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
  • Center for Strategic and International Studies, Inc.
  • $150,000.00
  • Project
  • Governance
  • 2018

This grant to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) will support their project to assess and counter foreign technology-enabled threats to our judicial system. The project will engage stakeholders in off-the-record discussions of the threats presented, train individuals in the judicial system to counter these threats, and will culminate in a report with findings and recommendations for further action. 

Project:

Countering Active-Measure Threats to the U.S. Judiciary

Foundation Center Topic:

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

Grant Length:

May 2018 to Apr 2019

Strategy:

Oversight and Accountability
  • Center for Technology and Civic Life
  • $700,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2019

To provide general operating support to the Center for Technology and Civic Life. 

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Jun 2019 to Jun 2021

Strategy:

Voter-Centric Election Administration
  • Center for Technology and Civic Life
  • $400,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2015

The Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) focuses on three areas: training local governments on technology to enhance engagement with their communities, developing low to no cost tools for governmental use, and helping develop infrastructure to evaluate interactions between citizens and government.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Jul 2015 to Jun 2017

Strategy:

Voter-Centric Election Administration
  • Center for Technology and Civic Life
  • $40,000.00
  • Project
  • President's Office
  • 2017

Provide additional capacity building support for administrative training to Center for Technology and Civic Life staff and leadership.

Project:

Capacity Building Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Aug 2017 to Jul 2018

Strategy:

Voter-Centric Election Administration
  • Center for Technology and Civic Life
  • $500,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2017

Provide two years of general operating support to The Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL). CTCL will continue to focus on three areas: training local governments to utilize technology to enhance civic livelihood in their communities, develop low to no cost tools for governmental use, help develop infrastructure allowing the capture of data and information during interactions between citizens and government.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Aug 2017 to Jul 2019

Strategy:

Voter-Centric Election Administration
  • Center for Technology and Civic Life
  • $400,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2023

The Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) focuses on three areas: training local governments on technology to enhance engagement with their communities, developing low-to-no-cost tools for governmental use, and helping develop infrastructure to evaluate interactions between citizens and government.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Dec 2023 to Nov 2025

Strategy:

Resilient Elections
  • Center for Technology and Civic Life
  • $550,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2021

The Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) focuses on three areas: training local governments on technology to enhance engagement with their communities, developing low-to-no-cost tools for governmental use, and helping develop infrastructure to evaluate interactions between citizens and government.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Sep 2021 to Aug 2023

Strategy:

Voter-Centric Election Administration
  • Center on Race and Digital Justice
  • $300,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2024

The Center on Race and Digital Justice, a fiscally sponsored project of Code for Science and Society, works with students, faculty, civil society organizations, technology workers, community organizers, storytellers, and policy makers to develop solutions for the existential threats posed by unregulated technology products and practices.

Project:

Center on Race and Digital Justice

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Jul 2024 to Sep 2026

Strategy:

Equitable Civic Infrastructure
  • Chalkbeat Inc.
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2022

This project grant supports the Sunnylands Local News Initiative as run by Chalkbeat, will work to reimagine, revitalize, and resource local news in service of our democracy through a series of research, gatherings, and coordinated convenings.

Project:

Sunnylands Local News Roadmap

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Aug 2022 to Aug 2023

Strategy:

General
  • Chalkbeat Inc.
  • $150,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2022

Votebeat is a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting access year-round.

Project:

Votebeat

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Sep 2022 to Feb 2023

Strategy:

General
  • Chalkbeat Inc.
  • $250,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2018

The purpose of this grant is to support Chalkbeat’s community driven local news bureau model across the United States. This general operating grant will support Chalkbeat’s efforts to create a scalable and sustainable model for local journalism that serves communities while sharing costs across geographic bureaus in order to make the work maximally sustainable.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Oct 2018 to Mar 2020

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • Chalkbeat Inc.
  • $250,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2020

This general operating grant will support Chalkbeat’s efforts to create a scalable and sustainable model for local journalism that serves communities while sharing costs across geographic bureaus in order to make the work maximally sustainable.

Project:

Chalkbeat

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Jul 2020 to Jun 2021

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • Charlottesville Tomorrow
  • $150,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2023

Charlottesville Tomorrow is a community-driven, socially conscious news organization. They serve their neighbors by connecting them to each other and to the issues that affect them most.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Oct 2023 to Sep 2024

Strategy:

News & Information Ecosystems
  • Charlottesville Tomorrow
  • $200,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2024

Charlottesville Tomorrow is a community-driven, socially conscious news organization. They serve their neighbors by connecting them to each other and to the issues that affect them most.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Oct 2024 to Sep 2026

Strategy:

News & Information Ecosystems
  • Check My Ads Institute
  • $800,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2023

Check My Ads Institute is an independent watchdog reshaping the digital adtech industry from within its ranks — and building a new sustainable standard in digital advertising.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Sep 2023 to Sep 2026

Strategy:

Civil & Human Rights Online
  • Check My Ads Institute
  • $515,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2022

Check My Ads Institute is an independent watchdog reshaping the digital adtech industry from within its ranks — and building a new sustainable standard in digital advertising.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Mar 2022 to Jun 2023

Strategy:

Digital Democracy
  • Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
  • $100,000.00
  • Project
  • Elections and Voting
  • 2018

To support Chicago Lawyers’ Committee’s work on the evaluation of the Automatic Voter Registration implementation process in Illinois and allow the Lawyers’ Committee to expand state and local stakeholder awareness of the best practices and challenges associated with the implementation.

Project:

Illinois AVR Implementation Evaluation

Foundation Center Topic:

Campaigns, Elections, and Voting/Election Administration

Grant Length:

Dec 2018 to May 2020

Strategy:

Pro-Voter Reform
  • Chicago Reader
  • $50,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2020

The Chicago Independent Media Alliance project at the Chicago Reader, a fiscally sponsored project of the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation, brings together 60 community media in Chicago to provide training, shared resources, and a coalition of support during a devastating time for media that serves communities.

Project:

Chicago Independent Media Alliance

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Journalism

Grant Length:

Nov 2020 to Oct 2021

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • Chicago Reader
  • $30,000.00
  • Project
  • Public Square
  • 2019

The purpose of this grant is to support the planning for the creation of a collaborative for independent media organizations in Chicago. The Chicago Reader, fiscally sponsored by Public Narrative, will lead this effort and use this support to provide the administration needed to get this effort off the ground.

Project:

Chicago Independent Media Alliance

Foundation Center Topic:

Media, Media/Journalism Education and Training

Grant Length:

Nov 2019 to Oct 2020

Strategy:

Ecosystem News
  • Children's Defense Fund
  • $450,000.00
  • General Operating Support
  • Public Square
  • 2024

Children’s Defense Fund works at the intersection of well-being and racial justice for children and youth. They work alongside and amplify the power of youth and families through advocacy, community organizing, direct service, and public policy.

Project:

General Operating Support

Foundation Center Topic:

Media/Media Access and Policy

Grant Length:

Sep 2024 to Sep 2027

Strategy:

Equitable Civic Infrastructure
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