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
  • Bipartisan Policy Center, Inc.
  • $1,300,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2017

This grant supports the governance-related initiatives of the Bipartisan Policy Center, including: taskforces on Government Oversight, Health of the Political Parties, and Election Demographics; the Healthy Congress Index; congressional reforms recommended by the Commission on Political Reform; and increasing the communications capacity of the Bipartisan Policy Center. 

Project:

Support for the Democracy Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance, Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Other, Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Jul 2017 to Jun 2019

Strategy:

Empowering Congress
  • Community Foundation of New Jersey
  • $1,300,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2017

The purpose of this grant is to support New Jersey’s local news information ecosystem. The grant will create a fund at the Community Foundation of New Jersey to support organizations that are working to build a networked, state-wide, place-based, news ecosystem that is audience-centered, trusted, collaborative and resilient.

Project:

New Jersey News Ecosystem

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism Education and Training, Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Nov 2017 to Oct 2019

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • North Carolina Community Foundation, Inc.
  • $1,300,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2020

The North Carolina Local News Lab Fund at North Carolina Community Foundation provides support to the local news ecosystem with a focus on underserved communities and the organizations that serve them.

Project:

North Carolina Local News Lab Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Dec 2020 to Oct 2023

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • Proteus Fund Inc.
  • $1,350,000.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2023

The Rise Together Fund (RTF), a Proteus Fund initiative, supports a diverse field of organizations working to address anti-Muslim bigotry, xenophobia, and more. They build the capacity of Muslim, Arab and South Asian (MASA) community-based organizations and provide field coordination support to their grantees.

Project:

Rise Together Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Civic Participation, Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Civic Participation/Issue-based Participation, Civic Participation/Naturalization and Immigrant Civic Integration, Media, Civic Participation/Public Participation, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voter Education, Registration, and Turnout

Grant Length:

Sep 2023 to Aug 2026

Strategy:

Power Building in Marginalized Communities
  • Common Cause Education Fund
  • $1,375,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2019

Common Cause Education Fund (CCEF) is a national organization supporting civic reform in the U.S., working for improvements in both election administration and campaign finance. They are a key player in shaping conversations around voting. Leveraging their state offices and national membership, they continue to build local coalitions around many reforms to strengthen our democracy.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Redistricting, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Campaign Finance, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voting Access

Grant Length:

Dec 2019 to Jul 2023

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • Democracy Forward Foundation
  • $1,425,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2023

Democracy Forward Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that uses the law to build collective power and advance a bold, vibrant democracy for all people.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Government/Judicial Selection and Performance

Grant Length:

Nov 2023 to Oct 2026

Strategy:

State and Local Accountability
  • NEO Philanthropy Inc.
  • $1,430,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2019

To support NEO Philanthropy’s State Infrastructure Fund (SIF) project in its work to protect and advance the voting rights of historically underrepresented communities through a coordinated proactive and responsive approach. SIF’s grantmaking and convening power strengthens coordination within the voting rights movement, in particular between grassroots mobilization and litigation.

Project:

State Infrastructure Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voting Access

Grant Length:

Oct 2019 to Sep 2023

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • Georgetown University
  • $1,435,000.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2019

To support the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection’s (ICAP) litigation measures in support of targeted communities.

Project:

JIS support for ICAP

Foundation Center Topic:

Civic Participation/Civic Education and Leadership, Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Government/Open Government and Transparency, Media/Media Access and Policy, Other

Grant Length:

Nov 2019 to Apr 2024

Strategy:

General
  • Partnership for Public Service Inc.
  • $1,450,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2018

General operating support to the Partnership for Public Service. 

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance, Government/Executive Branch Performance

Grant Length:

Nov 2018 to May 2021

Strategy:

Empowering Congress
  • Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
  • $1,450,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2020

General operating support for Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Digital Justice Initiative.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Apr 2020 to Apr 2023

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
  • Issue One
  • $1,480,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2019

General operating support to Issue One. 

