2016, the DA added groups opposing the Trump administration and its congressional and state-level allies to its portfolio. The New York Times reported in October 2017 that the DA had "suspended its intensive vetting and approval process to recommend donations to a host of [anti-Trump] groups created since last fall's election."[3]
As of February 2018, the DA's website offered the following summary of the group's mission:
“ |
We address the most pressing challenges of our day through investments in three connected areas: a just democracy, a fair economy and an environmentally sustainable future.[4][5] |
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The Democracy Alliance was founded in 2005 by Democratic strategist Rob Stein, former chief of staff to Clinton administration Commerce Secretary Ron Brown. Stein traced the Republican Party's electoral successes in the early 2000s to a $300-million network of conservative donors and political groups.[6]
He proposed DA to Democratic donors, including George Soros and Tim Gill, as a liberal counterweight to the conservative network. According to The Washington Post, the inspiration for the group "was a belief that Democrats became the minority party in part because liberals do not have a well-funded network of policy shops, watchdog groups and training centers for activists equivalent to what has existed for years on the right."[1]
Stein told the Post in 2006 that, "It is not possible in the 21st century to promote a coherent belief system and maintain political influence without a robust, enduring local, state and national institutional infrastructure. Currently, the center-left is comparatively less strategic, coordinated and well financed than the conservative-right. These comparative disadvantages are debilitating."[1]
As of February 2018, the website for the Democracy Alliance listed the following individuals as board members:[7]
According to a list of membership benefits and participation options obtained by Politico in 2014, the yearly dues for DA partners that year were $30,000 for an individual and $60,000 for a family or institution. Individuals were expected to give $200,000 per year to DA-approved groups, and institutions and families were expected to give $1 million. The table below provides more information about the membership options and benefits available to DA partners as of 2014.[8]
Democracy Alliance membership options, 2014 | |
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Governing Partners | Foundation Subscribers |
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The DA does not publish the names of its partners, but a number of current and former members have been identified in media reports and leaked documents. The table below lists organizations and individuals who have been identified as current or former DA members.[1][3][6][9][10][11]
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“ | We must take the fight to the states, and put our dollars where they are most needed. To paint the future in places where we have some power, like Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, and California, so that when we win back power in other places there is a roadmap for a better America. To keep and expand our gains in Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Mexico and North Carolina. To take back Ohio and Michigan and Florida and Wisconsin. To keep our eyes on the prizes of Arizona, Georgia and my beloved Texas, and down the line, southern states with now un-registered Black and Immigrant voters, and prairie and western states where proud progressive populist traditions can be reawakened.[5] | ” |
Following President Donald Trump's election in 2016, the DA shifted its emphasis to groups opposing the Trump administration and its allies. It distributed an updated list of approved groups, referred to as the "Resistance Map" and including both previous DA grantees and new anti-Trump groups, to DA partners in July 2017.[3] Click "show" on the box below to view the full list of groups included on the Resistance Map, the categories into which they were grouped, and the DA issue areas on which they worked, as presented in a document obtained by The New York Times.[16]
Resistance Map groups, 2017 | ||
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Category | Group | Issue |
Organizing/Advocacy | ||
Center for Community Change | Multi-Issue | |
Center for Popular Democracy | Multi-Issue | |
Color of Change | Multi-Issue | |
Coworker.org | Multi-Issue | |
Faith in Public Life | Multi-Issue | |
Health Care for America Now | Equitable and Just Nation | |
Mijente | Equitable and Just Nation | |
Millions of Jobs | Inclusive Economy | |
MoveOn.Org | Multi-Issue | |
National Domestic Workers Alliance | Multi-Issue | |
Organizing for Action | Multi-Issue | |
People's Action | Multi-Issue | |
People's Defense | Multi-Issue | |
PICO National Network | Multi-Issue | |
Planned Parenthood | Equitable and Just Nation | |
#RESIST | Multi-Issue | |
SafetyNet Defense Fund | Equitable and Just Nation | |
United We Dream | Equitable and Just Nation | |
Working America | Multi-Issue | |
Working Families | Multi-Issue | |
Litigation/Advocacy | ||
ACLU | Multi-Issue | |
Advancement Project | Fair Democracy | |
Brennan Center for Justice | Fair Democracy | |
Demos | Fair Democracy | |
National Immigration Law Center | Equitable and Just Nation | |
Rapid Response | ||
Emergent Fund | Multi-Issue | |
Women Effect Fund | Equitable and Just Nation | |
Corporate and Government Ethics | ||
American Oversight | Fair Democracy | |
Backers of Hate | Fair Democracy | |
CREW | Fair Democracy | |
Map the Power | Fair Democracy | |
Swamp Watch | Fair Democracy | |
United to Protect Democracy | Fair Democracy | |
Advocacy | ||
Americans for Financial Reform | Inclusive Economy | |
Center for American Progress | Fair Democracy | |
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | Multi-Issue | |
