Back to Ideas
Blog

How Local-National Funding Partnerships Can Strengthen Local News

Josh Stearns
/
October 17, 2017

Democracy Fund believes that strong local news and a vibrant public square are critical to a healthy democracy. That is why our local news strategy is focused on creating a more connected, collaborative, and sustainable future for public-interest journalism. But we recognize that we can’t do it alone, and that partnerships with other foundations are critical to rebuilding a vibrant public square.

Today we are releasing a new paper that we commissioned to help us learn about how to build effective and equitable partnerships that put local stakeholders at the center of our work to support local news. The paper, “Effective Place-Based Philanthropy: The Role and Practices of a National Funder,” is relevant to funders and nonprofits working on a range of community development and engagement efforts.

We believe that the future of local news is local. That may sound like a bland truism, but it raises important questions for a national foundation who wants to genuinely and authentically support diverse local communities to strengthen their local news ecosystem. Solutions to the crisis in local news need to respond to local context and needs. We can and should learn from what is working elsewhere, but we should also recognize there is no silver bullet and that only through deep listening and partnership can we create meaningful and lasting change.

For this reason, we have designed our local news strategy around deep partnerships with local funders, journalists, and communities. We want Democracy Fund to be a catalyst for expanding locally driven and locally supported efforts to create robust news ecosystems. We recognize that in pursuing place-based philanthropy to strengthen local news, we are guests in other’s communities. We take that role seriously and humbly.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the roles and practices of national foundations undertaking place-based work and learn from past projects. Democracy Fund commissioned Prudence Brown, a respected leader in place-based philanthropy, to provide her insights as we developed our strategy.

Drawing significantly from recent literature and Brown’s own experience and observations, this paper is organized around key questions that national funders can consider as they develop new place-based partnerships. After each question, Brown provides a brief discussion and concrete suggestions for decision-making and action. While the audience for this paper is largely other foundations, we believe that the lessons here are also useful in empowering nonprofits and grantees.

 

 

Many of the themes and considerations in this paper are applicable to other sectors well beyond journalism and media. As such, we are sharing this work with the broader field. We think this is important both for transparency and accountability, and because we hope others can learn alongside us. This paper is just the start of our learning journey. We welcome any comments about lessons learned from other national-local partnerships to LocalNewsLab@democracyfund.org.

Back to Ideas
Blog

Recruiting Poll Workers from Outside the Box

Terry Ao Minnis
/
November 6, 2017

Even during non-federal election years, officials across the country are running on all cylinders for their state and local elections. One of the key preparation activities is the recruitment and hiring of poll workers. Poll workers are critical to the success of an election, especially when it comes to voters’ confidence in their votes counting. Recent analysis conducted by the Democracy Fund, Reed College, and the Cooperative Congressional Election Study found that 63.7 percent of people who rated their poll workers as “excellent” (i.e. those who know the proper procedures) were “very confident” in the counting of their own votes.

For language minority voters, poll workers can make or break the success of their voting experience. Well-trained poll workers will know how to properly interact with language minority voters – providing proper customer service and care in assisting the voter experiencing language barriers to ensure they are able to cast a proper ballot. Poll workers who are less aware of the rights of language minority voters and/or who treat language minority voters with suspicion or in the worst case, hostility, can turn language minority voters away from voting.

Though they recognize the benefits of quality poll workers, elections officials face difficulties in recruiting enough of them and, as a result, have a limited pool of trusted, well-equipped poll workers each election. There has been a critical national shortage of poll workers, with up to a 500,000 worker deficit at any given time in the two last decades. When it comes to bilingual poll workers, the deficiencies can be even greater. In response to this problem, jurisdictions are looking outside the box to devise innovative methods for to recruitment, which can be replicated across the country.

Tapping high school students has been particularly helpful in onboarding bilingual poll workers, because younger generations often serve as translators for their parents and family members. Democracy Fund staff reached out to election officials in Minneapolis, Minnesota about the state’s student election judge program, which recruits kids from public schools, charter schools, and private schools, as well as home schooled students. Through this program, Minneapolis has doubled the number of student election judges providing language support between 2014 and 2016, growing from 89 to 159 participants. Even though they only comprised 12 percent of Minneapolis’s total judges, they made up 30 percent of those with secondary language skills.

Montgomery County, Maryland has gone beyond working with high schoolers to mobilize middle school students too, bringing students as young as sixth graders into the polls through a program called Future Vote. Future Vote aims to increase future voter knowledge, by strengthening ties to specific participation and emphasizing the importance of participatory democracy. Dr. Gilberto Zelaya, Outreach Coordinator with Montgomery County, shared that since 2004, the program has worked with approximately 38,500 students and 21,500 families. These students have uniquely bolstered the county’s language support overall. For the general election, a third of the students who served had language capacity in another something other than English, helping to cover 68 languages.

