Grants and Grantees / Close-Ups / National Priorities Project

In 1983, Greg Speeter was living with three friends in Springfield, Massachusetts and watching as the social programs that had started to rejuvenate their economically slumping community began to shut down.  As programs kept closing, the four realized that the problem was bigger than any one organization, and decided they needed to learn more about the federal budget process.  So they drove to the University of Massachusetts and poured through dusty budget reports, finding that over a two-year period Springfield's congressional district had lost over $54 million across a variety of spending areas, including housing, education, and health care.  They took their analysis to Congressman Silvio Conte, a fiscal conservative, who at first refused to look at the numbers.  They kept pushing, and the congressman was shocked by what he saw.  Their dramatic illustration of the impact of budget cuts on his constituents led the congressman to become a strong supporter of federal funding for community-based programs.  And the National Priorities Project (NPP) was born. 

Executive Director Jo Comerford says that she draws inspiration from the story of the NPP's origins. "It's a timeless story that reminds us all of how powerful information is."   Ever since that first budget analysis, the NPP has been helping people in cities and towns across America understand how federal spending decisions impact their local communities.  

The raw data on federal spending is vast, complex, and for most people, incredibly daunting.  The National Priorities Project takes those numbers and converts them into tools, press releases, and fact sheets that people can use to mobilize their neighbors and appeal to their elected representatives.  Users concerned about education, for example, can go to the NPP Web site to look up the average teacher salary in their state, see how salaries have changed in the past five years, and generate a graph showing that change.  Or they can use the popular "tradeoff tool" to see how many teacher salaries could have been paid using their town's share of funding for nuclear weapons programs. 

Comerford says that she likes to think of the NPP as "pulling back the curtain on the federal budget and shining the light in."  The National Priorities Project, she says, helps people sort through the complex and often confusing federal budget process and leverage the power of information for social change.  Kevin Martin, executive director of advocacy group Peace Action, agrees that "because of the numbers they're working with, their materials could be very dry and very dense, but they go to great lengths to make their data-driven analysis user-friendly and relevant."

And the NPP is continually working to get the numbers in its rich database out to communities.  Says Martin, "NPP always take great pains to make sure their data is used by activists and grassroots organizations, not just by policymakers."  The organization holds conferences and popular education workshops, and has started offering webinars and Spanish translations of its materials.  Its "Cost of War" counter, which shows how the cost of the Iraq War increases by the second, receives 2.5 million hits every day. 

Local and national advocacy and community groups have used this information to argue for changes in federal spending policies.  Diverse groups ranging from firefighters to teachers to environmentalists have used NPP numbers to illustrate their stories about the impact of funding cuts on their programs.  Media outlets also use NPP statistics to enrich stories about funding.

As Comerford explains, "As a number, $600 billion has no meaning.  But I understand what a teacher means, and I understand what clean air means.  So when I see where my tax dollars are going, it really resonates with me."  The National Priorities Project does the work of making those numbers real.