To support Convergence’s work to help Congress function more effectively through its work with the House Bipartisan Working Group (BPWG), which seeks to encourage members to engage in meaningful and consensus-driven dialogue on complex policy challenges with colleagues.
Program Area: President's Office
Voter Registration Project
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.
2020 Census Project
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.
Common Cause Education Fund
To be able to review, process and legally share with other partners the volume of documents connected to Thomas Hofeller, now in the possession of Common Cause Education Fund.
Trusted Elections Fund
To support the Trusted Elections Fund (formerly known as the Joint Fund for a Healthy Democracy), a fiscally sponsored project of the New Venture Fund. The Trusted Elections Fund will undertake efforts to ensure a free and fair election in November 2020.
The National Trust for Local News
The National Trust for Local News, a project of the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, will create a network of sustainable, independent community news outlets in Georgia by purchasing at-risk community newspapers and developing ownership and governance structures that create sustainability efficiencies as well as ensure quality and editorial independence.
The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
The purpose of this grant is to support The Center for High Impact Philanthropy (“CHIP”) to develop a toolkit for donors that will help philanthropists understand the various aspects of strengthening our democracy and ways they can support efforts around the United States. CHIP will conduct a field scan, develop specific resources on what is working well, and disseminate the toolkit to various donor networks.
Canopy Atlanta
Canopy Atlanta trains and equips local journalists to tell in-depth stories in collaboration with residents of overlooked communities in metro Atlanta’s five core counties.
University of Chicago
This grant will support Bright Line Watch, an effort to monitor the health of our democracy by regularly surveying the expert opinion of political scientists. The project also convenes academics and other thinkers to bring attention to key trends in our democracy, particularly through a comparative global lens.
New America Foundation
This grant will support the work of New America’s Political Reform Project, which seeks to revitalize American democratic practice by introducing new ideas and new perspectives to the public debate, putting reform ideas to the test, and bringing together activists, academics, and political practitioners to test and refine promising concepts.