Jurisdictions can complement and expand the reach of traditional outreach methods such as engaging community-based organizations and ethnic media, by leveraging social media platforms. Harris County, Texas utilizes Twitter and Facebook to promote it’s #StepUpToServe campaign, which is geared toward recruiting Election Day poll workers, especially bilingual English, Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese speakers. The effort, which targeted civic-minded professionals, and retirees, but namely high school students and their parents, has had over 100 students apply to help with this year’s election. Harris County officials, Hector DeLeon and Kristina Nichols, confirmed that meeting their language coverage was a top priority. “In particular it was hard to find people who speak both Vietnamese and English, but high school students are able to fill this role in a unique way, because they more readily available than college students and they’re excited to make a little money,” said Kristina Nichols. Incredibly, most of the students who applied spoke a language other than English. Harris County officials have been thrilled with the results and continue to rely on social media and visits to local high schools to spread the word for more recruits in 2018.

The elections official’s own internal community – city and county government workers – is another ripe source for recruiting bilingual poll workers. For example, in Maricopa County, Arizona, officials created an online survey to solicit poll workers from county departments as well as from the staff of the municipalities and school districts in their borders. Maricopa County designated the time to work on Election Day as civic duty pay so employees do not have to use personal time off. The simple act of emphasizing civic duty within their own ranks provides support across departments and has leveraged the professionalism of their own employees, many of whom have bilingual skills. This has been a tremendous resource of individuals who already have a lot of the training needed for providing bilingual services to the community.

Finally, some jurisdictions have turned to the legislative process to expand the pool of potential bilingual poll workers. In California, community advocates worked to pass a bill, with key support from the California Secretary of State and the California Association of Election Officials, to have legal permanent residents (LPRs) become eligible to become poll workers. The bill was even expanded to include high school students who are LPRs. In 2013, Los Angeles County conducted a pilot project and they were able to recruit 200 bilingual poll workers that are legal permanent residents.

Poll workers play such an important role in our elections – they can inspire confidence in our election system, which is sorely needed today as apathy and lack of confidence abound in our elections. But they can only do so when properly educated, trained and prepared to address the needs of voters at the polls. This is particularly the case for voters experiencing language barriers, who may find the process and materials very confusing and daunting. To have a set of quality poll workers at your polling locations, jurisdictions must have a proactive recruitment plan in place and must look at innovative ways to encourage people to serve as poll workers. Many jurisdictions have already done some good thinking and work on this front and others should replicate these methods for future elections.

Back to Ideas
Blog

Welcome to the Family — Electionline.org becomes a Democracy Fund Project

Stacey Scholl
/
January 3, 2018

Tammy Patrick co-authored this piece with Stacey Scholl.

At Democracy Fund, we believe that Americans deserve modern, voter-centric elections as a part of a responsive political system. As a grantmaker, this means investing in other organizations, projects, and platforms that support the spread of good information and foster dialogue. At times, it can also mean developing and creating our own internal efforts. In that spirit, we are excited to welcome electionline.org as a Democracy Fund project and to continue working with Mindy Moretti as the site editor.

Electionline.org is the nation’s only nonpartisan, non-advocacy clearinghouse for election administration news and information. Over the last 17 years, former editor Doug Chapin and current editor Mindy Moretti have provided a unique place where election administrators can find news relevant to their work — apart from political horse races and partisan campaign rhetoric. Daily and weekly content illustrates the routine business of our American elections and features stories ranging from serious issues with ballots to lighthearted moments with poll workers.

Democracy Fund has been a long-time supporter of electionline.org, providing significant financial support since 2014. As the partnership grew, we had the space to consider what the future could look like for both organizations — and an agreement was made to bring the project within Democracy Fund. Over the next year, Democracy Fund will work with Mindy to manage and grow the site. It will continue to operate through a strictly nonpartisan lens and with a commitment to transparency about the role our organization plays. Our goal is to ensure the site remains a trusted source of the latest news, tools, and best practices for accessible and secure elections.

Over the years, several organizations who care about the quality of American elections have contributed to building and sustaining the electionline.org website, including The Pew Charitable Trusts and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. We value their contributions and they cannot go unthanked for their vision for the site. We also remain so grateful to Doug and Mindy for their pioneering work. Doug explained that the site grew bigger and better than he ever expected. He’d originally hoped that the site would prompt national and local media outlets to take on election administration as a routine beat after a few years, making the site unnecessary over time. That hasn’t happened, but electionline.org has outlasted his initial prediction as a result, becoming a truly one-of-a-kind place for the elections community.

Part of Mindy’s passion for the site is that “there is a story behind every vote cast. There is a story behind every new innovation or piece of equipment purchased.” And while electionline.org might have started as Doug’s baby, it has been Mindy’s unruly teenager and she’s glad that the site now has a home and “co-parent” with Democracy Fund.

While we’re working on what the future holds, not much is going to change immediately. Regular electionline.org readers will see Democracy Fund’s commitment to disclose when weekly articles cover our grantees or other work in the field. As always, the site will have a curation of daily news and a weekly feature about the election world. And Mindy will work with Democracy Fund’s Elections team to grow the network of readers and enhance the types of information available on the site.

