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
  • Open Source Election Technology Foundation
  • $500,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2015

The Open Source Election Technology Foundation (OSET) works to increase confidence in elections by innovating election and voting systems using an open-source, adaptable, flexible, full-featured election technology framework.

Project:

Open Source Election Technology 2015 Pilot Grant

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Dec 2015 to Nov 2017

Strategy:

Voter-Centric Election Administration
  • Times Publishing Company
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2015

The purpose of this grant is to expand the practice of fact-checking by helping PolitiFact expand their network throughout the states.

Project:

PolitiFact State Partnerships

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Nov 2015 to Oct 2017

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
  • ReThink Media, Inc.
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2015

The Collaborative Communications Initiative will continue to improve the communications capacity of the campaign finance reform community. Allowing groups to build collective messaging success in the field.

Project:

Collaborative Communications Initative on Money in Politics II

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Campaign Finance

Grant Length:

Dec 2015 to Nov 2017

Strategy:

Previous Strategy
  • Foundation for Minority Interests In Media Inc.
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2017

This grant will provide support for the Emma Bowen Foundation’s (“EBF”) diversity through internships work. This project will provide capacity for EBF to support at least 25 interns in rural, diverse-led, and nonprofit news outlets across the country. To enhance and extend current EBF intern programing on media specific content and leadership development, EBF will also hire a Program Director.

Project:

Supporting Diversity through Internships

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Oct 2017 to Sep 2019

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • Congressional Management Foundation
  • $500,000.00
  • 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
  • Openthegovernment.org
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2017

OpenTheGovernment (a project of the Fund for Constitutional Government) will map civil society sectors to identify groups to collaborate with. They will identify organizations who do not traditionally advocate for open government and transparency, but whose own causes could be helped by focusing on this issue.

Project:

Support for OpenTheGovernment

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Sep 2017 to Aug 2019

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • Decolonizing Wealth Project
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2020

The Liberated Capital Initiative by Decolonizing Wealth Project, a fiscally sponsored project of Allied Media Projects, aims to collectively move us all from disparities to equity. They train funders on the structural inequalities that shape philanthropy, to support more equitable philanthropic efforts.

Project:

Decolonizing Wealth Project's Liberated Capital Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Other

Grant Length:

Sep 2020 to Dec 2021

Strategy:

General
  • 2020 Census Project
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • President's Office
  • 2019

To support the 2020 Census Project, a fiscally sponsored project of the New Venture Fund. This grant will support the efforts of the 2020 Census Project’s Democracy Funders Collaborative joint fund on the Census, which aims to ensure that the 2020 Census is implemented effectively, produces a robust, accurate count of the population of the United States, and supports efforts to ensure all Americans – especially those most likely to be undercounted – are accounted for in the Census.

Project:

2020 Census Project Renewal

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Public Participation

Grant Length:

Dec 2019 to Dec 2020

Strategy:

General
  • Voter Registration Project
  • $500,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • President's Office
  • 2022

Voter Registration Project’s (VRP) works to create a more representative democracy by narrowing the registration gap between Black, Indigenous, LatinX, Hispanic, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander voters and white voters. VRP funds and coordinates non-partisan voter registration efforts and works with in-state, community-based organizations and 501(c)(3) civic engagement tables.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Sep 2022 to Aug 2023

Strategy:

General
  • Center for Secure and Modern Elections
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2022

Center for Secure and Modern Elections (CSME), a fiscally sponsored project of the New Venture Fund, advocates for a more efficient, accurate and secure election process. They support bipartisan proposals such as Automatic Voter Registration that saves valuable time for election officials, saves money for state governments, and ensures voters can participate in our democracy.

Project:

Center for Secure and Modern Elections

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting, Civic Participation

Grant Length:

Sep 2022 to Aug 2023

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • The Obsidian Collection Archives
  • $500,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2019

This is a general operating, renewal grant to the Obsidian Collection for their work in helping black legacy press preserve and digitize their archives as a new revenue stream for most and a jumping off point to bring them into the digital age.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Dec 2019 to Dec 2022

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
  • City Bureau NFP
  • $500,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2020

City Bureau works to address inequality in Chicago media. Their innovative programs engage Chicagoans directly in the process of producing civic media.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism, Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Oct 2020 to Sep 2022

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • National League of Cities Institute, Inc.
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2019

To support the Center for City Solutions at the National League of Cities to develop and socialize a suite of tools and best practices for mayors of U.S. cities to develop nonpartisan programs within their own cities to improve citizen engagement in civic life. They will look to enlist 100 cities to participate in a way that works well for the city’s own culture. 

Project:

Educating Cities for Greater Engagement

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

Oct 2019 to Apr 2023

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • Oficina Legal Del Pueblo Unido Inc., dba Texas Civil Rights Project
  • $500,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2020

This grant provides general operating support for Texas Civil Rights Project. 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/Voting Access

Grant Length:

Jul 2020 to Jun 2022

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • Free Press
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2018

To support the continued work and expansion of the NewsVoices project which organizes communities around local newsrooms to highlight underreported issues and build trust between journalists and the communities they serve. Ultimately, the project aims to improve journalistic practices, and coverage in the regions where they work, leaving behind a more active and engaged community which can continue to push for a healthier news ecosystem. 

Project:

Free Press News Voices Renewal

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Dec 2018 to Nov 2020

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • International Refugee Assistance Project Inc.
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2019

To provide project support to the International Refugee Assistance Project’s (IRAP) family reunification, community lawyering, and impact litigation work.  

Project:

Project Support for IRAP

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Civic Participation/Naturalization and Immigrant Civic Integration, Other

Grant Length:

Nov 2019 to Oct 2023

Strategy:

General
  • New Venture Fund
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2017

This grant will provide support for the field of elections and voting research through participation in the Civic Engagement and Elections Research Collaborative Fund.

Project:

The Civic Engagement and Elections Research Collaborative Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting

Grant Length:

Nov 2017 to Oct 2019

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • The Miami Foundation Inc.
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2023

The Press Forward pooled fund, a collaborative vehicle housed at The Miami Foundation, will support local news around the country. Press Forward seeks to reverse the dramatic decline in local news that has coincided with an increasingly divided America and weakening trust in institutions.

Project:

Press Forward Pooled Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Dec 2023 to Nov 2024

Strategy:

News & Information Ecosystems
  • Future Currents
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2022

The Social and Economic Justice Leaders Planning Group, a fiscally sponsored project of the New Venture Fund, provides research, scenario-planning methodologies, and strategy-design processes to grassroots organizations and movement leaders to help them achieve their goals for a vibrant, reparative democracy.

Project:

Social and Economic Justice Leaders

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation, Civic Participation/Public Participation

Grant Length:

Nov 2022 to Oct 2023

Strategy:

General
  • Outlier Media
  • $500,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2020

Outlier Media, a fiscally sponsored project of MuckRock Foundation, Inc., is a trailblazing newsroom in Detroit whose strategy of identifying and serving community needs is a model for engaged journalism practice. Outlier also serves as an Ecosystem Builder by sharing resources, strategy, learning, and systems with peers in other cities.

Project:

Outlier Media

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Oct 2020 to Aug 2022

Strategy:

Engaged Journalism
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