AllSides Education Fund was founded in 2023 as a joint nonprofit initiative of AllSides (news literacy and media bias) and Living Room Conversations (fostering conversation and nurturing relationships across differences). AllSides Education Fund was created as a response to the needs of educators and community leaders who seek to address a double crisis in the classroom and civic spaces of decayed media literacy skills and atrophied abilities to communicate outside of the safe filter bubbles people have created for themselves in person and on social media.

Educators across the country are already taking advantage of the AllSides School Memberships and Living Room Conversations topic guides. AllSides Education Fund supports greater access to these services. Teachers, schools, and other social-good organizations can apply for an AllSides Education Fund scholarship or funds to access services and products in order to broaden their knowledge, skill sets, and experiences to better understand and appreciate each other, especially across differences.

Project Director Bios:

The AllSides Education Fund was co-founded in 2015 by John Gable and Joan Blades. The co-founders hail from different political backgrounds, underscoring AllSides Education Fund’s explicit multipartisan mission. Gable has a Lean Right bias, and Blades has a Left bias.

Gable is a technology veteran who previously worked at Microsoft, Netscape, and Check Point Software. He was a co-founder of Kavi Corporation (sold to Higher Logic) and worked in Republican politics in the 1980s for Senator Howard Baker, then-Presidential Candidate George H.W. Bush, and Senator Mitch McConnell.

Blades is a political activist who in 1998 co-founded MoveOn.org, one of the largest and most impactful progressive grassroots organizations and political action committees in the U.S., boasting millions of members. She also co-founded the software company Berkeley Systems, MomsRising.org, and Living Room Conversations.

The multipartisan nature of AllSides Education Fund’s founding team and leadership is central to maintaining its integrity as an entity dedicated to bolstering media literacy skills and the ability to communicate effectively outside of in-person and digital filter bubbles.