Summary
Empower Missouri is looking for a cartoonist to help us celebrate our history at the 2026 Anti-Poverty Advocates Summit. This year, we have reached a big milestone — 125 years of fighting for ordinary Missourians to have access to nutritious food, safe housing, affordable healthcare, and equal justice. We’ve said time and time again, policy change can and should be driven by the will, and the needs, of Missouri’s people. This shows up in Missouri’s motto, “The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law,” and is why we strive to bring the voices of the people most impacted by policies to our lawmakers in Jefferson City. It shows up in our coalitions, bringing nonprofit organizations and other advocates together to build power. And we’re using our 125th Anniversary to celebrate those people, all year long.
Operating under the name Missouri Association for Social (MASW) for most of its history, an annual conference has always been a part of the operations of the organization. Many of those years we featured a political cartoon on the program cover, a tradition we’d like to revive for 2026. Frequently drawn and donated by Tom Engelhardt, these cartoons combined Empower’s work on social justice with the current political climate. Often displaying MASW as a life raft or tug boat, demonstrating our commitment to ending poverty in the state. They often frankly portrayed the tough political reality Missouri faces. Examples can be found here.
Empower Missouri is our state’s oldest and largest anti-poverty nonprofit. We work primarily through coalitions to pass legislation to support our neighbors in Affordable Housing, Food Security, and Criminal Legal Reform. We (and our partners) are the leading voice in Jefferson City talking about our community members with the fewest resources, and how policies will impact them.
Some of the things we’ve won in our history:
- Children’s Code Commission
- Widower’s Pension Program (the blueprint for safety net programs)
- Public Defenders Office
- Children’s Hunger Relief Act
- Missouri Housing Trust Fund / National Housing Trust Fund
- Missouri Commission on Human Rights
- Statewide LIHTC match
- Missouri’s participation in the federal Summer EBT program
- Automated Expungement for drug crimes (2026)
Current policies we’re pursuing:
- Increasing funding for Housing Trust Fund
- Local policies to support renters and expanded affordable housing options
- Independent oversight of prisons in Missouri
- Automated expungement for all expungable crimes
- Protecting SNAP and TANF from further state cuts
- Free school meals for low income Missouri children
- More here
Project Details
- One single-panel cartoon, provided digitally
- Delivered by September 17th
- Must be nonpartisan (meaning we cannot display any elected officials, candidates, or political party)
Please provide a price quote and a few examples of work that embody your style to Sarah Owsley at [email protected] on or before August 19th. Artist selected will be notified by August 21st.
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