For those new to electionline.org, we hope you will check out these posts and research:

As a systems change organization, Democracy Fund is committed to learning, iteration, and partnering in ways that strengthen both our work and the field at large. We understand that addressing challenges in our elections system will take patience, persistence, and a deep partnership with administrators, officials, and advocates across the United States. For this reason, we anticipate that changes and updates to electionline.org will be a collaborative process. We plan to relaunch a new design for electionline.org after evaluating how it can be even more useful to the election administration community. Please email us at elections@democracyfund.org with your thoughts and feedback.​

Back to Ideas
Blog

Is Social Media a Threat to Democracy?

Tom Glaisyer
/
October 4, 2017

Today The Omidyar Group released a paper co-authored by me and two colleagues at Omidyar Network on the role of social media platforms on democracy and the public square. This paper – called “Is Social Media a Threat to Democracy?” – comes at a moment when there is new scrutiny on the role Facebook, Google, and Twitter played in spreading misinformation and divisive propaganda during the 2016 election. Those debates loom large, however, our analysis goes well beyond any one election to try and understand how social platforms are disrupting core elements of a democratic society.

In June 2017 Facebook raised the question “Is social media good for democracy?” Like them, we have been wrestling with these questions for some time, and while we do not take for granted how these networks provide value to civic life, we are also deeply troubled by the dangers they pose. Their algorithms and their vast storehouses of data gives them fundamentally new capacities abilities to shape discourse, media, and civic and democratic life in American.

As my co-authors – Stacy Donohue and Anamitra Deb – and I reviewed the research of leading voices on this set of issues, we identified six key ways social media is threatening democracy:

  • Exacerbating the polarization of civil society via echo chambers and filter bubbles
  • Rapidly spreading mis- and dis-information and amplifying the populist and illiberal wave across the globe
  • Creating competing realities driven by their algorithms’ intertwining of popularity and legitimacy
  • Being vulnerable to political capture and voter manipulation through enabling malevolent actors to spread dis-information and covertly influence public opinion
  • Capturing unprecedented amounts of data that can be used to manipulate user behavior
  • Facilitating hate speech, public humiliation, and the targeted marginalization of disadvantaged or minority voices

There are no easy answers to the challenges represented above, and any group of potential solutions must account for the diverse interests of multiple stakeholders if we are going to have the public square we deserve. As our founder, ebay creator Pierre Omidyar, wrote today in The Washington Post, “Just as new regulations and policies had to be established for the evolving online commerce sector, social media companies must now help navigate the serious threats posed by their platforms and help lead the development and enforcement of clear industry safeguards. Change won’t happen overnight, and these issues will require ongoing examination, collaboration and vigilance to effectively turn the tide.”

For our part, at Democracy Fund, the potential effects of social media on democracy are closely tied to many lines of our work. This includes longstanding investments on issues ranging from combating hyperpartisanship with constructive dialogue to developing digital election administration tools, and from understanding the impact of fact checking to supporting communities often targeted online. A few examples of this work include:

  • Politifact, one of the nation’s leading fact checking organizations, has partnered with Facebook to combat the spread of misinformation on the platform.
  • The Center for Media Engagement, formerly the Engaging News Project, works with newsrooms, social platforms and the public to develop and test ways to make trusted online information more engaging and impactful.
  • The Coral Project builds open-source tools focused on helping newsrooms build safe, secure and vibrant online communities.

In addition, we supported the Knight Prototype Fund on misinformation earlier this year, which focused on many of these issues. The full list of 20 projects can be found here, but the four projects we funded are:

  • Viz Lab — Developing a dashboard to track how misinformation spreads through images and memes to aid journalists and researchers in understanding the origins of the image, its promoters, and where it might have been altered and then redistributed across social media.
  • Hoaxy Bot-o-Meter is a tool created by computer scientists at the Center for Complex Networks to uncover attempts to use Internet bots to boost the spread of misinformation and shape public opinion. The tool aims to reveal how this information is generated and broadcasted, how it becomes viral, its overall reach, and how it competes with accurate information for placement on user feeds.
  • The Documenters Project by City Bureau creates a network of citizen “documenters” who receive training in the use of journalistic ethics and tools, attend public civic events, and produce trustworthy reports on social media platforms.
  • The American Library Association is collaborating with the Center for News Literacy to develop an adult media literacy program in five public libraries, focused on how to be a savvy digital citizen in a platform world.

We are going to continue to ask hard questions and support people and organizations who are working to create a robust public square that serves our democracy. We look forward to continuing this work alongside these and other partners. Please email the authors at inquiries@omidyargroup.com if you’d like to discuss how we might work together.

Back to Ideas
Blog

Democracy Fund Welcomes New Teammates

February 26, 2018

​Diverse perspectives inform us, passion for impact fuels us, and the power of action together ignites us. As chief people officer of the Democracy Fund, I am inspired by the individuals with whom I work side by side — and even more excited by the alchemy generated by each of our teams.

