Grants Database

Democracy Fund collaborates with our grantees, donors, and other partners to strengthen and expand the movement for an inclusive, multiracial democracy. We are proud to have supported more than 400 organizations doing this work.

Program Areas
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Elections and Voting
General and Field Building
Governance
Just and Inclusive Society
President's Office
Public Square
Strategies
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Civil & Human Rights Online
Constructive Politics
Digital Democracy
Ecosystem News
Empowering Congress
Engaged Journalism
Equitable Civic Infrastructure
General
Investigative Journalism
Journalism & Power Building
News & Information Ecosystems
Oversight and Accountability
Power Building in Marginalized Communities
Press Freedom
Preventing Authoritarian Abuse of Power
Previous Strategy
Pro-Voter Reform
Representative Institutions
Representative Leadership
Resilient Elections
Rights and Dignity
Roadmap for American Democracy
State and Local Accountability
Trust in Elections
Voter-Centric Election Administration
Voting Power
Organization Name (A-Z) Grant Amount Type Program Area Year
  • Borealis Philanthropy
  • $1,900,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2019

The Fund for Diverse-Led and Serving Media is a joint fund that will partner with diverse-led and -serving media outlets to better meet the information needs of traditionally underserved communities through capacity building support and technical assistance, a landscape analysis to understand how underserved communities of color receive information, and sharing learnings.

Project:

Fund for Diverse-Led and Serving Media

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Jul 2019 to Jun 2022

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • Open News
  • $450,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2019

To support OpenNews, a fiscally sponsored project of Community Partners, which works to create and support a diverse community of peers working, learning, and solving problems in technology and data. For this project, OpenNews will continue to create spaces in-person and online that support and connect changemakers and local journalists in newsrooms outside of the NY/DC corridor.

Project:

Local Coders Community

Foundation Center Topic:

Media

Grant Length:

Nov 2019 to Oct 2022

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College
  • $240,000.00
  • Project
  • President's Office
  • 2019

To support the Senior Practice Fellow in American Democracy at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Project:

Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center support for the Senior Practice Fellowship in American Democracy

Foundation Center Topic:

Government, Other

Grant Length:

Nov 2019 to Dec 2021

Strategy:

General
  • New America Foundation
  • $450,000.00
  • Project
  • President's Office
  • 2019

To support the work of New America’s Political Reform Program, which seeks to revitalize American democratic practice by introducing new ideas and new perspectives to the public debate, putting reform ideas to the test, and bringing together activists, academics, and political practitioners to test and refine promising concepts.

Project:

Political Reform Program

Foundation Center Topic:

Government

Grant Length:

Nov 2019 to May 2022

Strategy:

General
  • NALEO Educational Fund
  • $725,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2019

NALEO Educational Fund’s Staff Up Congress is an initiative spearheaded by the NALEO Educational Fund and the Joint Center working to increase the number of diverse voices on Capitol Hill by identifying and recruiting staff for positions in congressional offices

Project:

Promoting Civility and Ensuring Diversity in Congressional Staff

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance, Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership

Grant Length:

Jul 2019 to Jun 2024

Strategy:

Constructive Politics
  • Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Inc.
  • $1,175,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2019

This grant will provide General Operating Support to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. 

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Government/Legislative Branch Performance

Grant Length:

Nov 2019 to Sep 2024

Strategy:

Constructive Politics
  • William J. Brennan, Jr. Center for Justice, Inc.
  • $700,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2019

The Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program’s Emergency Powers Project seeks to bolster checks on the use of emergency powers through legal research, developing reforms that limit emergency powers, preparing for potential invocations of emergency powers in the context of the 2020 election, and educating the public about these issues.

Project:

Liberty & National Security Program -Emergency Powers Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law

Grant Length:

Nov 2019 to Oct 2023

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • Welcoming America Inc.
  • $1,000,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2019

 Democracy Fund  will provide general operating support to Welcoming America to support their work to promote more welcoming communities in the United States. 

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Civic Participation/Naturalization and Immigrant Civic Integration

Grant Length:

Aug 2019 to May 2023

Strategy:

Constructive Politics
  • URI Foundation & Alumni Engagement
  • $898,095.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2019

To support Phase II of the RI VOTES project, building off Phase I of the project. Phase II will further develop a set of tools to assist elections officials during the three phases of an election cycle: election preparation, Election Day operations, and post-election analysis.

