The Gravel Institute
Formation | 2020 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Founders | |||||||
Type | 501(c)4 Nonprofit[‡ 1] | ||||||
Location | |||||||
Key people |
| ||||||
YouTube information | |||||||
Channel | |||||||
Years active | 2020–2022 | ||||||
Genres |
| ||||||
Subscribers | 396 thousand[1] | ||||||
Total views | 15.9 million[1] | ||||||
| |||||||
Last updated: 14 June 2023 |
The Gravel Institute (
The Institute ceased producing new video content during 2022;[4] its website was shuttered on July 16, 2023, for lack of payment.[5][6] Their tax exempt status as a 501(c)4 nonprofit was revoked by the IRS for a lack of renewal on January 15, 2023.[7]
Mission
The Gravel Institute was created with the explicit goal of countering
According to the official website, the Institute's mission was to "build the institutions the left needs to win".[‡ 2] According to David Oks, the Institute's "main target audience is people who are in the center, but don't have particularly well-thought-out political beliefs", adding: "I don't really think we're going to be converting people who consume PragerU."[9]
History
After Mike Gravel's 2020 presidential campaign ended in 2019, leadership from the campaign launched The Gravel Institute in 2019 using a $25,000 donation by Tumblr founder David Karp.[10][11]
The Gravel Institute was mainly run by Williams, Oks, and Henry Magowan, who ran Gravel's 2020 presidential campaign when they were teenagers.[10] Video production and direction was headed by New York filmmaker Tymon Brown. Mike Gravel himself, who was 90 years old when the Institute launched, was not involved in day-to-day operations but served as a consultant and provided advice.[12]
On September 28, 2020, The Gravel Institute uploaded their first video, formally introducing the project, narrated by H. Jon Benjamin.[‡ 3] Also on September 28, The Gravel Institute uploaded their first video focused on a specific subject.[2]
In February 2022, The Gravel Institute announced a new board of directors, including former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner and Bhaskar Sunkara, the founder of American socialist magazine Jacobin.[13]
In February 2022,
In June 2023, a banner was posted on the Gravel Institute's website announcing that the site would be taken down due to unpaid hosting costs.[5] The site went down the following July 16.[6] Additionally, the Gravel Institute YouTube channel has not posted a video since August 2022.[4]
Presenters and contributors
Presenters and contributors to Gravel Institute videos included Zephyr Teachout, David Cross, Bhaskar Sunkara, Richard Wolff, and H. Jon Benjamin.[13]
Board of directors
As of 2022, the group's board of directors were
Jacobin founder Bhaskar Sunkara was initially listed on the board as well.[15]
References
- ^ a b "About The Gravel Institute". YouTube.
- ^ a b Jackson, Gita (October 1, 2020). "The Gravel Institute Is Trying to Make PragerU, But Good". Vice (Motherboard).
- ^ Salon. Archivedfrom the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
- ^ a b "The Gravel Institute: Videos". YouTube. Retrieved July 24, 2023. More recent video posted is "Marianne Williamson: Why You're So Sad", 11 months prior.
- ^ a b "Gravel Institute". Gravel Institute. Archived from the original on June 29, 2023. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
- ^ a b "Oops! This is not the site you're looking for". Flywheel. Archived from the original on July 16, 2023. Retrieved 2023-07-22.
- ^ "The Gravel Institute". IRS. Internal Revenue Service. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
- ^ Pollard, Amelia (2021-05-11). "The Gravel Institute Punches Up". The American Prospect. Retrieved 2022-02-19.
- ^ "The Gravel Institute Wants to Radicalize Centrists Everywhere". MEL Magazine. 2020-11-11. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
- ^ a b Pollard, Amelia (May 20, 2021). "The Gravel Institute Punches Up". The American Prospect. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
- ^ Bonn, Tess (August 2, 2019). "Gravel to form liberal think tank after suspending campaign". The Hill.
- ^ McMenamin, Lexi (December 5, 2020). "Can the Gravel Institute compete with the right-wing YouTube machine?". Mic. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
- ^ a b c Bredderman, William (2022-02-26). "Deleted Tweets Reveal a Progressive Group's Ukraine Meltdown". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
- ^ "About – Gravel Institute". Retrieved 2022-03-29.
- ^ "About – Gravel Institute". 2 March 2022. Archived from the original on 2 March 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
Primary sources
In the text these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):
- ^ a b Williams, Henry. "Henry Williams". Henry Williams. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
- ^ "The Gravel Institute about page". The Gravel Institute. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
- ^ "How to Defeat PragerU: The Gravel Institute". YouTube. Retrieved December 20, 2020.