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.

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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
  • Wayne State University
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2017

The purpose of this grant is to explore how WDET, and in turn other local non-profit media organizations, can integrate revenue driving activities into engaged journalism projects. Our intention is to identify and realize the sustainability of “engagement” as a practice, and share our learnings for the wider industry to review.

Project:

WDET Engagement & Contribution Pipeline

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism, Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Dec 2017 to May 2019

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • Wayne State University
  • $150,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2017

This project grant will provide support for the Levin Center at Wayne Law to continue its efforts to strengthen congressional oversight. This work will include academic research and collaboration on congressional oversight issues. By facilitating the development of an academic field focused on oversight and research into effective oversight methods, the Levin Center’s work is part of a longer term strategy to rebuild civil society’s work on oversight and accountability issues.

Project:

Levin Center at Wayne Law

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Open Government and Transparency, Government/Legislative Branch Performance

Grant Length:

Nov 2017 to Oct 2019

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • Wayne State University
  • $337,500.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2019

To support the activities of the Levin Center at Wayne Law to promote bipartisan, fact-based oversight. The Levin Center will conduct oversight trainings for congressional staff, promote scholarly research on oversight, host conferences and symposia on oversight topics, and strengthen the public narrative around the importance of meaningful oversight. 

Project:

Levin Center at Wayne Law

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance, Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Nov 2019 to Oct 2023

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • We the Veterans Foundation
  • $350,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2024

We the Veterans Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization created by veterans and military family members. They empower the veteran and military family community to strengthen American democracy.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership

Grant Length:

Oct 2024 to Sep 2026

Strategy:

General
  • We the Veterans Foundation
  • $100,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2023

We the Veterans Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization created by veterans and military family members. They empower the veteran and military family community to strengthen American democracy.

Project:

We The Veterans

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Civic Participation, Civic Participation/Public Participation

Grant Length:

Oct 2023 to Sep 2024

Strategy:

General
  • We the Veterans Foundation
  • $100,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2022

We the Veterans Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization created by veterans and military family members. They empower the veteran and military family community to strengthen American democracy.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Civic Participation, Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Other

Grant Length:

Oct 2022 to Sep 2023

Strategy:

General
  • Welcoming America Inc.
  • $200,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2023

Welcoming America is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that leads a movement of inclusive communities becoming more prosperous by ensuring everyone belongs. Through the Welcoming Network, they help communities develop the roadmap they need to create welcoming policies and share new approaches to creating an environment where everyone can truly thrive.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Naturalization and Immigrant Civic Integration

Grant Length:

Nov 2023 to Oct 2024

Strategy:

Power Building in Marginalized Communities
  • 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
  • Wesleyan University
  • $50,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2020

To support the Wesleyan Media Project, a project of Wesleyan University, in their work to organize data to hold platforms accountable to the American public and advance America’s democratic promise. This grant will fund research and scholarship into how best to collect and publish data regarding political advertising on platforms, with particular interest on ads that involve race and gender.

Project:

Platforms & Political Ads

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Apr 2020 to Mar 2021

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
  • Wesleyan University
  • $25,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2019

To support the Wesleyan Media Project in their work to organize data to hold platforms accountable to the American public and to advance America’s democratic promise. This grant will fund research and scholarship into how best to collect and publish data regarding political advertising on platforms, with a focus on ads that involve race and gender.

Project:

Platforms & Political Ads

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Aug 2019 to Feb 2020

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
  • West Virginia University Foundation, Inc.
  • $150,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2017

This grant supports work to demonstrate how universities can lead collaborative reporting projects that challenge local newsrooms to shift their practices to better create journalism that is meaningful to communities and responsive to their needs through a focus on reporting from a rural Appalachian perspective.

Project:

WVU Media Innovation

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Aug 2017 to Jun 2019

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • West Virginia University Foundation, Inc.
  • $200,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2019

To support critical data collection and analysis by West Virginia University’s Reed College of Media to document and analyze the networks and strategies being used to expose, recruit, and radicalize white youth in the Appalachian region in order to determine opportunities for intervention.

Project:

Researching Radicalization of White Youth in Appalachia

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Nov 2019 to Aug 2022

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • Western States Center Inc.
  • $375,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2022

Western States Center works to build a future where all people can live, love, worship, and work free from bigotry and fear. They foster leaders, organizations, collaborations, and initiatives that reduce disparities and advance equity; lift up the leaders of marginalized communities; and deliver accessible tools for community organizing and civic engagement.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Other

Grant Length:

Jun 2022 to Apr 2024

Strategy:

General
  • 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
  • William J. Brennan, Jr. Center for Justice, Inc.
  • $350,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2017

The William J. Brennan Center for Justice is preparing for the possible invocation of emergency authorities and the threat they would pose to democracy and to the constitutional order. This grant will support the Liberty and National Security Program’s Emergency Powers Project. The project involves legal and empirical research, a bipartisan working group of academic experts and former government officials to identify scenarios and interventions, and implementation of intervention strategies.

Project:

Liberty & National Security Program - Emergency Powers Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law

Grant Length:

Oct 2017 to Sep 2019

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • William J. Brennan, Jr. Center for Justice, Inc.
  • $350,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2023

The Brennan Center’s Emergency Powers Project works to fix the legal framework for emergency powers by bolstering checks on the use of emergency powers through legal research, developing reforms that limit emergency powers, and educating the public about specific emergency powers, such as the Insurrection Act, which delegates a dangerous amount of discretion to the president.

Project:

Emergency Powers Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Executive Branch Performance, Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Nov 2023 to Oct 2025

Strategy:

Preventing Authoritarian Abuse of Power
  • William J. Brennan, Jr. Center for Justice, Inc.
  • $200,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2023

The Governance and Judiciary project is part of the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. This project focuses on the erosion of confidence in democratic institutions; specifically, long-established guardrails that have protected the rule of law and the integrity of federal and state policy making, and the increasing hostility of federal courts to protecting civil and democratic rights.

Project:

Governance and Judiciary project

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Executive Branch Performance, Government, Government/Judicial Selection and Performance

Grant Length:

Nov 2023 to Oct 2024

Strategy:

State and Local Accountability
  • William J. Brennan, Jr. Center for Justice, Inc.
  • $200,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2022

The Governance and Judiciary project is part of the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program. This project focuses on the erosion of confidence in democratic institutions; specifically, long-established guardrails that have protected the rule of law and the integrity of federal and state policy making, and the increasing hostility of federal courts to protecting civil and democratic rights.

Project:

Governance and Judiciary project

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Executive Branch Performance, Government, Government/Judicial Selection and Performance

Grant Length:

Nov 2022 to Oct 2023

Strategy:

Preventing Authoritarian Abuse of Power
  • Win | Win Network
  • $25,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2019

To support the Win/Win coalition’s efforts around automatic voter registration implementation in Washington state.

Project:

Implementing Automatic Voter Registration & Voting Rights in Washington

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Jun 2019 to Nov 2019

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security (WCAPS)
  • $600,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2020

Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security, and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS) is a platform to provide mentorship and partnerships with the goal of advancing the leadership and professional development of women of color in the fields of international peace and security, foreign policy, and national security.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Executive Branch Performance

Grant Length:

Nov 2020 to Oct 2024

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
Democracy Fund
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