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
  • Pillars Fund
  • $800,000.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2019

To support Pillars Fund’s Culture Change Project, in partnership with Pop Culture Collaborative. They have developed the American Muslim Pop Culture Cohort and curriculum and will now advance their work even further. 

Project:

Pillars Fund and Pop Culture Collaborative - countering Islamophobia through narrative change

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Public Participation, Other

Grant Length:

Dec 2019 to Nov 2023

Strategy:

General
  • Pillars Fund
  • $600,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2023

Pillars Fund supports Muslim organizations and leaders who advance social good. They invest in community-focused initiatives, push back against harmful narratives, uplift Muslim stories, and give collectively to generate resources within Muslim communities for Muslim communities.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Issue-based Participation, Civic Participation, Other

Grant Length:

Sep 2023 to Aug 2026

Strategy:

Power Building in Marginalized Communities
  • Political Research Associates
  • $250,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2024

Political Research Associates (PRA) is a social justice research and strategy center devoted to supporting organizations, civic leaders, journalists, and social sectors that are building a more just and inclusive democratic society.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism, Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Civic Participation/Issue-based Participation, Other

Grant Length:

Aug 2024 to Aug 2026

Strategy:

General
  • POLITICO, LLC
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • General and Field Building
  • 2016

Politico is co-sponsoring an event on the future of American democracy and the political parties. While examining these structures through the context of the 2016 election, two panels will focus on the forces and factors that created our current election and how they will influence the future.

Project:

Public education event on future of democracy

Foundation Center Topic:

Other

Grant Length:

Dec 2016 to Feb 2017

Strategy:

Previous Strategy
  • Pop Culture Collaborative
  • $250,000.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2022

The Becoming America Fund at Pop Culture Collaborative, a fiscally sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, is a donor collaborative working to unleash the power and scale of pop culture to transform the narrative landscape surrounding people of color, immigrants, refugees, Muslims, and Indigenous peoples—especially those who are women, queer, transgender, and/or disabled—in America.

Project:

Becoming America Fund at Pop Culture Collaborative

Foundation Center Topic:

Other, Media

Grant Length:

Oct 2022 to Mar 2024

Strategy:

General
  • POPVOX Foundation
  • $90,000.00
  • Project
  • President's Office
  • 2022

POPVOX Foundation works to inform and empower people and make government work better for everyone. They reimagine the concept of civic infrastructure and provide new ways for government to share information and engage the public. They are building internal capacity to increase long-term sustainability and improve the impact of their work.

Project:

Capacity Building

Foundation Center Topic:

Grant Length:

Oct 2022 to Sep 2023

Strategy:

General
  • POPVOX Foundation
  • $100,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2022

POPVOX Foundation works to inform and empower people and make government work better for everyone. This includes reimagining the concept of “civic infrastructure,” and providing new ways for government to share information and engage the public, with an emphasis on diverse participation and rebuilding public trust.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Public Participation, Government/Legislative Branch Performance

Grant Length:

May 2022 to Apr 2023

Strategy:

Empowering Congress
  • POPVOX Foundation
  • $50,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • President's Office
  • 2023

POPVOX Foundation works to inform and empower people and make government work better for everyone. This includes reimagining the concept of “civic infrastructure,” and providing new ways for government to share information and engage the public, with an emphasis on diverse participation and rebuilding public trust.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Dec 2023 to Nov 2024

Strategy:

General
  • POPVOX LegiDash Fund
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2018

The POPVOX LegiDash Fund, a project of the Tides Foundation, will develop a communications and legislative resources dashboard for use by congressional staff. The free product, called LegiDash, will provide staff with an improved constituent communications portal they can use to view and respond to messages delivered to Congress by POPVOX, increasing the efficiency of that process.

