President Obama will speak Wednesday night at a dinner for donors and activists at the first gathering of Organizing for Action, the nonprofit group created by former campaign officials to help advance the president’s agenda, according to officials with the new organization.
The group is meeting in Washington for its Founders’ Summit, a two-day event aimed at revving up supporters behind the president’s initiatives: immigration overhaul, gun safety and the budget fights that will consume much of the fall. The meeting was first reported by Politico.
Advisers to the group said the meeting was intended to help set its direction and to gather guidance from former campaign staff members and contributors. The meeting will include sessions on the timing of the presidentâ™s agenda and how the group needs to adjust its tactics in the wake of the campaign.
Conference participants were chosen from a group of donors, campaign volunteers and staff members who expressed interest in being involved with the organization, but there was no fund-raising requirement for individuals to attend.
Mr. Obama’s presence at the event follows a report in The Times that donors contributing or raising $500,000 or more for the new organization would be named to a “national advisory board†and would have quarterly meetings with the president.
That report stirred criticism from Republicans, who accused Mr. Obama’s former colleagues of selling access to the president. Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said the president may meet with the group as he does with any other constituency organization.
“Any notion! that there is a set price for a meeting with the president of the United States is just wrong,†Mr. Carney said at a briefing last week.
In addition to the president, other speakers at the summit will include David Plouffe, a former senior White House adviser who managed Mr. Obama’s first campaign; Jon Carson, the executive director of the new group; and Jim Messina, who managed the president’s re-election campaign and is chairman of the group.
Follow Michael D. Shear on Twitter at @shearm.