​We have grown more than 40 percent from just a year ago — and we’re still seeking a few more essential team members. Since last summer, each department has augmented its team carefully — whether deepening our ability to execute on established strategies, adding capacity for new initiatives and projects, or bringing needed expertise in-house. We believe that inclusion of voices of people across multiple and diverse political, racial, ethnic, gender, and other identities is necessary to find achievable solutions to the complex problems facing our democracy. Terrific additions to our passionate and dedicated staff are creating new forces for impact on every team. I’ll start, however, with one important role expansion before discussing build out of our teams.

​Strategy and Program

​Srik Gopal, Vice President of Strategy and Program: Srik, who joined Democracy Fund in 2016, has played a key role in the development of our Strategy, Impact and Learning team. We are thrilled to announce the expansion of his role to Vice President of Strategy and Program, where he will focus on guiding the organization’s overall programmatic portfolio. “As he moves into this new position and begins working more closely with program, Srik remains dedicated to supporting a culture of learning within the organization, and ensuring that our work remains impactful in the field,” said Joe Goldman, President of Democracy Fund.

​Liz Ruedy, Director of Evaluation and Learning: Liz joined the Strategy, Impact, and Learning team from the International Republican Institute — bringing extensive experience in evaluation, a broad-based knowledge of democracy, and fluency in systems thinking and inquiry-based approaches. Liz oversees our ongoing efforts to design and implement evaluations that capture our organization’s impact and provide greater insight into our political and civic systems. “Liz will be instrumental in helping achieve our quest to be a truly adaptive learning organization,” said Srik Gopal, Vice President of Strategy and Program.

​The Governance Team

​Lara Flint, Associate Director for Oversight and Congressional Capacity: As our first Associate Director for Oversight and Congressional Capacity, Lara focuses on checks and balances and the rule of law to strengthen safeguards that ensure our government is transparent and accountable to the public. Most recently chief counsel for national security to then-Chairman Patrick Leahy of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Lara brings over 15 years of experience in long-term congressional oversight and the ability to develop and maintain bipartisan coalitions across government, civil society, industry, and other stakeholders. “Lara’s extensive policy expertise, legal know-how, Capitol Hill experience and can-do approach have already brought even more energy, knowledge, strength and depth to our strategy development and grantmaking, and to Democracy Fund as a whole,” said Betsy Wright Hawkings, Program Director of the Governance team.

​Nathaniel Turner, Program Associate for Oversight and Congressional Capacity: Nathaniel joins the team as a new Program Associate for Oversight and Congressional capacity. Nathaniel most recently served as a legislative assistant at the American Civil Liberties Union, where he advocated before Congress on issues of surveillance reform and cybersecurity. “With his passion for protecting the rule of law, his valuable nonprofit experience, and his strong organizational skills, Nathaniel has jumped right in – and is already a tremendous asset to our work to strengthen government accountability and transparency, ” said Lara Flint, Associate Director for Oversight and Congressional Capacity.

​Sean Raymond, Program Associate for Oversight and Congressional Capacity: Sean, who first joined Democracy Fund as an intern and then played a key role as program assistant, has assisted in building out both the team’s oversight and capacity work, bringing on-the-ground experience in campaigns and on Capitol Hill. “His recent promotion to Program Associate serves as recognition of the superior work he has done for the team, and we are so fortunate to have him supporting the capacity work full time,” said Betsy Wright Hawkings. Sean graduated magna cum laude from George Washington University with a BA in political communication, and American history.

​Anne Gleich, Program Assistant: First joining the Democracy Fund as an intern during the summer of 2017, Anne has since integrated seamlessly into the Governance team, and organization as a whole. Anne joins us from Hastings, Minnesota, and is a recent graduate of the College of Saint Benedict, where she received a B.A. in Political Science. “We count on her to take the lead on innovating projects, knowing we can throw any ball at her and she will catch it and run. Anne is the capstone on a great team, and we are truly grateful to have her join us permanently as a Program Assistant,” said Betsy Wright Hawkings.

​The Public Square Team

​Nadia Firozvi, Project Manager for the Special Project on Fostering a Just and Inclusive Society: Nadia joins us from the Department of Homeland Security, where she was a Policy Advisor in the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. She also has served as Domestic Policy Coordinator at the Arab American Institute, and as a Staff Attorney at the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center. “We’re very fortunate to have Nadia directing the Just and Inclusive Society initiative. With her previous background at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, along with her extensive expertise in civil rights law, Nadia brings significant insight to our team, and will be instrumental to the success of our project,” said Tom Glaisyer, Managing Director of the Public Square team.

​Lea Trusty, Program Assistant: As a Program Assistant for the Public Square team, Lea will support our work on Engaged Journalism. Prior to joining Democracy Fund, Lea served as a Newman’s Own Foundation Fellow, where she was placed as a journalist at WSHU Public Radio-an NPR affiliate in Connecticut. Lea graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University, where she studied politics and Latin America. “Lea brings dedication, enthusiasm, and intellect to her role on the Public Square team. She has already found new opportunities to support our growing network of journalists, grantees, and peer funders, and we are excited to see Lea develop as she explores increased support for women in journalism as a teachable method for audience engagement,” said Paul Waters, Senior Associate on the Public Square team.

