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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.

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Defending Democracy and the Rule of Law through Accountability and Oversight

Lara Flint
/
April 2, 2018

Checks and balances. Separation of powers. Rule of law. Accountability.

These are terms that are thrown around a lot in D.C. But what does upholding these fundamental tenets of our system of government look like in practice? Last year, Democracy Fund embarked on an effort to tackle this difficult question, investing $6 million over the course of two years.

Through our special project on Government Accountability, Transparency, and Oversight we aim to defend and strengthen the democratic norms that underpin our system of government. Our democracy is strongest when each branch of government serves as a check on the other to ensure there is a balance of power that allows no single branch to dominate the others.

Governmental watchdogs and other institutions of civic life play a critical role in monitoring our government and holding it accountable to the Constitution, the law, and the people. They are engaged in education, advocacy, litigation, research, and other actions that reveal abuses and improve Congress’ ability to conduct oversight. Ultimately their work should lead to increased public demand for action, and more effective checks and balances across the three branches of government.

This special project is an expansion of the critical work we are already doing to improve our institutions. The Governance Program at Democracy Fund has worked for years to strengthen Congress’ capacity to conduct constructive oversight of the executive branch—the type of oversight that helps government better serve the American people. But the current political environment poses new threats to the rule of law and to the system of checks and balances. The question is: Can we protect the rule of law through a constructive approach that brings people together to support the foundation of our system of government? In this partisan moment, can we find bipartisan approaches to protecting democratic norms and holding the government accountable to the American people?

We believe the answer to these questions is “yes.”

We must do all we can to ensure that the structural safeguards of checks and balances established by our Constitution—and the mechanisms that influence and support those safeguards—will work as intended. This holds true regardless of the party that controls the White House, or the two chambers of Congress.

With that in mind, Democracy Fund is investing in a few different areas through this special project. We are working to strengthen the capacity of Congress to engage in effective oversight through watchdogs like the Project On Government Oversight (POGO). Executive branch oversight is a core function of Congress, but congressional capacity to conduct effective oversight has suffered from the same institutional weaknesses—hyper-partisanship, lack of capacity—that have imperiled Congress’ ability to legislate effectively. POGO, along with the Levin Center and the Lugar Center, train congressional staff on both sides of the aisle about how to do effective, bipartisan oversight. That could include working with federal whistleblowers, who are a critical source of information about government wrongdoing. Federal employees who witness waste, fraud, abuse, or who are ordered to engage in actions they believe to be unlawful—and refuse to go along—are a key backstop to ensure accountability. They deserve strong legal protections and representation, which is why we have invested in organizations like the Government Accountability Project (GAP).

Other key elements of accountable government are transparency, and strong ethics rules. We are working to enhance the transparency of government actions and decision-making through our investments in groups like Open the Government and the National Security Archive, and to provide independent fact-checking of government statements on complicated issues through groups like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. We are likewise supporting organizations like Issue One, who identify and enforce ethics violations, conflicts of interest, and other forms of corruption to ensure government decisions are made for the benefit of the American people—not to enrich a few.

The current climate has shown that we cannot take for granted the rule of law. To strengthen our constitutional system of checks and balances, we are supporting organizations who are working to strengthen our democratic system and prepare for and respond to potential crises, such as the R Street Institute and the Protect Democracy Project.

The fundamental goal of our special project is to ensure that checks and balances, separation of powers, rule of law, and accountability aren’t just Washington buzzwords, but rather, that they remain the principles that form the foundation of our democracy. And if nothing else, we should all be able to agree on that.

