About the Mountain State Education and Research Foundation

Founded in 2003, Mountain State Education and Research Foundation (MSERF) has earned a reputation as an organization that strives to put public policy process back into citizen’s hands though its commitment to social justice and economic fairness.

Founded in 2003, Mountain State Education and Research Foundation (MSERF) has earned a reputation as an organization that strives to increase citizen involvement in the making of public policy though its commitment to social justice and economic fairness.

MSERF has developed strong working relationships with a broad range of progressive allies in West Virginia, regionally and at the national level. We have collaborated extensively with USAction Education Fund and Democracy South in many aspects of our work. At the state level, MSERF has forged successful issue coalitions with many groups including:

Community Shares of WV
Citizens for Clean Elections
Direct Action Welfare Group
Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition
National Association of Social Workers – WV Chapter
AFSCME Council 77
SEIU- 1199 
Southern Appalachian Labor School
WV AFL-CIO
WV Citizen Action Group
WV Council of Churches
WV Environmental Council

In coalition and alone, MSERF has excelled at promoting progressive public policy such as fair taxation, state campaign finance and election reforms, civic engagement including registering and mobilizing low-income and minority voters, and protecting Social Security and Medicaid

MSERF Projects & Accomplishments

Tax Fairness Campaign

In the summer of 2006, MSERF helped form a new coalition to address the proposed reformation of our state’s tax code by governor Manchin’s Tax Modernization Committee. Working with the American Friends Service Committee’s Economic Justice Project and WV Citizen Action Group, MSERF signed on 21 state organizations onto a “Statement of Principles for Tax Fairness.” In addition MSERF reps and coalition partners participated in the Committee’s public Tax Summit to promote these fairness principles. MSERF will continue to monitor and provide public commentary on this issue throughout the remainder of this year.

Clean Elections Campaign

• MSERF maintains a public database of campaign contributions to state level campaigns for the WV People’s Election Reform Coalition (PERC-WV), a collaborative project with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC) and WV Citizen Action Group (WV-CAG).  Using the database, PERC-WV issues reports to educate the public about the influence of special interest money in both elections and public policy. 
• MSERF provides public education and media outreach on the need for “voter-owned,” publicly financed elections in West Virginia.
• MSERF supported the formation of and has worked with West Virginians for HAVA (Help America Vote Act), a grassroots group promoting accurate and secure voting technology for WV elections.
• MSERF worked in conjunction with other organizations to educate legislators and the public on the need to regulate 527 committees involved in state level campaigns.  These efforts resulted in the nation’s first state law regulating contributions to 527 organizations.

Civic Engagement

• In 2004, MSERF launched Project MoVote (Mountaineers Vote), a six-month non-partisan voter registration/GOTV campaign focused on communities of color, low-income and other disenfranchised populations. Project MoVote registered over 7,500 new voters and developed an intensive public educational effort focused on early voting.
• MSERF received a national award from USAction Education Fund for excellence in media coverage for Project MoVote.  It also received an award for its collaboration with the University of Charleston’s Service Learning Project encouraging students to vote and help register others.
• In 2005, MSERF worked to help form West Virginians United to Protect Social Security, a new coalition of labor, community and faith groups. West Virginians United held over 20 community forums across the state educating the public about current proposals to reform Social Security. These efforts also included hosting ten 70th birthday parties celebrating our nation’s retirement plan.