National Employment Law Project | Inclusive Economy | |
Electoralizing the Groundswell | ||
America Votes | - | |
Catalist | - | |
Flippable | - | |
#KnockEveryDoor | - | |
The Resistance Calendar | Multi-Issue | |
Resistance Summer | - | |
Sister District | - | |
Swing Left | - | |
Political Bundling | ||
GiveGreen | Safe and Sustainable Planet | |
Pressuring Elected Officials | ||
Daily Action | Multi-Issue | |
Daily Grab Back | Multi-Issue | |
5Calls.org | Multi-Issue | |
Indivisible | Multi-Issue | |
People Power | Multi-Issue | |
#ReadyToResist | Multi-Issue | |
#ResistTrumpTuesdays | Multi-Issue | |
Stand Up America | Multi-Issue | |
TownHall Project | Multi-Issue | |
Wall of Us | Multi-Issue | |
Messaging/Media Monitoring | ||
Media Matters for America | Multi-Issue | |
Priorities USA | Multi-Issue | |
Progress Now | Multi-Issue | |
Protecting Direct Democracy | ||
Ballot Initiative Strategy Center | Fair Democracy | |
Backend Services | ||
Action Network | - | |
Amplify | - | |
Innovation & Accelerators | ||
Higher Ground Labs | - | |
New Left Accelerator | - | |
New Media Ventures | Multi-Issue | |
Mass Mobilization | ||
March for Science | Safe and Sustainable Planet | |
People's Climate March | Safe and Sustainable Planet | |
Women's March DC | Multi-Issue | |
Storytelling | ||
Pantsuit Nation | Multi-Issue | |
PushBlack | Multi-Issue | |
Volunteer Matching | ||
Prolog | - |
"A 2020 Vision for the Democracy Alliance: Funding Recommendations," a document obtained by Politico in 2015, outlined the DA's goals for the following five years, including an annual partner spending goal of $30-50 million. It also listed the 39 approved groups in the DA's core portfolio. The groups were divided into four categories:[17]
The following sections list the groups in the core portfolio by category. Click "show" on the box in each section to see a full list of the organizations in each category.
Organization | About |
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Advancement Project | "Advancement Project is a next generation, multi-racial civil rights organization. Rooted in the great human rights struggles for equality and justice, we exist to fulfill America's promise of a caring, inclusive and just democracy. We use innovative tools and strategies to strengthen social movements and achieve high impact policy change."[18] |
American Constitution Society | "The American Constitution Society (ACS) believes that law should be a force to improve the lives of all people. ACS works for positive change by shaping debate on vitally important legal and constitutional issues through development and promotion of high-impact ideas to opinion leaders and the media; by building networks of lawyers, law students, judges and policymakers dedicated to those ideas; and by countering the activist conservative legal movement that has sought to erode our enduring constitutional values. By bringing together powerful, relevant ideas and passionate, talented people, ACS makes a difference in the constitutional, legal and public policy debates that shape our democracy."[19] |
Americans for Financial Reform | "Americans for Financial Reform is a nonpartisan and nonprofit coalition of more than 200 civil rights, consumer, labor, business, investor, faith-based, and civic and community groups. Formed in the wake of the 2008 crisis, we are working to lay the foundation for a strong, stable, and ethical financial system – one that serves the economy and the nation as a whole. AFR has been called "the leading voice for Wall Street accountability" in Washington (by Zach Carter of the Huffington Post)."[20] |
Brennan Center for Justice | "The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that seeks to improve our systems of democracy and justice. We work to hold our political institutions and laws accountable to the twin American ideals of democracy and equal justice for all. The Center’s work ranges from voting rights to campaign finance reform, from ending mass incarceration to preserving Constitutional protection in the fight against terrorism. Part think tank, part advocacy group, part cutting-edge communications hub, we start with rigorous research. We craft innovative policies. And we fight for them - in Congress and the states, the courts, and in the court of public opinion."[21] |
Constitutional Accountability Center | "Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC) is a think tank, law firm, and action center dedicated to fulfilling the progressive promise of our Constitution’s text and history. We work in our courts, through our government, and with legal scholars to preserve the rights and freedoms of all Americans and to protect our judiciary from politics and special interests. CAC launched on June 3, 2008."[22] |
Economic Policy Institute | "The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank created in 1986 to include the needs of low- and middle-income workers in economic policy discussions. EPI believes every working person deserves a good job with fair pay, affordable health care, and retirement security. To achieve this goal, EPI conducts research and analysis on the economic status of working America. EPI proposes public policies that protect and improve the economic conditions of low- and middle-income workers and assesses policies with respect to how they affect those workers."[23] |
LeadingGreen | "The threat of global climate change has never been more obvious, or more urgent. Life as we know it hangs in the balance and time is running out. But the debate has stalled in Washington. Well-funded forces of inaction have their thumbs on the scales: big oil and coal companies lobby, billionaires build fake grassroots, and Tea Party extremists deny, deny, deny. The world needs a mighty lever that can counter the extremists, change the debate, and create effective champions for real, sustained progress. LeadingGreen is the powerful new alliance that unites top influencers in the environmental community to boost their engagement and their leverage on climate priorities. Founded by two of the most formidable groups in Washington, LeadingGreen combines the political savvy of League of Conservation Voters with the policymaking prowess of the National Resources Defense Council Action Fund."[24] |
