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
  • Association of the Bar of the City of New York Fund, Inc. dba The Vance Center
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2023

Lawyers for Reporters, a project of the Vance Center, and in partnership with the Press Freedom Defense Fund, provides pro bono legal services to local and social mission-driven organizations in the United States.

Project:

Lawyers for Reporters

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Oct 2023 to Sep 2026

Strategy:

News & Information Ecosystems
  • Association of the Bar of the City of New York Fund, Inc. dba The Vance Center
  • $125,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2022

Lawyers for Reporters, a project of the Vance Center, and in partnership with the Press Freedom Defense Fund, provides pro bono legal services to local and social mission-driven organizations in the United States.

Project:

Lawyers for Reporters

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Oct 2022 to Sep 2023

Strategy:

Press Freedom
  • Association of the Bar of the City of New York Fund, Inc. dba The Vance Center
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2024

Lawyers for Reporters, a Vance Center initiative, provides pro bono legal assistance to local and mission-driven journalism organizations in the United States. LFR was created to empower these outlets to investigate and inform their communities about the issues that affect their lives.

Project:

Lawyers for Reporters

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Nov 2024 to Sep 2026

Strategy:

General
  • Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project Inc
  • $125,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2022

The Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP) believes that asylum seekers can make great change by standing together. They provide their membership of asylum seekers with legal and community support.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Civic Participation/Issue-based Participation, Civic Participation/Naturalization and Immigrant Civic Integration

Grant Length:

Nov 2022 to Oct 2023

Strategy:

Power Building in Marginalized Communities
  • Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project Inc
  • $375,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2023

The Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP) believes that asylum seekers can make great change by standing together. They provide their membership of asylum seekers with legal and community support.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Civic Participation/Issue-based Participation, Civic Participation/Naturalization and Immigrant Civic Integration

Grant Length:

Nov 2023 to Oct 2026

Strategy:

Power Building in Marginalized Communities
  • Ayni Institute Inc
  • $800,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2023

The Ayni Institute is a movement training center run, led, and rooted in the immigrant experience, community organizing, and indigenous wisdom that seeks to build the necessary capacity to win social change. They support social movements, leaders, and institutions in increasing their strategic and organizational capacity.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership

Grant Length:

Dec 2023 to Nov 2026

Strategy:

General
  • Baltimore Beat Inc.
  • $450,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2023

Baltimore Beat’s mission is to pursue journalism that serves the Baltimore local news ecosystem in the tradition of the Black press, focusing on community, questioning power structures, and prioritizing thoughtful engagement with the community.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Oct 2023 to Sep 2026

Strategy:

News & Information Ecosystems
  • Bipartisan Policy Center, Inc.
  • $400,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2022

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) Elections Project will promote recommendations that improve the quality of U.S. elections. Building on the work of the Task Force on Elections, BPC will advance state and federal election recommendations with a focus on addressing new challenges in election administration.

Project:

Democracy Project Elections Program

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Sep 2022 to Aug 2024

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • Bipartisan Policy Center, Inc.
  • $800,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2020

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Congress Project will spearhead a series of activities to foster institutional reforms, help Congress reclaim a constitutionally appropriate balance with the executive branch, and expand efforts that enable members and staff to collaborate on bipartisan action.

Project:

Support for the Congress Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance

Grant Length:

Jul 2020 to Jun 2023

Strategy:

Empowering Congress
  • Bipartisan Policy Center, Inc.
  • $450,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2019

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Congress Project fosters congressional reform ideas, with a particular focus on the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. The Congress Project will also organize recurring bipartisan programming for Members of Congress and their staff.

Project:

Support for the Congress Project

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Jul 2019 to Jun 2020

Strategy:

Empowering Congress
  • Bipartisan Policy Center, Inc.
  • $400,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2020

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Elections Project promotes recommendations that improve the quality of U.S. elections. Building on the work in 2019 of the Task Force on Elections, BPC will advance state and federal election reform with recommendations about new challenges in election administration.