​The Elections Team

​Trevor Ostbye, Program Associate: Trevor most recently served as National Coordinator at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, where he worked on Election Protection, the nation’s largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition. Trevor previously coordinated the creation of a bipartisan coalition around innovative strategies for workforce development at Hope Street Group and has a JD from Wake Forest University. “Adding Trevor to the Elections team has meant improving how we do our work, not just increasing what we can do. He brings keen insight, on-the-ground experience from his time in the voting rights community, and a willingness to dive into the complex ideas and needs of our field. He’s an impressive listener, which makes him a great thought partner. Team members, like myself, are so glad he’s at Democracy Fund,” said Stacey Scholl, Senior Associate on the Elections Team.

​Communications and Network Team

Our Communications and Network Team requires the ability to work collaboratively, flexibly, and creatively with internal and external partners and has added two key people who embody those capabilities.​

Nick Fabiani, Design Associate: Nick is responsible for elevating the Democracy Fund brand and brings digital communications experience from both the philanthropic world as well as political campaigns. He was digital communications manager for Grantmakers for Effective Organizations and served as the digital marketing manager for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and other campaigns. “Nick was the Digital Communications Manager at GEO, where he led the brand redevelopment of their website and brand. He brings to Democracy Fund a keen visual eye paired with a rich understanding of the philanthropic world, both of which promise to elevate the work of our grantees, partners, and programs,” said Lauren Strayer, Managing Director of Communications and Network.

​Courtney Hytower, Communications Assistant: As Communications Assistant, Courtney expands the Democracy Fund’s reach and influence, and fosters collaboration among its grantees and with other major leaders in the field. Courtney first joined the Democracy Fund in October 2016 as an intern, following the completion of her undergraduate degree at Syracuse University where she graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Political Science and a B.A. in Writing & Rhetoric. “Courtney plays an essential role on the Communications and Network Team as a project coordinator and as a thought partner. She has a passion for messaging and best practices that adds to our team’s impact,” said Lauren Strayer.

​Operations and People Team

​On the Operations and People side, the passion and dedication to job excellence and being a team player are exhibited by all of our recent hires.

​Adele Cameron, Operations Assistant: Adele ensures a smooth-functioning office environment and supports Operations. With a degree in political science and international relations from Houghton College, Adele is passionate about learning and our work. “Adele brings over 12 years of extensive administrative experience and passion for people and for making processes better. Her commitment to managing our resources well, and creating a space where people can bring their best selves to the office, makes such a difference in our culture every single day,” said Hugo Castro, Operations Manager.

​Sharlene Patel, Accounting and Grants Assistant: Sharlene manages the payables function and the general ledger’s day-to-day activities to ensure accuracy in all our reporting. Additionally, she helps maintain the grants database from a reporting standpoint. Sharlene previously worked extensively in the private and public accounting sectors, and has worked with several non-profits in the DMV area. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, with a minor in Finance from St. John’s University. “Sharlene has been a great addition to the Operations team,” said Robin Thompson, Controller, “where her experience managing day-to-day finance activities with a focus on client service is exactly what we needed to round out the Finance function in support of the various teams at Democracy Fund.”

​Lise Woods Fink, Senior Recruiter: Finding fabulous people, as enumerated above, is a special talent. Democracy Fund’s Senior Recruiter, Lise Woods Fink, brings fierce passion for community building along with over 20 years of experience in recruitment, human resource, and other capabilities to Democracy Fund. Prior to recruiting for Democracy Fund throughout 2017, Lise was instrumental in creating and launching First Look Media, where she oversaw talent and community curation, and growing the Omidyar Network, where she focused on executive search, talent management, and organizational design and development. Earlier, she spent six years at Apple as an executive recruiter and as a product development manager, where she spearheaded company-wide human capital initiatives. “As her manager, I count my blessings daily, not only for the talent she has helped to bring through our doors, but also her wisdom, passion for people, and positive energy that have continued to enrich our organizational culture,” said Margaret Yao, Chief People Officer.

​Democracy Fund continues to seek a diversity of expertise, perspective and lived experience to build out our teams — because each member of Democracy Fund’s staff makes a difference as an individual and as part of a collective whole. To learn more about our organization and to see our available positions, visit https://democracyfund.org/page/jobs.

Back to Ideas
Blog

Democracy Fund and Omidyar Network Support Independent Analysis of Facebook’s Role in Elections

Tom Glaisyer
/
April 9, 2018

Today Facebook announced a new initiative which will provide independent researchers access to Facebook data to study the impact the social network has on our elections and our democracy. Democracy Fund, along with the Omidyar Network, Hewlett Foundation and several other leading foundations have come together to support the research efforts that will be enabled through this program. We believe that independent funding of this research is critical, and hope that the program will help the public and policymakers better understand how Facebook is shaping our elections, social fabric, and democratic life.

This announcement comes amidst a firestorm of attention focused on the social media giant’s role in allowing vast amounts of personal data to be released, data which was then used to target shady and divisive political ads at Americans. Last week Facebook revealed that tens of thousands more people were affected by that breach than was first reported. As a foundation fundamentally concerned with the health of our democracy, we have been following this story closely.

