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
  • American Oversight, Inc.
  • $525,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2023

American Oversight is a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog that uses public records requests backed by litigation to fight corruption, drive accountability, and defend democracy. They believe transparency is a critical tool to promote integrity in government and to protect justice, truth, and the rule of law.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Sep 2023 to Aug 2025

Strategy:

State and Local Accountability
  • City Bureau NFP
  • $465,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2023

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

Grant Length:

Oct 2023 to Sep 2026

Strategy:

Journalism & Power Building
  • Outlier Media
  • $465,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2023

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 2023 to Sep 2026

Strategy:

Journalism & Power Building
  • Prism Reports, Inc.
  • $465,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2023

Prism provides in-depth and thought-provoking journalism in order to reflect the lived experiences of people most impacted by injustice, disrupting harmful narratives and informing movements for justice.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism, Media

Grant Length:

Oct 2023 to Sep 2026

Strategy:

Journalism & Power Building
  • Scalawag
  • $465,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2023

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Durham, NC, Scalawag is a Southern media organization that builds social and political consciousness through journalism and storytelling. Their mission is to work in solidarity with oppressed communities in the South to disrupt and shift the narratives that keep power and wealth in the hands of the few.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Oct 2023 to Sep 2026

Strategy:

Journalism & Power Building
  • Resolve Philadelphia Inc
  • $465,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2023

Resolve Philadelphia is a groundbreaking nonprofit newsroom that demonstrates how news can better serve communities when rooted in solutions and community voices.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Nov 2023 to Oct 2026

Strategy:

News & Information Ecosystems
  • Media Democracy Fund
  • $650,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2023

The Digital Equity and Opportunity Initiative at Media Democracy Fund, a fiscally sponsored project of New Venture Fund, is a major opportunity for national, state, and place-based funders to engage with one of the most significant digital equity opportunities in history: the implementation of the broadband portions of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

Project:

Digital Equity and Opportunity Initiative

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Oct 2023 to Sep 2025

Strategy:

Equitable Civic Infrastructure
  • Union Theological Seminary
  • $65,000.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2023

The Kairos Center, housed at Union Theological Seminary, is a national organization committed to building a movement to end poverty, led by the poor. In the Fall of 2023, The Kairos Center will hold a convening of the Confronting White Christian Nationalism Initiative, in partnership with MoveOn Education Fund.

Project:

Countering Christian Nationalism Convening

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Issue-based Participation, Other

Grant Length:

Aug 2023 to Nov 2023

Strategy:

General
  • Institute for Social Policy and Understanding
  • $255,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2023

The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) conducts research, raises awareness, and works with partners to better understand the American Muslim community.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Media/Journalism Education and Training, Media, Other

Grant Length:

Sep 2023 to Aug 2025

Strategy:

Power Building in Marginalized Communities
  • National Black Tech Ecosystem Association
  • $260,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2023

The National Black Tech Ecosystem Association (dba Black Tech Futures Research Institute builds a national network of city-based researchers and practitioners conducting research on sustainable local black tech ecosystems. The outcomes of this work are actionable policy recommendations and a national public data archive.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Oct 2023 to Sep 2025

Strategy:

Civil & Human Rights Online
  • Montclair State University Foundation, Inc.
  • $900,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2023

The Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University, provides critical infrastructure to the local news and information ecosystem across New Jersey. Their signature program, NJ News Commons, along with their other efforts, works to create a more collaborative local news ecosystem in New Jersey and beyond.

Project:

Center for Cooperative Media

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Sep 2023 to Aug 2026

Strategy:

News & Information Ecosystems
  • Solidaire Network Inc
  • $300,000.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2023

The Janisha R. Gabriel Movement Protection Fund (MPF) moves resources rapidly to protect frontline organizers from state repression, vigilante violence, and digital attacks.

Project:

Movement Protection Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Other

Grant Length:

Nov 2023 to Jul 2025

Strategy:

General
  • Common Cause Education Fund
  • $525,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2023

Common Cause Education Fund strives to uphold the core values of American democracy by working to create open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration, Civic Participation/Public Participation, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voting Access

Grant Length:

Oct 2023 to Mar 2025

Strategy:

Voting Power
  • Community Foundation for Southern Arizona
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2023

The Community Foundation for Southern Arizona connects donors to the causes they care about, serving as a vital link between philanthropy and the community’s needs. They are working to provide ongoing community leadership and recurring philanthropic support to the organizations helping to rebuild trusted, local news and information in their community.

Project:

Local Journalism Initiative of Southern Arizona

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Nov 2023 to Dec 2024

Strategy:

News & Information Ecosystems
  • Center for Media Justice
  • $1,050,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2023

MediaJustice (formerly Center for Media Justice) is building a powerful grassroots movement for a more just and participatory media — fighting for racial, economic, and gender justice in a digital age.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Oct 2023 to Sep 2026

Strategy:

Equitable Civic Infrastructure
  • Mi Familia Vota Education Fund
  • $300,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2023

Mi Familia Vota Education Fund’s develops and implements non-partisan field programs and strategies for the diverse Latino population to promote citizenship, increase voter registration, and increase voter participation. Their Election Administration Outreach program increases the communities’ understanding to foster trust in the electoral process among Latino voters.

Project:

Election Administration Outreach

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Civic Participation, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Dec 2023 to Nov 2025

Strategy:

Resilient Elections
  • The Horizons Project
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2023

The Horizons Project, a fiscally sponsored project of New Venture Fund, advances research on weakening and dismantling authoritarianism in the United States.

Project:

Anti-Authoritarian Strategery

Foundation Center Topic:

Other

Grant Length:

Aug 2023 to Jun 2024

Strategy:

General
  • Defending Democracy Together Institute
  • $250,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2023

The Pillars of the Community Project, which is part of the Defending Democracy Together Institute (DDTI), bolsters local and state election officials in key counties and states in their defense of the electoral process and the election administrators who make it work.

Project:

Pillars of the Community Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership

Grant Length:

Oct 2023 to Feb 2025

Strategy:

Resilient Elections
  • The Pivot Fund
  • $420,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2023

The Pivot Fund, a fiscally sponsored project of Online News Association, invests in the skills, capacity, and development of BIPOC-led and serving community media and lends their expertise to the broader work of building an equitable and robust local news ecosystem.

Project:

The Pivot Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Aug 2023 to Jun 2024

Strategy:

Journalism & Power Building
  • The Chicago Community Trust
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2023

Press Forward Chicago, a funder collaborative housed at The Chicago Community Trust, helps to right-size independent, community news outlets and set them up for long-term sustainability. This initiative infuses the Chicago journalism ecosystem with renewed financial vitality, fortifying the multitude of independent outlets serving the diverse local communities.

Project:

Press Forward Chicago

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Nov 2023 to Dec 2025

Strategy:

News & Information Ecosystems
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