Committee of Seventy

123 South Broad Street, Suite 2830, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA · Founded 1904 · 120+ years

Overview

The Committee of Seventy is Philadelphia's oldest and most prominent nonpartisan good government organization — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has been advocating for clean elections, government accountability, and informed civic participation since 1904. It was born directly from muckraking journalism: the founding impulse was the national exposure of Philadelphia's political culture in Lincoln Steffens's 1903 McClure's magazine article "Philadelphia: Corrupt and Contented," which described the city as the worst-governed in the United States, riddled with electoral fraud, graft, and political favoritism under a Republican machine that treated public offices as instruments of patronage. The Committee was established at a town meeting on November 14, 1904 at the Bourse building in Philadelphia and formally expanded to seventy members in January 1905 with the stated purpose of keeping "watch and ward over the public interests." More than 120 years later it remains the city's independent nonpartisan civic voice on elections, campaign finance, ethics, redistricting, and democratic participation.

The name "Seventy" reflects both the composition of its board — more than 70 civic, business, labor, and nonprofit leaders — and a Biblical resonance the founders intended: the number refers to a passage in which God directed Moses to appoint seventy elders to share the burden of leadership of the Israelites. Philadelphia had previous civic reform organizations with similar names, and the Committee's founders chose the number to signal continuity with that tradition and to embed a sense of civic stewardship in the organization's identity. Lauren Cristella has served as President and CEO since June 2023, the first woman to hold the role in the organization's history. She succeeded Al Schmidt, who left to become Pennsylvania Secretary of State under Governor Josh Shapiro. The board is chaired by Eric Kraeutler, a retired partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.

Founding: Steffens, Machine Politics, and the Reform Spirit

In 1903, Lincoln Steffens — one of the original American muckrakers, whose "The Shame of the Cities" series was transforming American civic life by naming the specific mechanisms of urban political corruption — published "Philadelphia: Corrupt and Contented" in McClure's magazine. The article was a detailed indictment of the Republican machine that controlled Philadelphia's government: elections were bought and sold, public contracts were distributed as political patronage, city services were instruments of machine loyalty, and existing civic reform organizations had proven unable to dent the machine's power. The article's characterization of Philadelphia as not merely corrupt but complacently accepting of its corruption — "contented" was the more damning adjective — galvanized a reform movement.

The November 1904 town meeting that produced the Committee of Seventy brought together business leaders, professionals, civic reformers, and trade unionists who shared the conviction that competent, honest government required organized citizen vigilance. The initial seven co-founders included soap manufacturer Samuel Simeon Fels, attorney Frank P. Prichard, dry-goods merchant Frederic H. Strawbridge, and trade unionist Alfred D. Clavert — a range that signaled from the start that the Committee aspired to represent Philadelphia's civic life broadly rather than only its business interests. The expanded Committee of Seventy played a major role in the adoption of civil service reforms, the passage of the 1919 Philadelphia Home Rule Charter, and the comprehensive reform charter of 1951 that restructured the city's government on merit-based principles.

Major Accomplishments and Policy Victories

Over more than 120 years, the Committee of Seventy has accumulated a documented record of specific policy victories that form the most concrete evidence of its effectiveness. In the 2005–2010 period, it led the fight to defend campaign financing limits in Philadelphia, a legal battle that reached the US Supreme Court. It waged a sustained campaign against pay-to-play politics — the practice of awarding government contracts to political donors — that resulted in significant reforms. It advocated successfully for the establishment of Philadelphia's Board of Ethics, making lobbying and its associated spending a matter of public record. It campaigned to ban cash gifts to Philadelphia's elected officials and employees — a reform it subsequently advocates extending to the state level. It prompted Pennsylvania to prohibit ultra-rich pension bonuses for elected officials across the state.

Through Draw the Lines PA (2018–2022), the Committee organized what it described as the largest outpouring of hands-on citizen mapping in American history — engaging thousands of citizens in drawing their own Pennsylvania congressional and legislative district maps in a participatory redistricting exercise that put the tools of gerrymander analysis in public hands. The project drew national attention as a model of democratic engagement with a deeply technical process that had previously been exclusively in the hands of professional map-drawers and partisan strategists. In November 2021, following the conviction of Philadelphia Councilman Bobby Henon and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers business manager John Dougherty for corruption offenses, the Committee joined with the League of Women Voters and elected officials to launch a petition for structural reforms including outside work bans for council members and public financing of local campaigns.

In 2024, under Cristella's leadership, the Committee received the American Bar Association's Unsung Heroes of Democracy Award — a recognition of the specific, unglamorous, sustained work of election administration support, poll worker training, and voter education that constitutes the day-to-day infrastructure of democratic participation.

Current Programs

WeVote

Civic engagement campaign partnering with 230+ businesses, nonprofits, media partners, religious institutions, and government agencies to promote a culture of voting across Pennsylvania. Educated 450,000 people through WeVote partnerships during the 2024 general election.

Youth Civic Education (K–College)

Suite of programs for students from kindergarten through college — Election Ambassadors high school program, civics education, and college-level engagement. Reached 23,000 students across Pennsylvania in 2024–25.

Poll Worker Training and Support

Recruitment, training, and education support for election workers — critical infrastructure for election administration. Helped train and educate more than 8,500 poll workers during the 2024 general election.

Interactive Voter Guide / BallotPA

Digital tool allowing voters to enter their address and generate a personalized, downloadable ballot with information on every candidate and measure at their specific location. Philadelphia's primary voter information resource each election cycle.

Can We Talk

Civic dialogue program promoting skills for conversation across political and cultural differences — an explicit response to democratic polarization, building the capacity for productive disagreement rather than mere tolerance of it.

2026 Democracy Summit

A summit marking the 250th anniversary of the United States, to be held in Philadelphia — the birthplace of American democracy — designed to facilitate dialogue between policymakers, educators, activists, futurists, and citizens about strengthening democracy for the future.

Ward System and Committee Person Education

Civic education on Philadelphia's ward and division political structure — the neighborhood-level political infrastructure through which committee persons shape ballot access and local political power. February 2026 launch event sold out; capacity expanded due to demand.

Policy Advocacy and Legislative Testimony

Regular testimony to Philadelphia City Council, the Pennsylvania General Assembly, and relevant committees on elections, campaign finance, ethics, redistricting, and government accountability. The "go-to organization for trustworthy background and analysis on issues related to Philadelphia's political culture."

The Birthplace of American Democracy Context

The Committee of Seventy operates in Philadelphia — a city whose claim to be the birthplace of American democracy is both historically grounded and constantly contested. The Constitutional Convention of 1787, Independence Hall, the first Congress, the first capital of the United States — these are not merely tourist attractions but living reference points for a civic organization whose work is explicitly about the meaning and practice of self-government. Cristella's framing of the 2026 Democracy Summit — in the city where the Declaration of Independence was signed, in the year of the United States' 250th anniversary — reflects this self-consciousness about location. The Committee regularly invokes Philadelphia's democratic heritage both as a source of civic pride and as a standard against which the city's current governance is measured and found wanting.

Access and Membership

The Committee of Seventy's voter guides, policy analyses, election resources, and civic education tools are freely accessible at seventy.org. Membership is available to individuals and organizations and includes access to policy briefings, special events, the How Philly Works guide to city government, and youth civic engagement programs. The WeVote program is open to all businesses, nonprofits, educational institutions, media organizations, and civic groups willing to commit to promoting voting participation among their employees, customers, members, or constituents — information at seventy.org/wevote. The Committee is headquartered at 123 South Broad Street, Suite 2830, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19109.