In fact, Democracy Fund and the Omidyar Network have been raising the alarm about these issues for sometime. Late last year, the organizations published an in-depth paper asking, “Is Social Media a Threat to Democracy?” and identifying six ways in which digital platforms pose direct challenges to our democratic ideals. We have signed on to support this research initiative, but are realistic about the complexities and risks of supporting this effort and are approaching it as one part of a multipronged strategy to create a safer, stronger and more meaningful digital public square.

We are deeply committed to working on meaningful solutions that help rebuild trustworthy spaces for communities to connect, share information and participate in our democracy. We currently fund a range of efforts focused on combating hyper-partisanship, ensuring the integrity of our elections, and fostering a robust fourth estate locally and nationally.

Grantees like Prof. Zeynep Tufekci and ProPublica are doing powerful work on algorithmic accountability. Prof. Young Mie Kim tracked political ads on Facebook in 2016 and Politifact is helping sort truth from fiction on the platform. The German Marshall Fund is tracking Russian misinformation and Free Press is organization diverse communities around the rights to connect and communicate. The Center for Democracy and Technology is helping strengthen election cybersecurity, and spreading best practices for data privacy in voter registration databases and campaign data. Launched in 2017, the Social Science Research Center’s Media & Democracy program encourages academic research, practitioner reflection, and public debate on all aspects of the close relationship between media and democracy, including how changes in the political landscape, such as increasing polarization, have affected the media.

However, in our work with activists, organizations, and scholars in the field we have consistently heard that we can’t address what we don’t know. Through this new research effort Facebook says it will give researchers unpresented access to its data in ways it never has before. The research will be driven by a diverse coalition of scholars. Research projects will have to go through relevant university Institutional Review Board (IRB) reviews, will be rigorously peer reviewed, and may be vetted to ensure Facebook lives up to its legal and ethical commitments to users. Crucially, the research results themselves will not be subject to approval by Facebook

The emphasis of this first announcement is on Facebook’s role in elections, but the committee is also expected to address how Facebook’s systems influence viral deceptions, polarization, and civic engagement. Democracy Fund believes the American people must have effective ways to understand and be a part of the democratic process. As the internet transforms political life, it opens exciting new pathways for public engagement but has also created a fertile ground for abuse, harassment and manipulation that hurt our communities and our society. As this research is planned Democracy Fund will pay special attention to ensuring that the voices and the priorities of those disproportionately harmed by social media are included.

The flood of news about bad actors gaming the system have revealed a troubling disregard for the critical responsibility social media companies have had over our personal privacy and public debate. Facebook, and other platforms, need to acknowledge the oversized role they play in our society and truly prioritize privacy, embrace transparency, and accept accountability. We are realistic about the complexities here, but see this research partnership as a key step towards that goal. Through this program, and in separate endeavors, we are deeply committed to working on meaningful solutions that help rebuild trustworthy spaces for communities to connect, share information and participate in our democracy.

Back to Ideas
Press Release

Voter Study Group Releases New Reports on Voter Attitudes Towards Muslims and Checks and Balances

Democracy Fund
/
June 6, 2018

Washington, D.C. – June 6, 2018

New reports from the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group reveal mixed signals about support for traditional pillars of democracy: Americans strongly support Congressional oversight of the executive branch and believe the president is subject to courts and law. However, support is lower for media scrutiny of the president and attitudes toward Muslim Americans suggest a troubling lack of commitment to religious diversity.

The Voter Study Group is a research collaboration of leading analysts and scholars from across the political spectrum. The two new reports analyze robust survey data about attitudes of Americans toward our political systems’ checks and balances and Muslim Americans:

In “Muslims in America,” Sides and Mogahed analyzed unique data from the July 2017 wave of the Views of the Electoral Research (VOTER) Survey from the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group. Key findings include:

  • Americans view many Muslims in the United States as insufficiently “American.” The survey asked respondents what percent of Muslim Americans are described by a specific statement. For each statement, respondents moved a slider on a scale of “none” (0%) to “all” (100%). On average, Americans believed that only 56% of Muslim Americans want to fit in and be part of the U.S., and that an even smaller portion (51%) respects American ideals and laws.
  • Perceptions of Muslim Americans are strongly related to partisanship and cultural conservatism. On average Democrats believed that a substantial majority of Muslims (67%) wanted to fit in but Republicans believed that only 36%, or less than half, of Muslim Americans wanted to fit in.
  • Perceptions of Muslim Americans cross partisan lines on three dimensions: Democrats and Republicans did not differ much in their perceptions of how many Muslims are religious, have outdated views of women, and have outdated views of gays and lesbians.
  • Negative perceptions of Muslim Americans do not match how Muslim Americans describe themselves. For example, a large majority of Muslim Americans express patriotic sentiments. In a 2017 Institute for Social Policy and Understanding poll of Muslim Americans, 84% of Muslims said they identified strongly with being an American, as did 84% of Protestants and 91% of Catholics.
  • Almost 20% of Americans would deny Muslims who are American citizens the right to vote.