Project:

RI VOTES Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting

Grant Length:

Jun 2019 to Jun 2024

Strategy:

Voter-Centric Election Administration
  • President-Board of Trustees Santa Clara College
  • $90,000.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2019

To support the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, which is developing a research agenda and public facing initiatives to translate their research to advance solidarity journalism.

Project:

RAD Support for Solidarity Journalism

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Dec 2019 to Nov 2021

Strategy:

General
  • The Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting
  • $412,923.84
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2019

To provide general support to the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting, a project of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, so that it may continue training journalists from historically marginalized backgrounds in the critical field of data and investigative journalism.

Project:

Race, Media and Public Policy: The Ida B Wells Society for Investigative Reporting

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Dec 2019 to Nov 2022

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • Center for Democracy and Technology
  • $600,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2019

The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) will identify elections cybersecurity issues through research, convenings, and stakeholder and policymaker engagement. Previous CDT research has generated a set of nonpartisan best practices and strategies improving security within election offices and expanding the use of post-election auditing practices.

Project:

Election Cybersecurity Research and Best Practices

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Aug 2019 to Jul 2023

Strategy:

Trust in Elections
  • El-Hibri Foundation
  • $460,000.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2019

To provide support to the El-Hibri Foundation (EHF), a private foundation that empowers and equips Muslim leaders and their allies to build thriving, inclusive communities. This expenditure responsibility grant will support EHF’s capacity building efforts for American Muslim community organizations and aligned partners, including, but not limited to, programs, grants, coaching, webinars, consultations, specialized trainings, and any other capacity building programs and efforts.

Project:

ER support for El-Hibri Foundation

Foundation Center Topic:

Other

Grant Length:

Oct 2019 to Sep 2022

Strategy:

General
  • NEO Philanthropy Inc.
  • $1,430,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2019

To support NEO Philanthropy’s State Infrastructure Fund (SIF) project in its work to protect and advance the voting rights of historically underrepresented communities through a coordinated proactive and responsive approach. SIF’s grantmaking and convening power strengthens coordination within the voting rights movement, in particular between grassroots mobilization and litigation.

Project:

State Infrastructure Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voting Access

Grant Length:

Oct 2019 to Sep 2023

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • New York University
  • $44,440.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2018

To support the Social Media and Political Participation (SMaPP) laboratory in conducting research around the role of misinformation on social media platforms during the 2018 election.

Project:

NYU Platform Research

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Dec 2018 to Dec 2020

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
  • New York University
  • $250,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2018

The Membership Puzzle Project is a research and field lab designed to help journalism in America rebuild its social contract with communities through membership and reader revenue strategies.

Project:

Membership Puzzle Project Year Two

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

May 2018 to Oct 2019

Strategy:

Investigative Journalism
  • New York University
  • $151,800.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2018

This grant will support a project of GovLab, a program within the Tandon School of Engineering at New York University, to develop a handbook for congressional offices with techniques for increasing citizen voice in the policymaking process and improving constituent engagement through new technologies. The grant also will allow GovLab to pilot projects with several congressional offices for using open source software to test some of the techniques outlined in the handbook. 

Project:

GovLab Congressional CrowdLaw Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance

Grant Length:

Oct 2018 to Jan 2020

Strategy:

Empowering Congress
  • Vanderbilt University
  • $300,000.00
  • Project
  • President's Office
  • 2018

To support George Washington University’s The Monkey Cage in its efforts to make the political conversation more informed by timely, accessible, and sound research from a publicly oriented political science discipline and less dominated by evidence-free arguments. This is achieved by increasing the public engagement of political scientists and other academics and connecting academics with key audiences among journalists, policy analysts, and lay readers.

Project:

The Monkey Cage

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Dec 2018 to Nov 2021

Strategy:

General
  • Yale University
  • $250,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2018

This grant is to provide flexible funding support to the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale University Law School at Yale University, including support for the Media Freedom Information Access Clinic’s annual conference titled Access and Accountability 2018: A Conference for Transparency Advocates.

Project:

Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic

Foundation Center Topic:

Other, Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Oct 2018 to Jan 2024

Strategy:

Press Freedom
  • Yale University
  • $50,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2018

To support research that can contribute to a convincing body of evidence that can inform stakeholders in media, industry, and government on how to most effectively design and regulate online spaces in a way that limits threats to democracy.

Project:

Investigating Digital Outrage as a Root Cause of Threats to Democracy

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Nov 2018 to Oct 2019

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
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