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.
- 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 ProjectFoundation Center Topic:
Media/Journalism, MediaGrant Length:
Nov 2022 to Oct 2023Strategy:
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 SupportFoundation Center Topic:
Campaigns, Elections, and Voting, Civic Participation/Public ParticipationGrant Length:
Sep 2023 to Aug 2025Strategy:
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 DebatesFoundation Center Topic:
Media/Journalism, Civic Participation/Public ParticipationGrant Length:
Jul 2015 to Dec 2016Strategy:
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 ProjectFoundation Center Topic:
Media/Journalism Education and TrainingGrant Length:
Aug 2017 to Jul 2018Strategy:
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 CollectiveFoundation Center Topic:
Media/Media Access and Policy, Media/JournalismGrant Length:
Nov 2018 to Nov 2020Strategy:
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 ProjectFoundation Center Topic:
Government/Open Government and TransparencyGrant Length:
Nov 2017 to Oct 2019Strategy:
Oversight and Accountability- The League
- $225,000.00
- Project
- Governance
- 2020
Women, especially women of color, are severely underrepresented in the U.S. government. The League, a project of the New Venture Fund, will convene a cohort of organizations building a pipeline of Black, Indigenous, and non-Black women of color (BIWOC) to run for elected office.
Project:
The LeagueFoundation Center Topic:
Campaigns, Elections, and Voting, Civic Participation, Civic Participation/Public ParticipationGrant Length:
Dec 2020 to Nov 2023Strategy:
Constructive Politics- National Security Archive Fund Inc
- $225,000.00
- General Operating Support
- Governance
- 2019
General operating support to the National Security Archive Fund.
Project:
General Operating SupportFoundation Center Topic:
Government/Open Government and TransparencyGrant Length:
May 2019 to Apr 2022Strategy:
Oversight and Accountability- The Pew Charitable Trusts
- $225,000.00
- Project
- Governance
- 2018
The Pew Charitable Trusts’s Bipartisan House Chiefs of Staff Initiative (“Safe Spaces Project”), run by Pew’s Government Relations Department, offers programming for chiefs of staff in the U.S. House of Representatives aimed at fostering relationships, sharing best practices, and strengthening the capacity of Congress.
Project:
Pew Safe Spaces ProjectFoundation Center Topic:
GovernmentGrant Length:
May 2018 to Dec 2021Strategy:
Empowering Congress- 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 ProjectFoundation Center Topic:
OtherGrant Length:
Apr 2024 to Jun 2025Strategy:
Resilient Elections- The Aspen Institute Inc
- $225,000.00
- Project
- Just and Inclusive Society
- 2022
The Religion and Society Program at the Aspen Institute works to promote religious pluralism, inclusion, and to dismantle hate and extremism.
Project:
Support for the Religion and Society ProgramFoundation Center Topic:
Other, Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of LawGrant Length:
Aug 2022 to Nov 2024Strategy:
General- Accountable.US
- $225,000.00
- General Operating Support
- Governance
- 2021
Accountable.US (A.US) is a nonpartisan, 501(c)3 organization that shines a light on special interests that too often wield unchecked power and influence in Washington and beyond. They conduct in-depth investigations to expose conflicts of interest and then share their findings with the media, public, policymakers, and allies in real-time.
Project:
General Operating SupportFoundation Center Topic:
Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Government/Executive Branch PerformanceGrant Length:
Oct 2021 to Sep 2023Strategy:
Oversight and Accountability- Duke University
- $225,325.00
- Project
- Public Square
- 2016
The News Measures Research Project will provide a foundation for the Democracy Fund and the field in general to assess the state of national and local journalism content, audience needs at a local level and the state of the local news media infrastructure.
Project:
News Measures Research Project Phase 2Foundation Center Topic:
Media/JournalismGrant Length:
Nov 2016 to Jul 2018Strategy:
Ecosystem News- Gumshoe Group
- $233,500.00
- Project
- Public Square
- 2020
The Gumshoe Group, a fiscally sponsored project of NEO Philanthropy, Inc, builds structural, financial, and legal support for diverse freelance investigative journalists to pursue open records requests that hold institutions, power, and public officials accountable.
Project:
Gumshoe GroupFoundation Center Topic:
Media/JournalismGrant Length:
Dec 2020 to Mar 2023Strategy:
Investigative Journalism- Committee for Economic Development
- $235,000.00
- Project
- Elections and Voting
- 2012
The Committee for Economic Development will conduct research on the attitudes of business leaders about campaign finance reform.
Project:
Survey of Business Leaders' View on Money in PoliticsFoundation Center Topic:
Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Campaign FinanceGrant Length:
Oct 2012 to Oct 2013Strategy:
Previous Strategy- President and Fellows of Harvard College
- $240,000.00
- Project
- President's Office
- 2019
To support the Senior Practice Fellow in American Democracy at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School.
Project:
Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center support for the Senior Practice Fellowship in American DemocracyFoundation Center Topic:
Government, OtherGrant Length:
Nov 2019 to Dec 2021Strategy:
General- The Independence Public Media Foundation
- $247,000.00
- Project
- Public Square
- 2023
Independence Public Media Foundation’s Internet for All program makes grants to organizations working to expand community internet that is collectively owned and managed by local communities and strengthening community organizing for digital equity.
Project:
Independence Public Media FoundationFoundation Center Topic:
Media/Media Access and PolicyGrant Length:
Dec 2023 to Dec 2025Strategy:
Equitable Civic Infrastructure- National Disability Rights Network, Inc.
- $248,613.00
- General Operating Support
- Elections and Voting
- 2019
To provide the National Disability Rights Network the capacity to educate election officials, advocates, and the public on the need to provide access to voting functions for voters with disabilities and to build tools to improve polling place accessibility.
Project:
Disability Access and Rights AwarenessFoundation Center Topic:
Campaigns, Elections, and Voting, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voting AccessGrant Length:
Nov 2019 to Oct 2022Strategy:
Voter-Centric Election Administration- 22nd Century Initiative
- $250,000.00
- Project
- Just and Inclusive Society
- 2022
22nd Century Initiative, a fiscally sponsored project of Tides Center, facilitates widespread opposition to authoritarian movements and ideas, and resources organizations and networks to build an enduring, reparative, people-powered democracy.
Project:
22nd Century InitiativeFoundation Center Topic:
Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, OtherGrant Length:
Nov 2022 to Oct 2023Strategy:
Power Building in Marginalized Communities- Pop Culture Collaborative
- $250,000.00
- Project
- Just and Inclusive Society
- 2022
The Becoming America Fund at Pop Culture Collaborative, a fiscally sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, is a donor collaborative working to unleash the power and scale of pop culture to transform the narrative landscape surrounding people of color, immigrants, refugees, Muslims, and Indigenous peoples—especially those who are women, queer, transgender, and/or disabled—in America.