In 2014, the Open Philanthropy Project concluded that Fed policy and its effect on employment was an important area where few philanthropists were giving, and decided to make it a priority.

Growing Budget

Ady Barkan, an organizer at the Center for Popular Democracy, was simultaneously looking into Fed-related advocacy and heard that the philanthropy was interested. He reached out, and with a $100,000 initial grant from Good Ventures, Fed Up was born. That funding has climbed substantially since -- to $750,000 in 2015 and $1.35 million this year. This year’s grant officially came through the Open Philanthropy Project.

In many ways, Fed Up’s timing couldn’t have been better. Populism is reshaping the U.S. political landscape -- reflected in Donald Trump’s victory in securing the Republican Party’s nomination for president and Bernie Sanders’ spirited but ultimately unsuccessful campaign.

Against that backdrop, Fed Up has become more influential than even its funders foresaw.

The group took 120 members to Jackson Hole in August, including Brooks, and had an unprecedented meeting with 11 top Fed officials -- including Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer and New York Fed chief William Dudley -- in a publicly webcast event. There, organizers and members clad in green shirts that read “We Need a People’s Fed” laid out their concerns about Fed diversity and priorities.

“White, wealthy people primarily interact with other white, wealthy people,” Brooks from Philadelphia, who is black, said at the event. “We believe after 100 years it’s time to update and reform the Federal Reserve’s governance structure.”

Fed Up argues that if a more racially and professionally varied group of people set monetary policy, they’d be more attuned to minority job-related concerns. To that end, they’re trying to get minorities, labor leaders and academics on regional Fed boards instead of white males from commercial banks and corporations. Part of the reasoning is that diverse boards might pick diverse regional Fed presidents, who vote on monetary policy.

Critics say that Fed Up’s effort to get bankers and their appointees off of regional Fed boards could encroach on the Fed’s ability to set monetary policy without outside influence.

“By intervening in the selection of personnel, they are attempting to dictate policy,” said Ralph Benko, senior adviser on economics at American Principles Project in Washington.