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
  • Open News
  • $150,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2018

OpenNews, a fiscally sponsored project of Community Partners, creates and supports a diverse community of peers working, learning, and solving problems in technology for local newsrooms to create the stronger, more representative ecosystem that journalism needs to thrive.

Project:

OpenNews Local Coder Cohort

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training, Media

Grant Length:

Nov 2018 to Oct 2019

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • 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
  • Open News
  • $420,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2023

OpenNews, a fiscally sponsored project of Community Partners, helps journalists create authentic, trusting relationships and to build a community of support. This grant supports their ongoing efforts to increase peer support and peer learning among the journalists they serve.

Project:

OpenNews

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Nov 2023 to Oct 2025

Strategy:

Journalism & Power Building
  • Open Source Election Technology Foundation
  • $500,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2015

The Open Source Election Technology Foundation (OSET) works to increase confidence in elections by innovating election and voting systems using an open-source, adaptable, flexible, full-featured election technology framework.

Project:

Open Source Election Technology 2015 Pilot Grant

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Dec 2015 to Nov 2017

Strategy:

Voter-Centric Election Administration
  • OpenSecrets
  • $125,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2022

Nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit, OpenSecrets is the nation’s premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy. Their mission is to track the flow of money in American politics and provide the data and analysis to strengthen democracy.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Nov 2022 to Oct 2023

Strategy:

Preventing Authoritarian Abuse of Power
  • OpenSecrets
  • $225,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2019

To support the Center for Responsive Politics’ Foreign Lobby Watch Database. The Center will extract and analyze data from reports filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) to reveal the relationships and lobbying activity of foreign governments, companies, and individuals. 

Project:

Foreign Lobby Watch Database

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Nov 2019 to Oct 2022

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • OpenSecrets
  • $225,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2017

Reports filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) are made publicly available but are not searchable or otherwise usable without laborious review. The Center of Responsive Politics’ (CRP) Foreign Lobby Watch Project will extract and convert this data into a useful form, then make it available for the public.

Project:

Foreign Lobby Watch Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Nov 2017 to Oct 2019

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • OpenSecrets
  • $150,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2019

To obtain and analyze digital ad data from digital platforms and to translate it into a more accurate, useful dataset for partners. Ultimately, this work would lead to a more comprehensive and accessible data source for the press and public.

Project:

Political Ad Transparency

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Nov 2019 to Mar 2021

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
  • OpenSecrets
  • $300,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2023

Nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit, OpenSecrets is the nation’s premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy. Their mission is to track the flow of money in American politics and provide the data and analysis to strengthen democracy.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Nov 2023 to Oct 2025

Strategy:

Preventing Authoritarian Abuse of Power
  • OpenSecrets
  • $10,000.00
  • Project
  • President's Office
  • 2022

Nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit, OpenSecrets is the nation’s premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy. Their mission is to track the flow of money in American politics and provide the data and analysis to strengthen democracy.

Project:

Investing in Staff Wellbeing

Foundation Center Topic:

Grant Length:

Oct 2022 to Sep 2023

Strategy:

General
  • Openthegovernment.org
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2017

OpenTheGovernment (a project of the Fund for Constitutional Government) will map civil society sectors to identify groups to collaborate with. They will identify organizations who do not traditionally advocate for open government and transparency, but whose own causes could be helped by focusing on this issue.

Project:

Support for OpenTheGovernment

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Sep 2017 to Aug 2019

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • Openthegovernment.org
  • $80,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2021

Open The Government, a fiscally sponsored project of the Fund for Constitutional Government, conducts polling focused on racial justice and accountability.

Project:

Racial Justice and Accountability Polling

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Dec 2021 to Nov 2022

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • Openthegovernment.org
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2019

Open the Government, a fiscally sponsored project of the Fund for Constitutional Government, strengthens its partners in the field by training organizations and individuals on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and other tools for government openness, serves as a network hub for the government transparency community, and conducts its own research into government wrongdoing. 

Project:

Support for Open the Government

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Sep 2019 to Aug 2022

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • Our Body Politic
  • $300,000.00
  • Project
  • General and Field Building
  • 2022

Our Body Politic, a fiscally sponsored project of Aubin Pictures, Inc., is a podcast centered on how Black women, and all women of color, experience the major political events of today, as well as how they are leading and innovating on these issues.

Project:

Our Body Politic

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Jun 2022 to May 2024

Strategy:

General
  • Our Body Politic
  • $75,000.00
  • Project
  • General and Field Building
  • 2021

Our Body Politic, a fiscally sponsored project of Aubin Pictures, Inc., is a podcast centered on how Black women, and all women of color, experience the major political events of today, as well as how they are leading and innovating on these issues.

Project:

Our Body Politic

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Aug 2021 to Apr 2022

Strategy:

General
  • Outlier Media
  • $215,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2022

Outlier Media is a Detroit-based nonprofit news organization. They identify, report, and deliver valuable information to empower residents to hold landlords, municipal government, and elected officials accountable for long-standing problems.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Oct 2022 to Sep 2023

Strategy:

News & Information Ecosystems
  • Outlier Media
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2020

Outlier Media, a fiscally sponsored project of MuckRock Foundation, Inc., is a trailblazing newsroom in Detroit whose strategy of identifying and serving community needs is a model for engaged journalism practice. Outlier also serves as an Ecosystem Builder by sharing resources, strategy, learning, and systems with peers in other cities.

Project:

Outlier Media

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Oct 2020 to Aug 2022

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • Outlier Media
  • $465,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2023

Outlier Media is a Detroit-based nonprofit news organization. They identify, report, and deliver valuable information to empower residents to hold landlords, municipal government, and elected officials accountable for long-standing problems.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Oct 2023 to Sep 2026

Strategy:

Journalism & Power Building
  • Outlier Media
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2018

To support Outlier Media via its fiscal agent, Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc, in its charitable efforts to to identify, report, and deliver high value information that empowers Detroit communities in need to create accountability around the issues that most impact their lives. The purpose of this grant is to support Outlier Media as they work to further develop this charitable practice of service journalism and identify avenues to teach their methods to other news creators.

Project:

Outlier Media

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Dec 2018 to May 2020

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • Over Zero
  • $150,000.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2017

To provide support to Over Zero in it’s aim to bring about the reduction and prevention of violence and to create societal resilience to violence in the United States.  

Project:

Support for Over Zero

Foundation Center Topic:

Other

Grant Length:

Nov 2017 to Oct 2018

Strategy:

General
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