National Employment Law Project | "For more than 45 years, NELP has sought to ensure that America upholds for all workers her promise of opportunity and economic security through work. NELP fights for policies to create good jobs, expand access to work, and strengthen protections and support for low-wage workers and the unemployed. We publish research that illuminates workers’ issues; promote policies that improve workers’ lives; lend deep legal and policy expertise to important cases and campaigns; and partner with allies to advance crucial reforms."[25] |
Progressive Majority | "Progressive Majority's mission is to elect progressive champions. We accomplish this by identifying and recruiting the best progressive leaders to run for office; coaching and supporting their candidacies by providing strategic message, campaign, and technical support; prioritizing the recruitment and election of candidates of color; and bringing new people into the political process at all levels."[26] |
Roosevelt Institute | "The Roosevelt Institute is a nonprofit organization devoted to carrying forward the legacy and values of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt by developing progressive ideas and bold leadership in the service of restoring America’s promise of opportunity for all."[27] |
Victory 2021 | "Issue One helped lead investment in and development of the first-ever multi-year battle plan that maps out precisely where (and how) we can prevail in the coming years. The "Victory 2021" plan provides focus for a diverse coalition and gives marching orders to those working toward reform. Additionally, the plan provides an opportunity for donors to gain access to information about the good work being done within the money-in-politics reform community, where organizations and leaders are collaborating and aligning their activities, and where investments are needed, all directed towards efforts that will build momentum toward ultimate success."[28] |
Organization | About |
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America Votes | "America Votes serves as the central coordination hub of the progressive community both nationally and in states across the country. Working with over 400 state and national partner organizations, as well as a robust range of data and targeting tools, America Votes leads collaborative efforts to advance progressive policies, expand access to the ballot, coordinate issue advocacy and election campaigns, and protect every American's right to vote."[29] |
Center for American Progress | "The Center for American Progress is an independent nonpartisan policy institute that is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans, through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action. Our aim is not just to change the conversation, but to change the country."[30] |
Center for Community Change | "Only social movements can create social change. That’s why, Center for Community Change, and its sister, Center for Community Change Action, work to build social movements. The Center’s mission is to build the power and capacity of low-income people, especially low-income people of color, to change their communities and public policies for the better. Right now, we’re empowering the people most affected by injustice to lead movements to improve the policies that affect their lives. Our focus areas include jobs and wages, immigration, retirement security, affordable housing, racial justice and barriers to employment for formerly incarcerated individuals."[31] |
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities | "We are a nonpartisan research and policy institute. We pursue federal and state policies designed both to reduce poverty and inequality and to restore fiscal responsibility in equitable and effective ways. We apply our deep expertise in budget and tax issues and in programs and policies that help low-income people, in order to help inform debates and achieve better policy outcomes."[32] |
Center for Popular Democracy | "The Center for Popular Democracy works to create equity, opportunity and a dynamic democracy in partnership with high-impact base-building organizations, organizing alliances, and progressive unions. CPD strengthens our collective capacity to envision and win an innovative pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial and economic justice agenda."[33] |
Color of Change | "ColorOfChange.org exists to strengthen Black America's political voice. Our goal is to empower our members - Black Americans and our allies - to make government more responsive to the concerns of Black Americans and to bring about positive political and social change for everyone. Using the Internet, we enable our members to speak in unison, with an amplified political voice. We keep them informed about the most pressing issues for Black people in America and give them ways to act. We lobby elected representatives using email, the telephone, and face-to-face meetings."[34] |
Demos | "Demos is a public policy organization working for an America where we all have an equal say in our democracy and an equal chance in our economy. Our name means “the people.” It is the root word of democracy, and it reminds us that in America, the true source of our greatness is the diversity of our people. Our nation’s highest challenge is to create a democracy that truly empowers people of all backgrounds, so that we all have a say in setting the policies that shape opportunity and provide for our common future. To help America meet that challenge, Demos is working to reduce both political and economic inequality, deploying original research, advocacy, litigation, and strategic communications to create the America the people deserve."[35] |
