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
  • Institute for Local Self Reliance Inc
  • $450,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2024

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) is a national research and advocacy organization that partners with allies across the country to build an American economy driven by local priorities, accountable to people and the planet.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Jul 2024 to Sep 2027

Strategy:

Civil & Human Rights Online
  • Mississippi Center for Justice
  • $450,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2024

By engaging elected officials, faith-based leaders, media, community activists, educators, childcare providers, healthcare professionals and other advocacy partners, the Mississippi Center for Justice dismantles the policies that keep Mississippi at the bottom of nearly every indicator of human well-being and deny African-American and lower-income Mississippians opportunities.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Jul 2024 to Sep 2027

Strategy:

Equitable Civic Infrastructure
  • El Tímpano
  • $450,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2023

El Tímpano, a fiscally sponsored project of Independent Arts & Media, works in collaboration with residents and community partners to create empowering, two-way channels of information that inform and engage the Bay Area’s Latino and Mayan immigrants.

Project:

El Tímpano

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Nov 2023 to Oct 2026

Strategy:

News & Information Ecosystems
  • New York University
  • $450,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2023

Cybersecurity for Democracy is researching and iterating on Ad Observer and the Ad Observatory, as well as exploring the creation of new tools to better help researchers, advocates, and journalists track digital disinformation.

Project:

Cybersecurity For Democracy

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

May 2023 to May 2026

Strategy:

Civil & Human Rights Online
  • Conecta Arizona
  • $450,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2023

Conecta Arizona (CA) started as an experiment to respond to misinformation about Covid with accurate and timely information in Spanish. Using the community-based approach they developed over the past three years, they are expanding their focus to include more deeply reported stories.

Project:

Conecta Arizona

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Nov 2023 to Oct 2026

Strategy:

News & Information Ecosystems
  • Oficina Legal Del Pueblo Unido Inc., dba Texas Civil Rights Project
  • $450,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2022

Oficina Legal Del Pueblo Unido Inc., dba Texas Civil Rights Project protects the civil rights of Texans through their work on economic justice, voting rights, and criminal justice.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voting Access

Grant Length:

Aug 2022 to Jul 2025

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • Pepperdine University
  • $450,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2016

The School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University will host a colloquium and public event on renewing American conservatism that will feature top academics, activists, and political scientists from around the country. Participants will discuss the future of the conservative movement in the United States resulting in dozens of essays on “the way forward” for the conservative movement and a conference in year 2. 

Project:

Renewing American Conservatism

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Issue-based Participation, Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership

Grant Length:

Dec 2016 to Nov 2018

Strategy:

Constructive Politics
  • Healthy Democracy Fund
  • $450,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2013

Encourage the replication of the CIR in states outside of Oregon

Project:

CIR Replication Grants

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Jul 2013 to Jul 2015

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • Center for Public Integrity
  • $450,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2012

The Center for Public Integrity will launch an anti-deception initiative, called Consider the Source, that aims to uncover how campaigns and consultants manipulate the public using a flood of secret money.

Project:

Consider the Source

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Campaign Finance

Grant Length:

Feb 2012 to Feb 2013

Strategy:

Investigative Journalism
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • $450,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2014

The Polling Place of the Future Project at MIT brings election officials, political scientists and tech experts together to refine and build free-access tech tools to allow election officials to run elections better.

Project:

Polling Place of the Future

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Jul 2014 to Sep 2017

Strategy:

Voter-Centric Election Administration
  • President and Fellows of Harvard College
  • $450,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2019

To support the Defending Digital Democracy Project (D3P) at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs to help election administrators and other government officials better protect election systems through a variety of trainings and tools.

Project:

Defending Digital Democracy Project

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Dec 2019 to Feb 2021

Strategy:

Trust in Elections
  • Take Back Our Republic Inc
  • $450,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2015

Take Back Our Republic (TBOR) focuses on giving concerned conservatives a voice on campaign finance reform issues. Their activities include: research, education, and advocacy to return political power to individuals.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Campaign Finance

Grant Length:

Jun 2015 to Nov 2016

Strategy:

Previous Strategy
  • American Oversight, Inc.
  • $450,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2020

American Oversight is building a centralized hub for oversight of the government’s response to the public and economic crisis created by COVID-19. Using information detailed in FOIA requests, news articles, public reports, Inspectors General reports, and congressional investigations, they will support oversight and investigative activities of the watchdog community.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Jul 2020 to Jun 2022

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • Former Members of Congress Inc.
  • $450,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2019

General Operating Support

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Government/Legislative Branch Performance

Grant Length:

Dec 2019 to Nov 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
  • Student Press Law Center
  • $450,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2019

The purpose of this grant is to provide general operating support to Student Press Law Center to expand and defend the rights of student journalists and their advisors.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Jun 2019 to May 2022

Strategy:

Press Freedom
  • Partnership for Public Service Inc.
  • $450,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2023

The Partnership for Public Service, believes that the future and democracy depend on our ability to solve big problems—and that an effective federal government is needed to do so. They serve as a bridge between administrations, across the political aisle, and from the public to the private sector to develop forward-thinking solutions that improve the way the government works.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Nov 2023 to Oct 2024

Strategy:

Preventing Authoritarian Abuse of Power
  • Union of Concerned Scientists Inc.
  • $450,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2021

The Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) works to strengthen the role of science within the federal civil service sector. They will develop recommendations for better hiring practices, science program leadership, and performance accountability within the federal government to help it better serve the public interest.

Project:

Rebuilding Capacity in Science-Based Federal Agencies

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Dec 2021 to Nov 2023

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
  • Open News
  • $450,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2019

To support OpenNews, a fiscally sponsored project of Community Partners, which works to create and support a diverse community of peers working, learning, and solving problems in technology and data. For this project, OpenNews will continue to create spaces in-person and online that support and connect changemakers and local journalists in newsrooms outside of the NY/DC corridor.

Project:

Local Coders Community

Foundation Center Topic:

Media

Grant Length:

Nov 2019 to Oct 2022

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
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