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Campaign Finance, Government/Legislative Branch Performance, Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Jun 2019 to Dec 2023

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • Democracy Docket Legal Fund
  • $1,500,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2020

Democracy Docket Legal Fund, a fiscally sponsored project of the Hopewell Fund, works to detect and combat suppressive voting laws and practices through litigation.

Project:

Democracy Docket Legal Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voting Access

Grant Length:

Jul 2020 to Jun 2021

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • The Center for Investigative Reporting, Inc.
  • $1,500,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2019

To support the Center for Investigative Reporting’s investigative journalism as a critical check and balance on power. The grant will provide the Center for Investigative Reporting with critical support for their local news collaborations through the Reveal Local Labs to help them fulfill their role as a core part of America’s fourth estate. This project will help expand investigative capacity around the country and at the national level. 

Project:

Investigative Journalism Special Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Jul 2019 to Jun 2022

Strategy:

Investigative Journalism
  • Trusted Elections Fund
  • $1,500,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2022

The Trusted Elections Fund, a fiscally sponsored project of New Venture Fund, is a pooled donor fund with a portfolio of democracy-related investments. The Trusted Elections Fund undertakes efforts to help prepare U.S. institutions for the possibility of challenges to free and fair elections.

Project:

Trusted Elections Fund 2022-23

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting, Government, Civic Participation/Public Participation, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Voting Access, Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

May 2022 to Dec 2023

Strategy:

General
  • Proteus Fund Inc.
  • $1,560,000.00
  • Project
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2019

The Rise Together Fund (RTF), a Proteus Fund initiative, supports a diverse field of organizations working to address anti-Muslim bigotry, xenophobia, and more. They build the capacity of Muslim, Arab and South Asian (MASA) community-based organizations and provide field coordination support to their grantees.

Project:

Rise Together Fund

Foundation Center Topic:

Other

Grant Length:

Sep 2019 to Aug 2023

Strategy:

General
  • R Street Institute
  • $1,575,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2019

R Street Institute’s Governance Project aims to assess and improve the state of America’s national system of self-governance by producing research papers and other writing about congressional capacity and separation-of-powers issues.

Project:

Governance Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Government/Legislative Branch Performance, Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Nov 2019 to Oct 2023

Strategy:

Empowering Congress
  • Bipartisan Policy Center, Inc.
  • $1,750,000.00
  • Project
  • General and Field Building
  • 2011

The BPC’s Democracy Project will address the challenges of polarization and paralysis in our governance process through research and the convening of a national commission on political reform.

Project:

Democracy Project

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Legislative Branch Performance, Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Jan 2012 to Jun 2014

Strategy:

General
  • The Project on Government Oversight, Inc.
  • $1,750,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Governance
  • 2022

The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that investigates and exposes waste, corruption, abuse of power, failures by the government to serve the public, or efforts to silence those who report wrongdoing.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Government/Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Government/Open Government and Transparency

Grant Length:

Jul 2022 to Jun 2024

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • People's Action Institute
  • $1,810,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Just and Inclusive Society
  • 2023

People’s Action Institute is a national network of 40 member-based, power-building organizations in 29 states with more than a million members and tens of thousands of national volunteers. They work to advance a long-term agenda for racial, economic and gender justice by investing in powerful state and local organizations and campaigns that win real change in people’s lives.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Other

Grant Length:

Dec 2023 to Oct 2026

Strategy:

General
  • JustFund.Us
  • $1,824,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2023

JustFund is a revolutionary nonprofit grantmaking solution that provides philanthropy with a new way to give through a B2B SaaS (business-to-business software-as-a-service) platform with growing B2C (business-to-consumer) offerings. JustFund eliminates bottlenecks and barriers to giving and centers equity in a traditionally inequitable process.

Project:

Building Power Cohort

Foundation Center Topic:

Other

Grant Length:

Dec 2023 to Nov 2025

Strategy:

Voting Power
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