By Lindsey Baxter Griffith, President & Founder
For tech founders, success is a test of speed. Market leaders are those who are first to close a deal and first to break ground. In the middle of that race – between building the best models and getting it all to market – an entrepreneur can become a billionaire, or a business can flounder. Everyone has good ideas, but they mean nothing if they fizzle out during the valley of death.
The policy world is no different. And the middle of this race – this valley of death – is where energy innovation policy can be found right now.
We have the building blocks of a successful policy push. There’s high-quality research and analysis on what public investment in innovation solutions is necessary, and it’s continually being refined by experts. There’s a strong bipartisan case, grounded in economics, security, and climate. And there are coalitions ready to put their political capital to work.
But just as in the market, successful policy requires upfront investment. It needs not venture but “visionary” capital.
That money, knowledge, and capacity that can turn all of these ideas into law? It’s nowhere to be found right now. Hardly anyone is funding advocacy and lobbying to get innovation policy across the finish line. No one is stepping up to provide visionary capital.
In fact, our research at Tomorrow Energy Partners has found that the current giving of tax-deductible funds for federal innovation policy eclipses money available for lobbying by a factor of 10. The ecosystem may be ready to develop and push for new ideas, but without new philanthropic capital stepping into the breach, nothing well-formulated or strategic will move through Congress.
Because here’s the thing: only 501c4 funding and flexible dollars can be spent on ads when key innovation policies are before Congress, provide campaign time to convince legislators and their staff that these policies are critical, or target media in a key Congressional district to mobilize constituents. These are the dollars that take good policy from ideas to bills and finally into laws.
It’s an imperative today. Energy affordability is top of mind for voters across the country, and our aging grid is only raising costs while threatening reliability. Improving the innovation ecosystem through successful and durable policy reform is crucial for bringing down energy costs and modernizing the electric grid. Flexible spending capacity (these lobbying and advocacy c4 dollars) can’t be an afterthought. They are the key that can unlock the potential of our policy promises.
The time is now. With a short runway and legacy philanthropic capital focused elsewhere, this is the moment for a new kind of funder to move quickly and advance federal policy out of this valley of death. The next Congress is going to decide whether innovation policy succeeds – and it will come down to whether or not tech funders invest in that success today and provide visionary capital.