Project:

POPVOX LegiDash Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance

Grant Length:

Jun 2018 to May 2019

Strategy:

Empowering Congress
  • POPVOX LegiDash Fund
  • $200,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2019

The POPVOX LegiDash Fund, a project of the Tides Foundation, will develop a communications and legislative resources dashboard for use by congressional staff. The free product, called LegiDash, will provide staff with an improved constituent communications portal they can use to view and respond to messages delivered to Congress by POPVOX, increasing the efficiency of that process.

Project:

POPVOX LegiDash Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance

Grant Length:

May 2019 to Apr 2020

Strategy:

Empowering Congress
  • POPVOX LegiDash Fund
  • $735,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2020

POPVOX LegiDash Fund will develop a communications and legislative resources dashboard for congressional staff. The free product provides an improved constituent communications portal to view, batch, and respond to messages delivered to Congress by POPVOX.

Project:

POPVOX LegiDash Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Public Participation, Government/Legislative Branch Performance

Grant Length:

May 2020 to Apr 2023

Strategy:

Empowering Congress
  • Portland State University Foundation
  • $175,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2024

The Local Election Officials (LEO Survey) is a project created in partnership between the Elections and Voting Information Center (EVIC) at Reed College and team and Portland State University’s Center for Public Service. This grant supports the design, administration, analysis, and dissemination of findings from the sixth survey.

Project:

LEO Survey

Foundation Center Topic:

Other, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Apr 2024 to Sep 2025

Strategy:

Resilient Elections
  • Poynter Institute for Media Studies, Inc.
  • $130,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2018

The purpose of this grant is to fund the construction of an e-learning course focused on educating journalists on the legal issues related to libel and defamation, in an effort to mitigate risk and help reduce the likelihood of legal incidents. The training will cover multiple parts of the newsgathering and dissemination process, as well as what to do should one encounter an incident or claim.

Project:

Libel and Defamation Risk Mitigation Training

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Dec 2018 to Mar 2021

Strategy:

Press Freedom
  • Poynter Institute for Media Studies, Inc.
  • $325,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2013

A grant to the Poynter Institute will foster a public conversation within media  about the role of pundits in our democracy, reduce the level of deception from pundits through highly visible fact checking of pundits, and demonstrate the value of using non-partisan fact checking of media pundits to reduce deception and misinformation.

Project:

PundiFact & Civility Project

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Sep 2013 to Aug 2015

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
  • Poynter Institute for Media Studies, Inc.
  • $525,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2017

The purpose of the Grant is to provide support for the fight against mis/disinformation through fact-checking innovation, research, collaboration, and training. For this project, Grantee will work to support fact-checking through the PolitiFact and PunditFact platforms. Grantee will also support research, training, and opportunities for collaboration for the broader fact-checking and journalism networks. 

Project:

Strengthening Accountability Reporting

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training, Media

Grant Length:

Dec 2017 to Jun 2020

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • President's Office
  • 2017

This grant would contribute initial funding towards the creation of the position of 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 Crossroads 21 Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership

Grant Length:

Mar 2017 to Feb 2018

Strategy:

General
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • President's Office
  • 2018

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

Project:

Senior Practice Fellowship in American Democracy

Foundation Center Topic:

Other, Government

Grant Length:

Nov 2018 to Oct 2019

Strategy:

General
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College
  • $450,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2019

To support the Defending Digital Democracy Project (D3P) at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs to help election administrators and other government officials better protect election systems through a variety of trainings and tools.

Project:

Defending Digital Democracy Project

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Dec 2019 to Feb 2021

Strategy:

Trust in Elections
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2017

This grant will support the Defending Digital Democracy Project at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Project:

Defending Digital Democracy (D3P) project

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Nov 2017 to Oct 2019

Strategy:

Trust in Elections
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College
  • $300,000.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2023

Tthe Practicing Democracy Project at Harvard Kennedy School of Government believes that equipping people with the collective capacity to contest political, economic, and cultural power — that is, by enabling organization — people can realize the promises of democracy. The project will establish an endowed program in democratic organizing at Harvard University.

Project:

Practicing Democracy Project

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Nov 2023 to Oct 2026

Strategy:

General
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