Ideas

Grants Database

Democracy Fund champions the leaders and organizations who defend democracy and challenge it to be more open and just. We are proud to have supported more than 200 organizations doing this work.

  • Shoulder to Shoulder
  • $10,000.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2020

To provide rapid response general capacity funds to the Shoulder to Shoulder project to support operational continuity during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Project:

Rapid Response General Capacity

Grant Length:

Strategy:

General
  • Shoulder to Shoulder
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2021

Shoulder to Shoulder, a fiscally sponsored project of The National Religious Campaign Against Torture, trains faith and community leaders to address Islamophobia in their communities.

Project:

Support for Shoulder to Shoulder

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Issue-based Participation, Other

Grant Length:

August 2021 to July 2022

Strategy:

General
  • Social and Economic Justice Leaders Planning Group
  • $400,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2021

The Social and Economic Justice Leaders Planning Group, a fiscally sponsored project of the New Venture Fund, provides research, scenario-planning methodologies, and strategy-design processes to grassroots organizations and movement leaders to help them achieve their goals for a vibrant, reparative democracy.

Project:

Social and Economic Justice Leaders

Foundation Center Topic:

Government

Grant Length:

October 2021 to September 2022

Strategy:

General
  • Social and Economic Justice Leaders Planning Group
  • $75,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2020

The Social and Economic Justice Leaders Project, a fiscally sponsored project of the New Venture Fund, is working to establish new models of co-governance between civil society actors and those working within the institutions of our democracy.

Project:

Social & Economic Justice Leaders Project - Co-Governance Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation

Grant Length:

December 2020 to September 2021

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • Social and Economic Justice Leaders Planning Group
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2022

The Social and Economic Justice Leaders Planning Group, a fiscally sponsored project of the New Venture Fund, provides research, scenario-planning methodologies, and strategy-design processes to grassroots organizations and movement leaders to help them achieve their goals for a vibrant, reparative democracy.

Project:

Social and Economic Justice Leaders

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation, Civic Participation/Public Participation

Grant Length:

November 2022 to October 2023

Strategy:

General
  • Social Science Research Council
  • $75,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2017

This grant will support the Social Science Research Council’s research on media and democracy, cutting across two areas of their existing work- Anxieties of Democracy and Digital culture. The grant will support cross-sector convenings and research about the role of media in democracy and the development of communications tools to provide resources to help media better serve […]

Project:

SSRC Media and Democracy Research Project

Grant Length:

December 2017 to November 2018

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
  • Social Science Research Council
  • $200,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2018

The purpose of this grant is to support the Digital Disinformation Research and Mapping Project, which will track and aggregate ongoing research, facilitate the alignment of research with relevant policy efforts, and build a diverse and multidisciplinary scholarly network.

Project:

Digital Disinformation Research and Mapping Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

September 2018 to August 2021

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
  • Social Science Research Council
  • $150,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2018

The Social Data Initiative will examine social media’s impact on society and democracy, explore questions about the responsible use of social network data, and generate insights to inform solutions.

Project:

Social Data Initiative

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

September 2018 to August 2019

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
  • Social Science Research Council
  • $150,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2020

To support scholarship at the intersection of critical race, digital studies, and social media platforms; especially as it relates to discriminatory targeting, hateful activities, content governance, and human / civil rights protections in the United States, with a particular focus on people of color and women.

Project:

Critical Race, Digital Studies, & Social Media Platforms

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

April 2020 to April 2023

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
  • Sojourners
  • $315,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2021

Sojourners is an independent, award-winning print and online magazine of faith, culture, and politics.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voter Education, Registration, and Turnout, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voting Access, Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Civic Participation/Naturalization and Immigrant Civic Integration, Civic Participation/Issue-based Participation, Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Media

Grant Length:

May 2021 to April 2023

Strategy:

General
  • Sojourners
  • $10,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2020

To provide rapid response general capacity funds to support operational continuity during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Project:

General Operating Support

Grant Length:

Strategy:

Constructive Politics
  • Sojourners
  • $75,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2018

To support Sojourners’ Matthew 25 initiative to shift the political and public narrative towards more inclusive and constructive conversations. To do this, Sojourners will use values-based messaging and convene diverse partners to address issues such as racism and xenophobia through videos, audio pieces, and other resources.

Project:

Support for Matthew 25 Initiative

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Naturalization and Immigrant Civic Integration, Civic Participation/Issue-based Participation, Civic Participation/Public Participation, Government/Legislative Branch Performance

Grant Length:

July 2018 to June 2019

Strategy:

Constructive Politics
  • Sojourners
  • $325,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2019

Sojourners is an independent, award-winning print and online magazine of faith, culture, and politics.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voter Education, Registration, and Turnout, Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law

Grant Length:

August 2019 to July 2020

Strategy:

Constructive Politics
  • Solutions Journalism Network
  • $300,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2019

To provide general operating support to the Solutions Journalism Network so they can continue to scale and adapt the work of infusing solutions journalism practice in newsrooms, building a journalism practice that better equips and informs communities to address social issues and fosters civic participation.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

November 2019 to October 2022

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • Solutions Journalism Network
  • $250,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2017

The purpose of this grant is to support Solutions Journalism Network in training journalists to develop solutions stories that investigate situations and provide reporting on alternate options to challenges unearthed within the investigations.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

August 2017 to July 2019

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • Solutions Journalism Network
  • $150,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2021

The Democracy SOS Fellowship will provide training and resources to journalists in order to build a practice of more engagement, trust, and equity in civics, elections, and political reporting.

Project:

Democracy SOS

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism, Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

August 2021 to April 2022

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • South Asian Americans Leading Together
  • $375,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2020

South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) is a nation­al move­ment strat­e­gy and advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tion working to promote racial jus­tice through fed­er­al pol­i­cy and advo­ca­cy, local and nation­al part­ner­ships, coali­tion build­ing, and strate­gic com­mu­ni­ca­tions.

Project:

South Asian Americans Leading Together

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation, Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Civic Participation/Naturalization and Immigrant Civic Integration, Civic Participation/Public Participation, Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law

Grant Length:

September 2020 to August 2023

Strategy:

General
  • Southern Coalition for Social Justice
  • $275,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2019

To provide general operating support for SCSJ.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voting Access

Grant Length:

November 2019 to April 2022

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • Spaceship Media
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2019

To support the pilot of Spaceship Local in Douglas, Arizona, rebuilding a news and information system through community engagement in a border town where reliable news sources are scarce. In addition to supporting this community, Spaceship Media is collecting valuable lessons on how their dialogue journalism model for engagement can be deployed more widely in […]

Project:

Spaceship Local

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

November 2019 to October 2020

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • Spaceship Media
  • $10,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2020

To provide rapid response general capacity funds to the Spaceship Media project to support operational continuity during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Project:

Rapid Response General Capacity

Grant Length:

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism