About the Fuse Innovation Fund
The Fuse Innovation Fund Programs
The Washington State Progressive Job Bank is an online listing of job openings within the progressive advocacy community. It gives those interested in progressive advocacy, politics and public service an opportunity to learn about related job openings before they are posted to more traditional employment posting venues.
The Fuse 5 AM Funny is a collaboration with Uclick.com and provides a daily dose of political humor subscribers as well as the daily Doonesbury comic strip. Each day, the Fuse staff combs the best of the best political comics, online videos and policy commentary to provide a little levity in the name of progress.
The Fuse Community Calendar provides information, contact and location of numerous events within the progressive policy and advocacy community, from events to trainings to rallies. For those looking to stay connected to organizations working for progress in Washington State, the Fuse Communty Calendar is a vital planning tool.
Dr. Scoop, Washington's progressive political information column. Dr. Scoop accepts questions from inquiring members, does the research and talks to the insiders to get the real scoop before reporting back.
Kurt Guenther has helped clients reach the audiences they want with the messages they need to get results for more than 20 years. Known for his enthusiasm and openness to new ideas, Kurt combines research with savvy about people in his broadcast, print, Internet, and overall strategy work. Health, education, conservation, women's rights, workers' rights, freedom of speech, national service, new sciences and world relief & development are among issues Kurt has worked with clients to promote, as well as Presidential, Senate and Gubernatorial candidates. Kurt is a founder of doingsomething , an all-volunteer network featured in the national media, two-term member of the Partner Board at his children's public school, chair of communications for the board of the Washington Environmental Council, and a baseball/swimming/soccer dad. Kurt attended Occidental College and Boston University, where he graduated summa cum laude from the School of Public Communication with graduate work in advocacy. He lives with his wife, two children and a nice dog named Ty in Seattle.
George Cheung is Director of the Win/Win Network, an nonprofit technical assistance provider promoting civic engagement in Washington State. Prior to this position, George was Founder and CEO of Lopez & Cheung, Inc., an independent consulting practice focused on social science research, geographic information systems and public policy. The firm's past clients include the National Fair Housing Alliance, Zipcar, APIA Vote, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation/Making Connections. He also worked for several civil rights enforcement agencies. In his volunteer time, George helped found Equal Rights Washington and has served as Board Chair or Interim Executive Director from 2004-2006. A Washington State native, George received his Bachelors in Political Science from Brown University and a Master in Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Anna Fahey is communications strategist for Sightline Institute, oversees opinion research, develops and distills best practices in messaging and framing, and builds collaborations with allied organizations to help coordinate effective messaging across issues and campaigns. Growing up, Anna spent her days working on her family’s commercial fishing boats in the Puget Sound and poking around the rocky beaches of the San Juan Islands. She was the art critic for the Seattle Weekly, and, for half a dozen years, headed up communications for the Henry Art Museum. After heading back to grad school and receiving an MA in political communication from the University of Washington, Anna has earned her share of campaign-trail battle scars as a political strategist in central Washington.
Sandeep Kaushik is a political, communications and public affairs consultant. He has worked on multiple political campaigns, including as communications director for the No on I-920 (estate tax repeal) campaign in 2006, the Not Another Elevated Viaduct campaign, as campaign manager for the the King County parks levies campaign in 2007, and more recently as a communications consultant on the campaigns of Bill Sherman for King County Prosecutor and as a new media communications consultant on the Yes on Roads and Transit effort. He served as spokesperson for Darcy Burner's campaign in the 8th Congressional District of Washington and does public affairs work for Nyhus Communications. Between 2005 and April 2007, he worked as deputy communications director for King County Executive Ron Sims, and prior to that as a political columnist/writer for the Stranger and as the Seattle stringer for Time Magazine and the Boston Globe. He has a B.A. in history from Reed College and an M.A. in British history from Princeton University. He lives in Seattle's Phinney Ridge neighborhood with his wife and two children.
Naomi Ishisaka has 13 years of experience in journalism and publishing. She is now the Director of Communications for SEIU Healthcare NW Training Partnership, a partnership between SEIU NW 775 and a group of long-term care employers to provide training to home-care workers. Between 2008-2010, she was Communications Director for OneAmerica (formerly Hate Free Zone). Until October 2008, Ishisaka served for the previous eight years as the Editor in Chief of ColorsNW Magazine, a monthly magazine focusing on communities of color in the Northwest. As editor, Ishisaka managed all aspects of the editorial direction and execution of the magazine as well as served as part of the leadership team managing the operations of the company.
Ishisaka is a Seattle native and worked at several Puget Sound newspapers, including The Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The News Tribune and the Bremerton Sun. She was an Institute for Justice and Journalism Fellow studying immigration and border issues and was a Spring 2005 fellow of the German Marshall Fund and traveled throughout Europe. In 2005 and 2006, Ishisaka traveled to the Gulf Coast states to cover the affects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on communities of color.
Ishisaka's journalism education includes editing training at the Dow Jones Copy Editing Program, the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism's Immigration program, the Minority Editorial Writers Seminar and she is a graduate of the Asian American Journalist Association's Executive Leadership Program. Ishisaka is a frequent speaker at media workshops and community events. Launched in 2001, ColorsNW won over 50 awards in the Society of Professional Journalists Western Washington Competition and Ishisaka won five first place awards for editorial writing, feature writing and commentary.
Ishisaka is a graduate of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., and has a B.A. in ethnic studies and journalism.
Diane McDaniels has over 30 years of campaign experience, from running campaigns to raising money. She spent 15 years as the Political Director of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO. During her time at the Labor Council, Diane launched the first Labor Candidate School in the country, Planting Seeds for the Future, and started the Labor Neighbor program, which is now a national model that is used in other states. Since leaving the Labor Council in 2008 to start her own consulting business, Diane has raised over $10 million for statewide and regional ballot measures and other campaigns.
Karen Uffelman is the Director of Client Strategy at Groundwire. She works with environmental organizations to engage their audiences through smart use of new technology and old-fashioned organizing. She consults on both format and substance, and combines the best practices of relationship marketing, grassroots mobilization, and analytics to help organizations build deeper relationships and make bigger impacts. In past lives, Karen served as the Development Director for Corporate Accountability International, Associate Director of Washington Environmental Alliance for Voter Education (WEAVE), and Managing Director of Washington Conservation Voters. She conducts trainings on engagement and technology all over North America for non-profits and foundations, and is a regular contributor to Groundwire's blog.