“In this report, we document a wide gap between what most Americans say about Muslims living in the United States and how Muslim Americans see themselves,” said John Sides, associate professor of political science at The George Washington University and research director of the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group. “This gap is accompanied by substantial support for policies targeting Muslims; nearly one in five Americans would even deny Muslims who are U.S. citizens the right to vote. With the Muslim share of the U.S. population projected to double by 2050, the civil rights and liberties of Muslim Americans appear to have a tenuous status in American public opinion.”

“This paper highlights the misperceptions that fuel Islamophobia,” said Dalia Mogahed, director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. “Muslims have been part of America since its inception and are just as likely to be patriotic as non-Muslims, yet many Americans believe Muslim Americans are not ‘fully American.’ These misperceptions hurt not only Muslim Americans, but all Americans.”

The second analysis released today tackles another pillar of our political system – checks and balances – and suggests Americans who exhibit less religious tolerance are also less likely to be supportive of the media’s role in scrutinizing the executive branch. The new brief, “Testing the Limits,” examines how Americans think about the relationship between presidential authority and three specific checks on presidential power: the Congress, the courts, and the press. The brief builds upon “Follow the Leader: Exploring American Support for Democracy and Authoritarianism,” also authored by Drutman, Diamond and Goldman. Key findings include:

  • Large majorities of Americans believe the president should be subject to oversight and restraints on executive power. For example, 91% of respondents agreed that “the president must always obey the laws and the courts, even when he thinks they are wrong.”
  • However, President Trump’s supporters are much more likely to express support for other types of accountability and oversight. For example, 48% of respondents with a favorable view of President Trump agreed that “the media shouldn’t scrutinize the president.”
  • Among President Trump’s supporters, lower levels of education and lower levels of interest in news are associated with lower support for checks on executive authority.

“It is encouraging that support for checks on the presidential authority remains high,” said Democracy Fund President Joe Goldman. “Even among Trump supporters who express dissatisfaction with democracy or openness to authoritarian alternatives, many support Congressional oversight and say the president must be bound by the law. However, it is extremely concerning that support for media scrutiny of the president – a pillar of our democracy – is not as high, particularly among the president’s supporters.”

“Our analysis found strong support for American democracy’s distinctive set of checks and balances,” said Lee Drutman, senior fellow at New America. “However, the differences in partisan attitudes toward these key institutions is worrisome, as it highlights the fragility of essential democratic institutions that are currently under attack.”

“Our democracy depends on popular support for its norms and institutions, including Congressional oversight of the executive branch, a free and independent press, and the rule of law,” said Larry Diamond, senior fellow, Hoover Institution. “We can take heart that most Americans express support for democratic norms and institutions, but we have work to do to increase understanding of their importance and the values that they represent.”

The full reports can be found at www.voterstudygroup.org, along with other research from the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group.

Back to Ideas
Press Release

New Study Confirms Majority of Americans Have Confidence in the Integrity and Results of Elections

Democracy Fund
/
October 18, 2018

Washington, D.C. – Today, Democracy Fund, in collaboration with Reed College Professor Paul Gronke, released a new report on Understanding The Voter Experience: The Public’s View of Election Administration and Reform. It shows that while most Americans approve of the job their election officials are doing and trust the results of the election, confusion about voting processes and lack of information about candidates are the top reasons people decide not to vote. Recognizing the information gap between voters and local and state election officials, Democracy Fund is also proud to announce the relaunch of electionline.org—a crucial resource for trusted, politics-free news and information about the people and processes that guide our nation’s elections.

“Understanding the experiences that American voters face during an election cycle is key to improving the electoral system and increasing voter turnout,” said Natalie Adona, Senior Research and Learning Associate with Democracy Fund’s Elections Program. “Our data provides insights into the voter journey from beginning to end: individual level decisions to vote or not, general awareness and familiarity with voter registration requirements, and the public’s trust and confidence in U.S. elections.”

Highlights from Understanding the Voter Experience, include:

  • The public ranks election administration well in terms of trust when compared to other institutions—outranking Congress, the Executive Branch, and the Press. In 2016, 95 percent of people gave a good or excellent job performance ratings for their poll workers and nearly 60 percent gave high rankings to their local election officials.
  • 87 percent of respondents were confident that their own ballot was counted as cast in 2016, but only 71 percent were confident in the national vote count.
  • In general, people understand they are responsible for their voter registration, but nearly half of the respondents were confused or unfamiliar with their state voter identification requirements.
  • 30-40 percent of respondents consistently felt they did not have enough information to vote on key races like state attorney general, secretary of state, and state senator.

“Far too many respondents felt that they did not have enough information to vote,” said Adam Ambrogi, Director of Democracy Fund’s Elections Program. “Democracy only works if the American public understands how to vote, has enough information to make informed decisions, is confident in our election process, and trusts the results.”

