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
  • The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
  • $1,069,382.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2011

FlackCheck.org will use satire and deconstructions of political ads to assist reporters and the public in identifying and rejecting fear-mongering and fact-mangling in the 2012 elections.

Project:

FlackCheck.org

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Nov 2011 to Nov 2013

Strategy:

Previous Strategy
  • The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
  • $396,500.00
  • Project
  • President's Office
  • 2017

The purpose of this grant is to support The Center for High Impact Philanthropy (“CHIP”) to develop a toolkit for donors that will help philanthropists understand the various aspects of strengthening our democracy and ways they can support efforts around the United States. CHIP will conduct a field scan, develop specific resources on what is working well, and disseminate the toolkit to various donor networks. 

Project:

Educating Donors About Democracy

Foundation Center Topic:

Other, Media/Journalism, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting

Grant Length:

Dec 2017 to Mar 2020

Strategy:

General
  • The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
  • $93,122.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2020

To support the Media, Inequality and Change Center’s (MIC) Compass Fellowship Program in continuing to strengthen the ties between academia and practice on tech and telecom issues.

Project:

Compass Fellowship

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Apr 2020 to Sep 2023

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
  • The University of Texas at Austin
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2024

The Solidarity Journalism Initiative is a research-based effort that helps journalists, educators, and students improve coverage of marginalized communities. Solidarity in journalism means that journalists stand for basic human dignity and against suffering, and is a practice of newsworthiness judgments, sourcing, and framing that centers the lived experiences of people.

Project:

Solidarity Journalism Initiative

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism, Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Jul 2024 to Jun 2026

Strategy:

Journalism & Power Building
  • The University of Texas at Austin
  • $125,000.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2021

The Solidarity Journalism project, housed at the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin, conducts research and provides trainings to reporters on Solidarity Journalism, which centers communities that have been historically excluded or harmed by journalism’s portrayal of them.

Project:

RAD Support of Solidarity Journalism

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Dec 2021 to Jan 2024

Strategy:

General
  • The University of Texas at Austin
  • $31,736.00
  • Network Grant
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2015

The purpose of this grant is to understand how newsrooms can better optimize their engagement metrics, particularly with election‐related coverage.

Project:

Understanding Engagement with Election‐Related News

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Dec 2015 to Mar 2017

Strategy:

Voter-Centric Election Administration
  • The University of Texas at Austin
  • $99,985.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2018

To provide support for message testing research to combat destructive narratives about trust in elections.

Project:

Texas Media Society Survey

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voting Access

Grant Length:

Jul 2018 to Sep 2019

Strategy:

Trust in Elections
  • The University of Texas at Austin
  • $400,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2013

The Engaging News Project has a single aim: to provide research-based techniques for engaging online audiences in commercially-viable and democratically-beneficial ways. The project tests web-based strategies for informing audiences, promoting substantive discourse, and helping citizens to understand diverse views.

Project:

Engaging News Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Public Participation, Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Aug 2013 to Aug 2015

Strategy:

Previous Strategy
  • The University of Texas at Austin
  • $12,400.00
  • Network Grant
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2013

To support collaboration between NICD and the Engaging News Project to share knowledge and identify promising strategies that will determine features and tools to promote a more civil dialogue online.

Project:

Mini-Grant

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Feb 2014 to May 2015

Strategy:

Voter-Centric Election Administration
  • The University of Texas at Austin
  • $400,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2020

The Center for Media Engagement will produce peer-reviewed research and practical recommendations that inform journalists and newsrooms on engagement practices, building and restoring trust, and serving diverse audiences.

Project:

Center for Media Engagement

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Jan 2021 to Aug 2023

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • The University of Texas at Austin
  • $400,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2015

This grant supports the work and experimentation of the Engaging News Project and in so doing will raise the knowledge across industry of news engagement practices that are COMMERCIALLY-VIABLE and DEMOCRATICALLY-BENEFICIAL.

Project:

Journalism for Democracy

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Oct 2015 to Nov 2017

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • The University of Texas at Austin
  • $934,958.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2017

The Engaging News Project (ENP) will test web-based strategies for informing audiences, promoting substantive discourse, and helping citizens to understand diverse views. They will also analyze business outcomes, such as clicks and time on page, which provides valuable information about what works, and what doesn’t.

Project:

Center for Media Engagement Renewal

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Sep 2017 to Jan 2021

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • ThinkTennessee
  • $350,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2019

To provide general support for ThinkTennessee’s work to build support for democracy reform in Tennessee. ThinkTN will provide unbiased research and analysis, informing key stakeholders about evidence-based ideas that will create civic and economic opportunity in Tennessee.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

May 2019 to Apr 2022

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • ThinkTennessee
  • $250,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2022

ThinkTennessee is a nonpartisan, results-oriented think tank that uses research and advocacy to build a state where all Tennesseans are civically engaged and economically secure.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Jun 2022 to Dec 2024

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • ThinkTennessee
  • $90,739.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2018

This grant will provide support to ThinkTennessee’s efforts to build awareness around registration modernization in Tennessee.

Project:

Registration Modernization in Tennessee

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

May 2018 to Apr 2019

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • Thought Partnerships
  • $546,807.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2019

To support Thought Partnerships, a fiscally sponsored project of NEO Philanthropies, as it seeks to build effective cross sector communities of practice to advance non-violent and just societies through research, sharing and learning.  

Project:

RAD Support for Thought Partnerships

Foundation Center Topic:

Other

Grant Length:

Dec 2019 to May 2024

Strategy:

General
  • Times Publishing Company
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2015

The purpose of this grant is to expand the practice of fact-checking by helping PolitiFact expand their network throughout the states.

Project:

PolitiFact State Partnerships

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Nov 2015 to Oct 2017

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
  • TPF Special Assets Fund, DBA The Lenfest Institute for Journalism
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2019

The Community Listening and Engagement Fund (CLEF) is a philanthropic collaborative to subsidize the costs of engagement tools like Hearken, Groundsource, Coral Project, and Listening Post in newsrooms across the country to help them better connect with their communities.

Project:

Community Listening and Engagement Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Jul 2019 to Jun 2020

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • TPF Special Assets Fund, DBA The Lenfest Institute for Journalism
  • $200,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2017

This grant will help establish The Community Listening and Engagement Fund at the The Lenfest Institute. The Fund will subsidize the costs of adopting new community engagement tools for newsrooms who want to deepen their connections to their audience. By making engagement tools more accessible to a broader array of newsrooms the Fund will help accelerate the adoption of journalism practices and models that make newsrooms more responsive to their communities.  

Project:

The Community Listening and Engagement Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Dec 2017 to Jun 2019

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • Translash Media Inc
  • $300,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2023

Translash Media Inc., is a U.S-based and globally recognized Black, trans-led nonprofit news organization and digital community dedicated to telling trans stories to save trans lives. Using the power of journalism and personal narrative, TransLash creates, curates, and presents trans-affirming content, resources, and events in collaboration with their partners.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism, Media

Grant Length:

Oct 2023 to Dec 2024

Strategy:

Journalism & Power Building
Democracy Fund
1200 17th Street NW Suite 300,
Washington, DC 20036