Media Matters for America | "Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. Launched in May 2004, Media Matters for America put in place, for the first time, the means to systematically monitor a cross section of print, broadcast, cable, radio, and Internet media outlets for conservative misinformation - news or commentary that is not accurate, reliable, or credible and that forwards the conservative agenda - every day, in real time."[36] |
National People's Action | "National People's Action (NPA) is a network of grassroots organizations with a fierce reputation for direct action from across the country that work to advance a national economic and racial justice agenda. NPA has over 200 organizers working to unite everyday people in cities, towns, and rural communities throughout the United States through direct-action, house meetings and community organizing."[37] |
New Organizing Institute | "NOI is the nationwide leader in data and digital trainings for progressive campaigners and organizers. No one else does what we do. NOI was founded on the belief that well-trained organizers who can harness new technology and information can change the way we organize and win campaigns. While this seems like an obvious conclusion today, this concept was groundbreaking when we started back in 2005, and has changed politics forever. In 2014, NOI trained 2,778 organizers in nine states and the District of Columbia, with 76 trainees graduating from our signature Data and Digital BootCamp programs."[38] |
Organizing for Action | "Organizing for Action is a movement of millions of Americans, coming together to fight for real, lasting change. With more than 250 local chapters around the country, OFA volunteers are building this organization from the ground up, community by community, one conversation at a time - whether that’s on a front porch or on Facebook. We're committed to finding and training the next generation of great progressive organizers, because at the end of the day, we aren't the first to fight for progressive change, and we won’t be the last."[39] |
PICO | "PICO is a national network of faith-based community organizations working to create innovative solutions to problems facing urban, suburban and rural communities. Since 1972 PICO has successfully worked to increase access to health care, improve public schools, make neighborhoods safer, build affordable housing, redevelop communities and revitalize democracy."[40] |
ProgressNow | "Since 2003, ProgressNow has been developing our network of state partner organizations to fill a unique and critical role in the progressive infrastructure of key states. ProgressNow State Partners serve as non-stop, multi-issue advocacy organizations. Year-round, we promote progressive ideas and causes with creative earned media strategies, targeted email campaigns, and cutting-edge new media. Working with our allies, we have significantly improved the communications effort of the entire progressive community in our states. Today, we've built an email list that exceeds 4 million people. We've generated thousands of news stories in local, state, and national press. And we've pushed the use of social technologies and new media, not only through our own organizations, but in partnership with our allies."[41] |
State Voices | "State Voices champions democracy because we believe America will thrive when all citizens can and do participate equally. We envision a country where 100% of eligible voters successfully cast a ballot on Election Day, and where every person exercises their power to impact the decisions that shape our nation. By doing so, decisions will be made that benefit all, not just some, Americans. The State Voices network supports creative ways to mobilize and empower people across the country so their voices are heard and their participation assured in the public sphere, particularly those who make up the emerging majority. We call this "civic engagement" – actively engaging Americans in the decision and policy-making processes that impact their lives, their communities, their states and their country."[42] |
Working America | "Together, and in solidarity with working people across the country, we fight for our common interests - good jobs, affordable health care, education, retirement security, corporate accountability and real democracy. We want to ensure our kids have a quality education, our grandparents don’t have to decide between paying for their monthly medication or paying for food and that we will have a secure retirement when our working days have ended. Since 2003, we’ve been organizing in neighborhoods across the country. We talk with our friends and neighbors to learn their needs and priorities and get them engaged on the issues that matter most. And we provide tools, research, information and assistance that can help make working people’s lives better."[43] |
Working Families Party/Organization | "Working Families is a growing progressive political organization that fights for an economy that works for all of us, and a democracy in which every voice matters. We believe that our children’s life chances must not be determined at birth, and that America must be a nation that allows all its people to thrive."[44] |
Organization | About |
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Ballot Initiative Strategy Center | "Ballot-measure campaigns affect everything progressives fight for. Yet, for forty years, well-funded regressive and corporate interests have dominated ballot measures to the detriment of working families, public education, women, the LGBT community, communities of color, immigrants and the poor. The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center is changing that. BISC strengthens democracy by building a national progressive strategy for ballot measures. In ten years, BISC envisions a future where progressives change the game and use ballot measures as a political and civic engagement tool for victory."[45] |