Project:

Democracy Project Elections Program

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Jul 2020 to Jun 2022

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • Bipartisan Policy Center, Inc.
  • $825,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2017

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Democracy Project will continue their efforts to promote the Presidential Commission on Election Administration’s recommendations. These recommendations are meant to improve the quality of our elections.

Project:

Democracy Project Elections

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Jul 2017 to Jun 2019

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • Bipartisan Policy Center, Inc.
  • $200,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2019

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s Elections Project will convene three task forces focused on different aspects of the elections process to develop updated recommendations to address challenges in election administration, as well as identify ongoing gaps where states have yet to adopt PCEA recommendations.

Project:

Elections Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Jul 2019 to Jun 2020

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • Bipartisan Policy Center, Inc.
  • $1,750,000.00
  • Project
  • General and Field Building
  • 2011

The BPC’s Democracy Project will address the challenges of polarization and paralysis in our governance process through research and the convening of a national commission on political reform.

Project:

Democracy Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Jan 2012 to Jun 2014

Strategy:

General
  • Bipartisan Policy Center, Inc.
  • $1,300,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2017

This grant supports the governance-related initiatives of the Bipartisan Policy Center, including: taskforces on Government Oversight, Health of the Political Parties, and Election Demographics; the Healthy Congress Index; congressional reforms recommended by the Commission on Political Reform; and increasing the communications capacity of the Bipartisan Policy Center. 

Project:

Support for the Democracy Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance, Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Other, Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Jul 2017 to Jun 2019

Strategy:

Empowering Congress
  • Bipartisan Policy Center, Inc.
  • $2,000,000.00
  • Project
  • General and Field Building
  • 2014

Support the Democracy Program to raise awareness of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration and The Commission on Political Reform recommendations among key stakeholders and the general public and support key research and technical assistance to assist officials who are seeking to adopt best practices recommended by the commissions.

Project:

Support the Democracy Program

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Dec 2014 to Jun 2016

Strategy:

General
  • Bipartisan Policy Center, Inc.
  • $1,100,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • General and Field Building
  • 2016

General Operating Funds to support to goals of the Bipartisan Policy Center, including support of the Democracy Program, and to raise awareness among key stakeholders and the general public of the recommendations of the Presidential Commission on Election Administration and The Commission on Political Reform, and to support efforts to educate officials and the public regarding the functional benefits of adopting the best practices recommended by the commissions.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance, Government/Executive Branch Performance, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting

Grant Length:

Jul 2016 to Jun 2017

Strategy:

General
  • Black River Life
  • $200,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2024

Black River Life, a fiscally sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, is a nonprofit creative studio and cultural organizing hub working to redress generations of anti-Black narrative harm. Through music, film, journalism and digital content, they seek to transform public conversations about Blackness, inviting the kind of discourse that makes multiracial democracy possible.

Project:

Black River Life

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy, Media, Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Oct 2024 to Sep 2026

Strategy:

Civil & Human Rights Online
  • Black Women Leading
  • $55,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2022

Black Women Leading, a fiscally sponsored project of the POPVOX Foundation, funds and supports the Black Women’s Congressional Alliance (BWCA). BWCA works to promote, recruit and retain Black women on Capitol Hill. Their network consists of well over 300 active and engaged members.

Project:

Support for Black Women Leading

Foundation Center Topic:

Government, Government/Legislative Branch Performance

Grant Length:

Nov 2022 to Oct 2023

Strategy:

Constructive Politics
  • Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
  • $330,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2018

The purpose of this grant is to fund Project DATA at the University of Wisconsin, which involves research and analysis of online political advertisements. Through this research and analysis, the project will explore the extent of “dark money” online advertising campaigns. The project will seek to analyze online advertising data collected in 2016 to assess who is behind online political advertising, the information that is disseminated online, who is targeted, and the effects produced by the targeted campaigns. Potential outcomes are publication of the findings in peer-reviewed academic journals, as well as a white paper, and the project lead – Professor Young Mie Kim – engaging in public service activities to disseminate the findings.

Project:

Project DATA: Digital Ad Tracking & Analysis

Foundation Center Topic:

Government, Civic Participation, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting

Grant Length:

Jan 2018 to Jun 2021

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
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