Citizens in Charge Foundation

Citizens in Charge Foundation
Basic facts
Location:	Woodbridge, Va.
Type:	501(c)(3)
Affiliation:	Nonpartisan
Top official:	Paul Jacob, President
Year founded:	2003
Website:	Official website

The Citizens in Charge Foundation (CCF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Virginia. The foundation is dedicated to promoting and defending the initiative & referendum process. Citizens in Charge is a 501(c)(4) advocacy organization that worked directly with public officials and voters to protect and spread ballot initiative rights. As of December 2025, Citizens in Charge and Citizens in Charge Foundation were separate organizations.

Background

As of December 2025, Citizens in Charge Foundation website stated that "Citizens in Charge (CIC) and Citizens in Charge Foundation (CICF) work to protect, defend and expand the initiative and referendum rights, without regard to partisanship or politics. CIC & CIC are dedicated to the belief that citizens should be in charge of their government."

Jacob founded the foundation with political strategist Eric O'Keefe. Since its founding, the foundation's work included filing lawsuits to protect initiative and referendum rights.

Leadership

As of December 2025, the following individuals held leadership positions at the Citizens in Charge Foundation:

• Paul Jacob, president
• Dane Waters, secretary
• William Redpath, treasurer
• Eric O'Keefe, board member
• Grover Norquist, board member

Work and activities

The foundation's work included litigation and legal advocacy, research and legislative report cards, and international campaigns in defense of democracy.

Amicus brief activity

As of December 2025, the foundation listed the following court cases in which it submitted briefs:

• Citizens in Charge v. Gale (2009): A Nebraska lawsuit which successfully challenged the state's ban on out-of-state circulators. It was decided by United States District Court for the District of Nebraska on August 30, 2011. Jacob said, "These laws have served to muffle Nebraskans' voices for far too long, we are hopeful that the court will open up Nebraska's ballot initiative process and uphold people's right to petition their government."
• Citizens in Charge v. Husted (2013): This case concerned an Ohio law that prohibited out-of-state residents from gathering signatures on initiative petitions.
• Citizens in Charge and the Human Society Legislative Fund v. Johnson (2014): This case concerned a Michigan law that barred out-of-state residents from gathering signatures on initiative petitions.
• Pierce v. Stapleton (2018): This case concerned Montana's per-district signature requirement, with plaintiffs arguing it imposed a burden on petition-gatherers that violated the U.S. Constitution.
• We the People PAC v. Bellows (2020): The case concerned a Maine law that restricted signature-gatherers to in-state residents and registered voters.

Electoral activities and influence

Opposition to Donald Trump in 2016

On June 17, 2016, several reports emerged in different media outlets identifying Kendal Unruh as the leader of an effort to prevent Donald Trump from winning the nomination at the national convention, and the Citizens in Charge Foundation backed the initiative. At the center of the effort was a rules amendment supported by Unruh that would allow a delegate to vote at the convention for a candidate other than the one to whom he or she was allocated, if doing so went against that delegate's conscience. Unruh, a member of the 2016 Republican National Convention's Rules Committee, stated that "[t]his literally is an ‘Anybody but Trump’ movement. Nobody has any idea who is going to step in and be the nominee, but we’re not worried about that. We’re just doing that job to make sure that he’s not the face of our party." The effort was receiving outside aid from Republican operatives who worked to raise $2.5 million to run ads suggesting that delegates are able to vote for whomever they wish. Citizens in Charge Foundation was funding outreach for the campaign. The foundation also published a book by Curly Haugland, who has argued that delegates are not bound and can vote freely.

International campaigns

The foundation created the Stop Fighting Start Voting campaign to promote direct democracy outside of the United States. As of December 2025, the foundation's website stated, "By sharing resources and expertise, we help empower citizens globally."

Affiliations

As of 2025, the foundation had a related 501(c)(4) organization, Citizens in Charge.

Finances

The following is a breakdown of Citizens in Charge Foundation's revenues and expenses from 2014 to 2024. The information comes from ProPublica.

Citizens in Charge Foundation financial data 2014–2023

Year	Revenue	Expenses
2014	$219,735	$168,243
2015	$142,462	$133,240
2016	$1,277,393	$1,190,744
2017	$110,016	$354,686
2018	$71,654	$169,700
2019	$74,650	$210,966
2020	$305,002	$512,401
2021	$1,557,127	$388,414
2022	$28,527	$342,943
2023	$49,050	$721,271

See also

• What is an influencer?
• 501(c)(3)
• Initiative & Referendum Institute
• PACs and Super PACS
• Political action committee
• Super PAC
• Federal Election Commission

External links

• Citizens in Charge Foundation official website