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
  • US Vote Foundation
  • $50,000.00
  • Network Grant
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2013

The Mini-Grant serves to incorporate the Fact-Check.org data into the My Voter Account information, such that people can get customizable fact check information on their elected members of congress.

Project:

Mini-Grant

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Jan 2014 to Jan 2015

Strategy:

Voter-Centric Election Administration
  • US Vote Foundation
  • $250,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2013

The End-to-End Verifiable Internet Voting Specification and Feasibility Assessment Study will examine a form of remote voting that enables a so-called “end-to-end verifiability” (E2E) property. A unique team of experts in computer science, usability, and auditing together with a selection of local election officials from key counties around the U.S. will assemble for this study.

Project:

End-to-End Verifiable Internet Voting Specification and Feasibility Assessment Study

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Nov 2013 to May 2015

Strategy:

Voter-Centric Election Administration
  • Values United d/b/a Whistleblower Aid
  • $300,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2020

Whistleblower Aid’s mission is to report and fix government and corporate lawbreaking — without breaking the law. Their lawyers help clients to stay safe while making impactful disclosures that change policies, because should have to risk their career or their freedom to follow their conscience.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Dec 2020 to Nov 2022

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • Values United d/b/a Whistleblower Aid
  • $200,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2023

Whistleblower Aid’s mission is to report and fix government and corporate lawbreaking — without breaking the law. Their lawyers help clients to stay safe while making impactful disclosures that change policies, because should have to risk their career or their freedom to follow their conscience.

Project:

Whistleblower Aid

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Dec 2023 to Nov 2024

Strategy:

Preventing Authoritarian Abuse of Power
  • Values United d/b/a Whistleblower Aid
  • $200,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2022

Whistleblower Aid’s mission is to report and fix government and corporate lawbreaking — without breaking the law. Their lawyers help clients to stay safe while making impactful disclosures that change policies, because should have to risk their career or their freedom to follow their conscience.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Dec 2022 to Nov 2023

Strategy:

Preventing Authoritarian Abuse of Power
  • Vanderbilt University
  • $200,000.00
  • Project
  • President's Office
  • 2021

The Monkey Cage is a platform which seeks to contribute timely, accessible, evidence-based analysis to public policy conversations.

Project:

The Monkey Cage

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Dec 2021 to Nov 2023

Strategy:

General
  • 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
  • Voice of San Diego
  • $188,414.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2015

The purpose of this grant is to support Voice of San Diego’s Membership Academy.

Project:

Membership Academy Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Dec 2015 to Dec 2017

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • Voice of San Diego
  • $100,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2017

This is a general operating grant to support Voice of San Diego’s work providing critical local reporting to the citizens of their region. 

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Nov 2017 to Oct 2018

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • Voice of the People
  • $350,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2015

Building on the infrastructure established in the first phase of the project, we propose to carry out Citizen Cabinet surveys on seven new policy topics in an expanded number of states as well as with a national sample and to more broadly promote the idea of the Citizen Cabinet to Congress, the media and the public. This grant will also work to help VOP find a new long-term home for this project with more robust institutional resources.

Project:

Citizen Cabinet Pilot Project Renewal

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance, Civic Participation/Public Participation

Grant Length:

Nov 2015 to Apr 2017

Strategy:

Previous Strategy
  • Voice of the People
  • $350,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2013

Demonstrate how a Citizen Cabinet could provide federal policy makers with a new resource for understanding the views of their constituents by piloting the process in a small number of districts.

Project:

Citizen Cabinet Pilot Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance, Civic Participation/Public Participation

Grant Length:

Oct 2013 to Apr 2015

Strategy:

Previous Strategy
  • Vote Early Day
  • $30,000.00
  • Project
  • General and Field Building
  • 2022

Vote Early Day, a fiscally sponsored project of Tides Center, is a nonpartisan movement of media companies, businesses, nonprofits, election administrators, and creatives working to ensure all Americans have the tools to vote early.

Project:

Vote Early Day 2022

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Civic Participation, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voter Education, Registration, and Turnout

Grant Length:

Sep 2022 to Dec 2022

Strategy:

General
  • Voter Registration Project
  • $500,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • President's Office
  • 2022

Voter Registration Project’s (VRP) works to create a more representative democracy by narrowing the registration gap between Black, Indigenous, LatinX, Hispanic, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander voters and white voters. VRP funds and coordinates non-partisan voter registration efforts and works with in-state, community-based organizations and 501(c)(3) civic engagement tables.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voter Education, Registration, and Turnout

Grant Length:

Sep 2022 to Aug 2023

Strategy:

General
  • Voter Registration Project
  • $973,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • President's Office
  • 2023

Voter Registration Project’s (VRP) works to create a more representative democracy by narrowing the registration gap between Black, Indigenous, LatinX, Hispanic, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander voters and white voters. VRP funds and coordinates non-partisan voter registration efforts and works with in-state, community-based organizations and 501(c)(3) civic engagement tables.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting, Civic Participation, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voter Education, Registration, and Turnout, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voting Access

Grant Length:

Dec 2023 to Mar 2025

Strategy:

General
  • VotingWorks
  • $150,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2021

VotingWorks is developing an open-source tool which will enable election officials to conduct Risk-Limiting Audits (RLAs).

Project:

Risk Limiting Audit Tool Development

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Aug 2021 to Jul 2022

Strategy:

Trust in Elections
  • VotingWorks
  • $350,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2019

The Voting Works Risk Limiting Audit (RLA) tool helps election officials calculate the number of ballots needed to conduct an RLA based on the risk limit they have set for a contest. Post-election auditing is one important way that election officials can prove the accuracy of election outcomes and inspire greater public confidence in the voting process.

Project:

Risk Limiting Audit Tool Development

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Dec 2019 to Dec 2020

Strategy:

Trust in Elections
  • Washington Center for Technology Policy Inclusion
  • $125,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2021

The Washington Center for Technology Policy Inclusion (WashingTECH) convenes diverse technology public policy professionals to defend America’s rich diversity with programs that promote an inclusive narrative about technology’s impact on society.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Oct 2021 to Mar 2023

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
  • Way to Rise
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2022

The Valiente Fund is a project of Way to Rise, a fiscally sponsored project of Amalgamated Charitable Foundation. The Valiente Fund will reimagine and scale resources to meet the needs of a growing Latino majority.

Project:

Valiente Fund Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting, Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Civic Participation

Grant Length:

Sep 2022 to Feb 2024

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • Way to Rise
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2024

The Valiente Fund, a project of Way to Rise, is dedicated to unleashing a new generation of change agents forging Latine unity and power within a multi-racial democracy.

Project:

Valiente Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Other

Grant Length:

Apr 2024 to Mar 2026

Strategy:

Voting Power
  • Wayne State University
  • $250,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2023

The Levin Center at Wayne State University works to build capacity in legislative bodies at all levels — federal, state, and abroad — to expose public and private sector abuses, ensure effective governance, and bring critical facts to light for the benefit of all.

Project:

Levin Center at Wayne Law

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Nov 2023 to Oct 2025

Strategy:

State and Local Accountability
Democracy Fund
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