The Unicorn Fund at Media Democracy Fund, a fiscally sponsored project of New Venture Fund, is a one-year experimental award program that supports under-resourced grassroots leaders, including independent journalists, who face attacks for expressing their ideas, telling the truth, and taking a stand on the front lines of narrative change.

The National Conference of State Legislature’s Center for Legislative Strengthening (CLS) provides nonpartisan research and analysis for state legislators and legislative staff about legislative operations, procedure, and continuity planning. Their work bolsters the autonomy and effectiveness of the legislative branch of government in the 50 states and U.S. territories.

To support the Center for Secure and Modern Elections (CSME), a fiscally sponsored project of New Venture Fund. CSME works across the country to increase the ease of registering to vote through pro-voter education and policy reform activities, including work on automatic voter registration. 

To support the Voting Rights Program within the Leadership Conference Education Fund as it expands its communications capacity and works to influence a shift in the national public narrative to center and support the self-empowerment of marginalized communities, re-establish voting as a fundamental right, and minimize the partisan lens on discourse around these issues.

This grant will support “The Citizens Circle” project to develop a collaborative, scalable model to elevate constructive voices in local forums. 

Community Change is responding to the migrant bussing crisis. They coordinate with immigrant rights groups across the country that are receiving buses, and make connections between immigrant rights groups and other economic justice groups. They also build the grassroots field’s capacity to respond, and explore strategies to build long-term power from the rapid-response situation.

The National Network for Arab American Communities, an institution of ACCESS, builds the capacity of Arab American community organizations. NNAAC’s capacity building program helps its member organizations through trainings, technical assistance, workshops, convenings, and peer-to-peer learnings.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) is conducting a major research project that aims to answer key questions about the causes, perceptions, and realities of climate migration.

The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) is one of the leading organizations in the U.S. exclusively dedicated to defending and advancing the rights of immigrants with low income.

Detroit Narrative Agency (DNA), a fiscally sponsored project of Allied Media Projects, is a community organization that disrupts harmful narratives about Detroit. They do this by supporting Black, Indigenous, People of Color Detroiters to explore and create media storytelling projects that build collective healing, power and liberation.

Spaceship Media 2.0, a fiscally sponsored project of Social Good Fund, serves journalists by developing skills and capacity through Dialogue Journalism methods and local engagement.

The Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP) works with communities across the US and Canada to decide together how to best spend public money. They create and support participatory budgeting (PB) processes that deepen democracy, build stronger communities, and make public budgets more equitable and effective.

The Center for Communication, Media Innovation & Social Change at Northeastern University explores the intersection of media and communication with race, gender, power and media advocacy/social activism.

The People’s Parity Project is a nationwide network of law students and new attorneys organizing to unrig the legal system and build a justice system that values people over profits.

The Journalism and Women Symposium (JAWS) is expanding their regional programming and diversifying their membership to support their mission to empower and grow the number of women in journalism.

The Center for Urban Journalism at Morgan State University trains new cadres of black journalists through fellowships, runs Social Justice Reporting Collaboratives between students at Morgan State and other journalism institutions, and produces research on the needs of black communities residing in news deserts or facing otherwise biased or insufficient news.

Through journalism and storytelling, Scalawag works in solidarity with oppressed communities in the South to disrupt and shift the narratives that keep power and wealth in the hands of the few.

TechCongress places computer scientists, engineers, and other technologists to serve as technology policy advisors to Members of Congress through their Fellowship programs. They bridge the divide of knowledge and experience between DC and Silicon Valley for better outcomes for both.

Neighborly Faith (NF) brings pluralism education to Evangelical college students with little first-hand experience with it, limited appreciation for it, and who other organizations cannot reach. Nearly all Evangelical faith leaders (lay and professional) attend Evangelical colleges at some point in their lives. Very few of these colleges talk about pluralism. NF is changing this.

Hearken’s Election SOS project, a fiscally sponsored project of the American Press Institute, provides training, coaching, and capacity support to journalists for more engaged, trusted, and responsive elections coverage in 2022.