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.

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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
  • New America Foundation
  • $215,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2020

To support Ranking Digital Rights, a project of New America Foundation, in their effort to categorize, catalog, and assess the human rights impact of the practices of social media giants in the United States through the Ranking Digital Rights Corporate Accountability Index. 

Project:

Ranking Digital Rights: Platforms & Civil Rights

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Apr 2020 to Jun 2023

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
  • PEN American Center, Inc.
  • $215,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2022

PEN American combats online harassment of journalists through trainings for newsrooms and journalism membership associations on how to prepare and react to online attacks, as well as through their publicly available Online Manual Field Guide, which crowdsources resources and tools in the field to counter online abuse.

Project:

Combatting Online Harassment

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Aug 2022 to Jan 2024

Strategy:

Journalism & Power Building
  • Kairos Fellowship Inc.
  • $215,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2022

Kairos Fellowship, a fiscally sponsored project of Allied Media Projects Inc., trains fellows in digital-first campaigning who are placed at state and national power-building organizations.

Project:

Kairos Fellowship

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Oct 2022 to Sep 2023

Strategy:

Equitable Civic Infrastructure
  • Community Foundation of New Jersey
  • $215,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2020

The New Jersey Local News Lab Fund is a collaborative fund that supports people and organizations building a more connected, collaborative, and sustainable local news and information ecosystem in New Jersey.

Project:

New Jersey Local News Lab Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Nov 2020 to Mar 2023

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • Outlier Media
  • $215,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2022

Outlier Media is a Detroit-based nonprofit news organization. They identify, report, and deliver valuable information to empower residents to hold landlords, municipal government, and elected officials accountable for long-standing problems.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Oct 2022 to Sep 2023

Strategy:

News & Information Ecosystems
  • Free Press
  • $215,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2022

Free Press is a watchdog for media and technology policy. They conduct research and policy analysis, educate policymakers, the press and the public, pressure corporations, organize campaigns with grasstops and grassroots constituencies to hold decision-makers accountable, and lead winning coalitions.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation, Media/Journalism Education and Training, Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Sep 2022 to Jun 2023

Strategy:

Journalism & Power Building
  • URL Media Holdings Inc
  • $215,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2022

URL Media, a fiscally sponsored project of the Journalism Funding Partners, builds and supports a network of Black and Brown led newsrooms to harness their collective power and content for distribution, sustainability, and audience growth.

Project:

URL Media

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Aug 2022 to Jul 2023

Strategy:

Journalism & Power Building
  • MOAA Military Family Initiative
  • $218,300.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2016

MOAA Military Family Initiative (MOAA) will use new marketing efforts and current publications to inform and remind members of the military and their families of their federal rights as a UOCAVA (Uniformed Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act) voter.

Project:

Military Voter Education Project (MVEP)

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting

Grant Length:

Jun 2016 to Jun 2017

Strategy:

Voter-Centric Election Administration
  • MOAA Military Family Initiative
  • $220,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2017

The grant will provide support for the Military Officers Association of America Military Family Initiative (“MOAA-MFI”) to continue establishing a baseline, evidence-based understanding of the state of military family absentee voting. The second phase of the Military Voting Education Project (MVEP) will significantly increase MOAA-MFI’s brand presence in the military family voting market to increase organic referrals in a future third phase.

Project:

Military Voter Education Project II (MVEP/II)

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Nov 2017 to Oct 2018

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • Duke University
  • $220,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2018

The News Measures Research Project (NMRP)’s local news performance assessment is a valuable tool to journalism researchers, funders, advocates, and practitioners for understanding how local news outlets are meeting the information needs of the communities they serve.

Project:

News Measures Research Project Phase 3

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Dec 2018 to Sep 2021

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • Dēmos: A Network for Ideas and Action LTD
  • $222,465.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2013

Demos will conduct research on the level of state compliance with the motor voter provision of the National Voter Registration Act.

Project:

Research on Motor Voter Enforcement

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Jan 2014 to Dec 2014

Strategy:

Voter-Centric Election Administration
  • University of Florida Board of Trustees
  • $225,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2024

The Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida is coordinating a project to identify potential solutions for local government agencies, particularly elections offices, to mitigate the impact of unduly burdensome public records requests, often called “vexatious requests,” while protecting the flow of civic information to the public.

Project:

Vexatious FOI Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Other

Grant Length:

Apr 2024 to Jun 2025

Strategy:

Resilient Elections
  • Leadership Conference Education Fund, Inc.
  • $225,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2023

The Leadership Conference Education Fund builds public will for laws and policies that promote and protect the civil and human rights of every person in the United States. They work on issues including voting rights, educational equity, and justice reform.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Sep 2023 to Sep 2026

Strategy:

Equitable Civic Infrastructure
  • OpenSecrets
  • $225,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2019

To support the Center for Responsive Politics’ Foreign Lobby Watch Database. The Center will extract and analyze data from reports filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) to reveal the relationships and lobbying activity of foreign governments, companies, and individuals. 

Project:

Foreign Lobby Watch Database

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Nov 2019 to Oct 2022

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • Field Foundation of Illinois Inc.
  • $225,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2022

The Chicago Media and Storytelling Program at the Field Foundation supports pivotal investments to increase the production of news and innovative content that is by, for, and about African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, and Native American (ALAANA) communities and helps create a more inclusive, accurate, and comprehensive narrative of Chicago.

Project:

Chicago Media and Storytelling Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism, Media

Grant Length:

Nov 2022 to Oct 2023

Strategy:

News & Information Ecosystems
  • RepresentWomen Inc.
  • $225,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2023

RepresentWomen, Inc. is committed to researching, understanding, and then championing the evidence-based solutions that break down structural barriers to women’s political leadership.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting, Civic Participation/Public Participation

Grant Length:

Sep 2023 to Aug 2025

Strategy:

Representative Leadership
  • Civic Hall LLC
  • $225,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2015

The purpose of this grant is to scope opportunities to enable greater public participation in candidate debates by studying, modeling and encouraging the use of innovative approaches from around the country and also elsewhere that make debates more substantive, engaging, educative, and accountable to public concerns.

Project:

Rethinking Debates

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism, Civic Participation/Public Participation

Grant Length:

Jul 2015 to Dec 2016

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • Mozilla Foundation
  • $225,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2017

The purpose of this grant is to support the Coral Project in the development and implementation of tools and platforms that encourage a culture of engagement in newsrooms. The grant will largely focus on expanding adoption of their tools in newsrooms, which will consist of training, outreach and work around shifting culture inside newsrooms to be more open to engagement. 

Project:

Expanding Community Engagement Through the Coral Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Aug 2017 to Jul 2018

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • Internews Network
  • $225,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2018

Internews is an organization working to ensure access to trusted, quality information that empowers people to have a voice in their future and to live healthy, secure, and rewarding lives. The purpose of this grant is to support the Listening Post Collective,  a multi-city project that seeks to offer resources, tools, peer-to-peer support and a shared learning space for journalists, newsroom leaders and community groups looking to revitalize their local news and information ecosystems. 

Project:

Listening Post Collective

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy, Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Nov 2018 to Nov 2020

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • 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
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