As part of Democracy Fund’s commitment to fostering a modern, trusted, voter-centric election system, it is also unveiling the new and improved electionline, which continues to be the only place to find state-by-state curation of daily election administration news. In addition to publishing the classic electionline Weekly newsletter, the website will also share original reports and exclusive content from leaders and experts in the field—making the site a must-read for local election officials, civic organizations, and journalists who cover elections.

###

ABOUT DEMOCRACY FUND

Democracy Fund is a bipartisan foundation created by eBay founder and philanthropist Pierre Omidyar to help ensure that our political system can withstand new challenges and deliver on its promise to the American people. Since 2011, Democracy Fund has invested more than $100 million in support of a healthy democracy, including modern elections, effective governance, and a vibrant public square. To learn more, visit www.democracyfund.org or follow @democracyfund.

ABOUT ELECTIONLINE

Electionline is America’s only nonpartisan, non-advocacy clearinghouse for news and information about the people and processes that guide our nation’s elections and a hub for sharing tools, best practices, and innovative ideas for improving the voting experience. A project of Democracy Fund, electionline aims to support voter-centric elections that are accessible, fair, and secure. To learn more, visit www.electionline.org or follow @electionline.

Back to Ideas
Blog

Learning from History to Plan for What’s Next

Joe Goldman
/
November 7, 2018

​American democracy is in crisis. At a time of deepening polarization and social strife, many of our elected officials – most notably our chief executive – routinely disregard, and indeed actively undermine, the very norms and institutions that buttress our democratic system. At every turn, the foundational values of American democracy are under attack.

Fortunately, the threats facing our democracy are not unique and there is much to learn from other countries and from our own history – both about democratic backsliding and about strategies to reverse its course. Understanding the experiences of other democracies can help us grapple with challenges we are experiencing today, and plan for those that may lie ahead.

Democracy Fund invited Rachel Kleinfeld and David Solimini of the Carnegie Endowment for World Peace to write What Comes Next? Lessons for the Recovery of Liberal Democracy to tackle just this question. Through their research, Rachel and David dig into several case studies and offer insightful recommendations on what might be done in the United States to recover from the path of institutional decline.

Rachel and David’s analysis challenges us to revisit many of the assumptions Democracy Fund has made in assessing our democracy’s vulnerabilities and deploying strategies to protect it. Our staff has grappled these insights in ways that have enriched our thinking and the approach to our work. Among others:

  • We are affirmed in our work focused on ensuring the independence of a robust, healthy media that can hold those in power to account. The watchdog function of the media cannot be underestimated.
  • We take to the warning against placing too much hope in the political parties and legislature to defend themselves against abuses of power by a strong executive. We must explore ways to find, pressure, and incentivize, alternative champions of democracy.
  • While the paper corroborates our fears on the risk of the American’s system reliance on informal norms, we were encouraged to read how federalism should be considered an important tool in combatting the worst overreaches of an embattled federal government.

Democracy Fund regularly publishes research relating to our established program areas, and we occasionally commission work that is intended to push our thinking in new directions. We, like others, have much to learn. We are all well-advised to engage deeply with new, big ideas that challenge our assumptions. The research is a platform for rigorous scholarship that can help us identify new strategies to build a healthier democracy.

Read the Full Report Here

Back to Ideas
Blog

Campaign Finance Research and Experiments

Joe Goldman
/
April 30, 2013

The Democracy Fund approved two new research grants earlier this year that will help us to better understand more about how certain campaign finance reforms work in practice, as well as the potential role of technology to improve the regulation of campaign financing. A $300,000 grant to researchers from Fordham University, Columbia University, and Binghamton University will support an innovative set of field experiments that aim to shed new light on the relationship between money and our political system, as well as how well reforms like increased disclosure and the use of public funds to match small donations work. The Democracy Fund chose to support this research because we believe that the data on many critical questions about money in politics remain unclear. The unique application of field experiments offer reformers, policy makers, and the courts with definitive answers to some of these questions that lie at the heart of current legislative and judicial debates. The two-year research project is led by Professors Don Green of Columbia University, Costas Panagopoulos of Fordham University, and Jonathan Krasno of Binghamton University. Green is a leading pioneer in the application of field experiments to the realm of elections, campaigns, and our democracy. A $50,000 grant to Reinvent Albany will support research into how regulators in New York State could use technology to modernize the reporting and compliance of campaign finance contributions under a proposed small-donor matching system that is being considered in Albany. Working with a team of local technologists and experts, the Reinvent Albany team will assess the needs of candidates, regulators, and the public as it develops recommendations for how technology may be able to streamline the process, encourage greater accountability, and foster a stronger campaign finance system The Democracy Fund chose to support this research project because we believe it will offer unique insight into the bipartisan application of technology to improve how our campaign finance system operates. In the coming months, we look forward to updating you on the progress of these two exciting new grants.

Democracy Fund is a foundation working to build an inclusive, multiracial democracy that is open, just, resilient, and trustworthy.

Democracy Fund
1200 17th Street NW Suite 300,
Washington, DC 20036
© 2025 Democracy Fund — Founded by The Omidyar Group