A Message From Our Co-Founders
During the 2018 midterms, we started scheming about how there was a real opportunity to build a new organization in New Hampshire focused on supporting, recruiting, engaging and training working age people in the state. We founded 603 Forward and the Forward Foundation on the theory that New Hampshire will thrive if the next generation of leaders are supported, encouraged and lifted up. The future generations of leaders will focus on the issues most impacting the state today; our aging workforce, our system that perpetuates scarcity - holding our generation and young generations down, and fundamentally reforming our democracy.
These future leaders need our collective encouragement but they will not succeed without tangible and aggressive training, mentorship and governance support. When we founded 603 Forward in 2019, and later the Forward Foundation in 2022, no one was asking us to and to be honest we didn’t realize what we were embarking on.
With a solid base of election cycles and legislative sessions under our belts as staffers (and while Lucas was President of NH Young Dems ), we seized on the opportunity to build something new, something scrappy, something powerful, something lasting. But in order to accomplish any of our lofty goals, it would require the very unsexy and laborious process of building a new, independent non-profit from scratch.
Following an especially lean couple months after the 2020 election that required Lucas to drive around the state collecting checks to make payroll - Lucas convinced Liz that 603 Forward could be more impactful with us investing real time and effort in the organization. He figured one of us had the “know how” and the other a “can do attitude.” Over 2021, short and long term plans and programs were brainstormed, and the purposeful growth of the organization was executed with Molly Lunn-Owen, 603 Forward’s first Executive Director, over daily morning check in meetings, or 8pm Monday planning calls that could run for a couple hours.
Over the past six years, as volunteer Co Founders and Board Chairs we have spent thousands of hours, running trainings, thinking through programs, talking with potential candidates, hiring and training staff, writing grant proposals and reports, talking to donors, editing emails, talking points, or mail pieces, balancing the budget, working with partners, executing special projects like ad campaigns- whatever was needed to get the job done and keep moving forward.
Some of our closest friends still think we work for 603 Forward and the Forward Foundation.
The sweat equity and anxiety is intense, and there is little glamor or recognition in this kind of endeavor, but nothing “fills our cup” like hard work with purpose and impact. We’ve been incredibly proud to build an important piece of New Hampshire’s progressive infrastructure that is collaborative and delivers long term power to make our state better.
Between the two organizations we have been able to:
Onboard our second Executive Director, Julianne Gadoury!
Scale the team to 9 full time staff, becoming a nationally recognized leadership development hub and the largest in New England.
Help 280+ young leaders win their elections.
Host 60+ “Run for Office” workshops and trainings.
Developed innovative local, state, and Federal advocacy programs generating thousands of direct actions and over a hundred organizing events.
Launched “first of its kind” non-partisan voter education program reaching hundreds of thousands of Granite State voters.
Raise $3.5+ million dollars to make it all happen, with the yearly operating budget between both organizations over $1m.
Over the past few months, there have been natural staff transitions at 603 and TFF as staffers leave, are promoted and new staff join the team. Our work is successful - and frankly contingent on - new young leaders finding and taking opportunities to step up and lead. So it is time for us to lead by example and create an opportunity for new leadership by stepping down as Board Chairs of 603 Forward and The Forward Foundation.
The future is bright. The team is truly in a unique position in our ecosystem to execute innovative programs and grow in this seemingly existential moment. We are confident that this team—and the leaders who step up next—will continue pushing forward with bold ideas, deep integrity, and unshakable commitment to the next generation of leaders.
There’s critical work ahead. From electing local leaders in city races this fall to fighting back against coordinated ongoing attacks on our right to vote, we know this moment demands energy, urgency, clarity, and courage. And we are proud that the 603 Forward and Forward Foundation team is ready to rise to do the work needed. We’re incredibly grateful to Tim Smith-Gerding who will serve as Interim TFF Board Chair and we know there will be an equally capable leader stepping in to serve 603 Forward. We are as excited as ever about the board and team’s leadership, vision, and heart for this work that is to come.
And if you know either of us, you know that we will never stop asking people, including you, to fight like hell for our future, to demand more from our democracy, and to step up and run for office or serve as an election official.
Go Fight Win!
Liz Wester + Lucas S. Meyer
Co-Founders + Outgoing Board Chairs
The Forward Foundation and 603 Forward