Catalist | "We provide progressive organizations with the data and services needed to better identify, understand, and communicate with the people they need to persuade and mobilize."[46] |
Citizen Engagement Laboratory | "CEL was created in 2008 by Ian Inaba, James Rucker, and Daniel Souweine as a home for social entrepreneurs like themselves and a launching pad for new ideas and people powered projects that seek to change the world by leveraging the power of the internet. Since then, CEL has worked with dozens of startups, entrepreneurs, and philanthropic partners to expand the impact and reach of people powered change."[47] |
New Media Ventures | "We are the first national network of angel investors supporting media and tech startups that disrupt politics and catalyze progressive change. We look for scalable, revenue-generating, tech startups that create long-term political impact beyond any one election cycle."[48] |
Committee on States | "COS is a national organization that works to create, nurture, and sustain a community of state-based progressive funders and institutional partners throughout the country. COS is focused on creating successful state-based political networks to advance progressive causes and produce lasting change within individual states."[49] |
State Innovation Exchange | "Elected officials and staff across the country are writing legislation that will shape our future. At SiX, we provide trusted, expert resources to inform and enhance that work. Together, we're building the legislative wing of the progressive movement. SiX aims to encourage cross-pollination among states, providing a platform for the best ideas to spread and grow. We're an ally in tough fights, and we provide cover in places where our resources make the biggest impact. With a SiX account, users can access a legislative library, follow the activity of key legislators, and track issues as they evolve in each of the states. It's an unprecedented set of tools designed to ensure the best thinking on current issues is used to advance progressive legislation in all 50 states."[50] |
Wellstone Action | "We believe that politics shouldn't be about money and power games - it should be about the improvement of people's lives. That's the kind of politics Paul Wellstone embodied: one where we all do better when we all do better. And with a radical, resurgent conservative movement on the rise, it's the kind of politics we need now more than ever. We believe that electoral politics, public policy, and grassroots organizing can be woven together to create progressive change. We call it the Wellstone Triangle, and it anchors everything we do. We believe that to set this triangle in motion, and sustain change over the long haul, we need to develop a critical mass of diverse leaders with the motivation and expertise to win back our values. So that’s what we do."[51] |
Organization | About[49] |
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Climate Change Fund | To expand public engagement to enact state and national climate policies. Affiliated 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations directed by Kathryn Greenberg. |
Democracy Fund | To make voting easier and defend the right to vote. Affiliated 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) organizations directed by Julie Kohler. |
Inclusive Economy Fund | To support campaigns that change the public's sense of what is possible in policy and politics. Affiliated 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) organizations directed by Zoe Hudson. |
New America Majority Fund | To build political power and organizational capacity. Affiliated 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) organizations directed by Eduardo Morales. |
State Engagement Initiative | To support state based electoral strategy. A 501(c)(4) organization directed by Frank Smith. |
As of 2014, DA partners could nominate two organizations each year for inclusion on the DA's Progressive Infrastructure Map. According to a confidential investment portfolio issued to partners in the spring of 2014, the Progressive Infrastructure Map included the following 172 organizations:[52]
Click to view all 172 groups | |||
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The Secretary of State Project was launched in 2006 to support Democratic candidates for secretary of state. Its formation was motivated by what its founders viewed as partisan activity by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (R) in 2000 and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell (R) in 2004. "We were tired of Republican manipulation of elections," said cofounder Michael Kieschnick. "It seemed like lots of decisions were made by people who were pretty clearly political operatives."[53]
During a panel discussion at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, DA announced that it had approved the Secretary of State Project as a grantee.[54]
The table below presents election results for candidates backed by the project in 2006 and 2008.
Secretary of State Project candidates, 2006 and 2008 | |||
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State | Election Year | Candidate | Margin of Victory |
Iowa | 2006 | Michael Mauro | 7.4% |
Minnesota | 2006 | Mark Ritchie | 4.9% |
Nevada | 2006 | Ross Miller | 8.1% |
New Mexico | 2006 | Mary Herrera | 8.4% |
Ohio | 2006 | Jennifer Brunner | 14.6% |
Colorado | 2006 | Ken Gordon | (defeated) |
Michigan | 2006 | Carmella Sabaugh | -14.2% (defeated) |
Missouri | 2008 | Robin Carnahan | 26.2% |
Montana | 2008 | Linda McCulloch | 1.1% |
Oregon | 2008 | Kate Brown | 5.2% |
West Virginia | 2008 | Natalie Tennant | 30% |
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