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
Select...
Elections and Voting
General and Field Building
Governance
Just and Inclusive Society
President's Office
Public Square
Strategies
Select...
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 Project on Government Oversight, Inc.
  • $300,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2017

This grant to The Constitution Project (TCP), a program within the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), will support POGO/TCP’s work to protect the courts. Through the “Defending Our Courts” campaign, POGO/TCP will develop messaging and build a coalition to restore and strengthen the public’s faith in the judiciary and build an infrastructure to resist any efforts to delegitimize or ignore a court’s decision.  

Project:

The "Defending Our Courts" Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law

Grant Length:

Dec 2017 to May 2020

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • FairVote
  • $100,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2017

This grant will support the general operations of FairVote – an organization working to generate more effective governance through voting reforms.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Dec 2017 to Nov 2018

Strategy:

Constructive Politics
  • Curators of the University of Missouri
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2017

The purpose of this grant is to support training and research on how newsrooms can build trust with their communities through social media, in person engagement and via their web sites and news products. 

Project:

Trusting News Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Nov 2017 to Sep 2019

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • R Street Institute
  • $730,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2017

General Operating Support

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance

Grant Length:

Nov 2017 to Oct 2019

Strategy:

Empowering Congress
  • William J. Brennan, Jr. Center for Justice, Inc.
  • $350,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2017

The William J. Brennan Center for Justice is preparing for the possible invocation of emergency authorities and the threat they would pose to democracy and to the constitutional order. This grant will support the Liberty and National Security Program’s Emergency Powers Project. The project involves legal and empirical research, a bipartisan working group of academic experts and former government officials to identify scenarios and interventions, and implementation of intervention strategies.

Project:

Liberty & National Security Program - Emergency Powers Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law

Grant Length:

Oct 2017 to Sep 2019

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • $600,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2017

The MIT Election Data and Science Lab (MEDSL) facilitates election data collection and sharing through web-based tools and datasets. The lab will create systems for sharing findings, allowing for the development of a network of scholars in the Election Science field.

Project:

MIT Election Data and Science Lab Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Dec 2017 to Nov 2020

Strategy:

Voter-Centric Election Administration
  • 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
  • Protect Democracy Project
  • $700,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2017

 The Protect Democracy Project is investigating government actions, engaging in public outreach and education, encouraging oversight by existing government mechanisms, and, when appropriate, bringing litigation against government actions that threaten our democracy.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law

Grant Length:

Nov 2017 to Oct 2019

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • CoastAlaska, Inc.
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2017

To support collaboration and fundraising services at Coast Alaska which helps build the Alaska media ecosystem. The shared services support will include a matching campaign for noncommercial public broadcasting stations inspired by NewsMatch, and the expansion of technological services to support small noncommercial stations in Alaska.

Project:

Coast Alaska Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training, Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Dec 2017 to Oct 2019

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • North Carolina Community Foundation, Inc.
  • $950,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2017

The purpose of this grant is to support North Carolina’s local news and information ecosystem. The grant will create the North Carolina Local News Lab Fund at the North Carolina Community Foundation to support building a networked news ecosystem that is audience-centered, trusted, collaborative, and resilient.

Project:

North Carolina Local News Lab Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training, Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Nov 2017 to Nov 2019

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • 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
  • 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:

Aug 2017 to Jul 2019

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • Kennesaw State University Research and Service Foundation, Inc.
  • $200,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2017

This grant will support the Georgia News Lab. The News Lab’s mission is threefold: To make the vital work of investigative reporting affordable for news organizations, to increase diversity in newsrooms, and to help news outlets better serve their communities by increasing the flow of trustworthy public interest journalism.

Project:

Georgia News Lab

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Oct 2017 to Jun 2020

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • Morgan State University Foundation Incorporated
  • $250,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2017

This grant will provide support for the Morgan Initiative. The Morgan Initiative demonstrates how universities can lead collaborative reporting projects that challenge local newsrooms to shift their practices to better create journalism that is meaningful to communities and responsive to their needs.

Project:

The Morgan Initiative

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Oct 2017 to Sep 2019

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
  • West Virginia University Foundation, Inc.
  • $150,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2017

This grant supports work to demonstrate how universities can lead collaborative reporting projects that challenge local newsrooms to shift their practices to better create journalism that is meaningful to communities and responsive to their needs through a focus on reporting from a rural Appalachian perspective.

Project:

WVU Media Innovation

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Aug 2017 to Jun 2019

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • Community Foundation of New Jersey
  • $1,300,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2017

The purpose of this grant is to support New Jersey’s local news information ecosystem. The grant will create a fund at the Community Foundation of New Jersey to support organizations that are working to build a networked, state-wide, place-based, news ecosystem that is audience-centered, trusted, collaborative and resilient.

Project:

New Jersey News Ecosystem

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training, Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Nov 2017 to Oct 2019

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • Public Agenda, Inc.
  • $200,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2017

The purpose of this grant is two-fold. This grant will support research and communications on the impacts and general efficacy of participatory budgeting regarding how governments spend money. This grant will also map and compare expert insights on the state of U.S. democracy, so that field leaders might better anticipate the path of democratic evolution and decide how best to support positive change in our politics. 

Project:

Impacts of Participatory Budgeting on Government Spending and Jumpstarting Democracy

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Public Participation

Grant Length:

Dec 2017 to Nov 2019

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • Women's Congressional Policy Institute
  • $460,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2017

This grant will provide general support for Women’s Policy, Inc. as they continue convening female leaders of Congress to build bipartisan relationships and increase congressional capacity. 

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance

Grant Length:

Dec 2017 to Nov 2019

Strategy:

Constructive Politics
  • The Brookings Institution
  • $250,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2017

This grant will support a two-year research project to study how primary elections impact political polarization and congressional dysfunction, explore the potential of congressional primaries as a vehicle to increase political equality, restoring public trust in the electoral system, and ultimately what gives rise to more equitable economic opportunities.

Project:

Research into Primary Elections & Congressional Dysfunction

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance, Civic Participation/Public Participation, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voter Education, Registration, and Turnout

Grant Length:

Nov 2017 to Mar 2020

Strategy:

Empowering Congress
Democracy Fund
1200 17th Street NW Suite 300,
Washington, DC 20036