Grantees under the Special Project on Government Accountability, Transparency, and Oversight Include the Following:

  • Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System — Project DATA
  • Brookings Institution — Lawfare
  • Center for Responsive Politics
  • Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
  • German Marshal Fund — Alliance for Securing Democracy
  • Government Accountability Project
  • Issue One
  • National Security Archive Fund
  • Open the Government
  • Partnership for Public Service
  • Protect Democracy Project
  • R Street Institute
  • The Constitution Project at POGO
  • The Lugar Center
  • The Project on Government Oversight
  • Wayne State University — Levin Center
  • William J. Brennan Center for Justice
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Our special projects to defend democracy

Lauren Strayer
/
March 27, 2018

Democracy Fund is committed to supporting a resilient, diverse, democratic society that respects the inherent dignity and inalienable rights of each individual, and empowers us all to pursue and achieve the common good. We envision a country in which Americans actively participate in our democracy and have the information needed to hold our leaders accountable. And in which Americans are confident that their voices are heard and that democratic institutions are faithfully and effectively serving the nation’s best interests.

Since our creation in 2011, we have pursued this vision by investing in people and organizations across the political spectrum who are working to ensure we have modern elections, effective governance, and a vibrant public square. We remain deeply committed to these long-term efforts as essential parts of a healthy, responsive democracy.

However, like many who care about the health of our political system, we at Democracy Fund have been increasingly alarmed as the divisive tone and tenor of the 2016 election cycle has continued to fester—suffocating civil dialogue, endangering the rights and lives of minority communities, and threatening some of the most fundamental principles and institutions of our democracy. The new President’s track record of questioning and dismissing our essential norms and institutions has put tremendous stress on our political system—especially on our freedoms of the press and the checks and balances that prevent abuses of powers.

These challenges pose a threat to our vision of a resilient, diverse, democracy — and we believe that when forces threaten the health of American democracy, we must stand up.

In response, we have launched four special projects over the last two years — committing $24 million in grantmaking for 2017-2018 — to defend and strengthen democracy. Following Democracy Fund’s established grantmaking criteria, these four new special projects focus on supporting people and institutions under attack, and helping our civic and political leaders to better understand the long-standing trends in public opinion that have produced today’s politics.

The Special Project on Investigative Journalism supports and defends the role of a robust, free press in our public square. Launched last March with an initial set of grants made in partnership with our colleagues at First Look Media, these grantees have produced hard-hitting public interest reporting on issues related to technology, education, the environment, immigration changes, and more. In the face of mounting attacks on the press, they have aggressively stood up against threats to the fourth estate, reporting on the issues that matter deeply to our nation right now. Examples of their fearless journalism include:

  • ProPublica’s ongoing reporting on dark ads and Facebook targeting (see “Facebook Moves to Prevent Advertisers From Targeting Haters”) revealed that advertisers could use Facebook to reach self-identified anti-Semites as well as enabling discriminatory job ads. The company removed those ads, as well as ads of other categories that could be used to target hate.
  • Reporting on how our government works is critical and the Center for Public Integrity and the Center for Investigative Reporting are partnering to create a searchable, sortable database of Trump administration financial disclosures, and engaging readers as “citizen sleuths” to help follow the money.
  • ProPublica has also set up a project, Documenting Hate, to document hate crimes and bias incidents for which there has previously been limited data available to journalists, researchers, and advocates.
  • The Center for Investigative Reporting’s Heroin(e), which was picked up by Netflix and nominated for an Oscar, documents the effects of the opioid epidemic in West Virginia.

The Special Project on Fostering a Just and Inclusive Society seeks to protect those whose civil rights and safety appear to be endangered in this emerging landscape. It supports work that serves multiple communities vulnerable to threats in our volatile political environment, and — based on public opinion including that of the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group — this project has a particular focus on the risks to Muslim, Arab, and South Asian (MASA) communities. These grants have centered around four main objectives:

  • Supporting honest and positive communications efforts that support the American Muslim community.
  • Supporting Muslim, Arab and South Asian Community Organizations
  • Creating bipartisan community networks that can support MASA communities if threatened.
  • Challenging curbs on civil rights through litigation, legal services, and legal education

Since we began supporting these fields, our grantees have made significant progress, building relationships across the field and providing legal support. For example:

The Special Project on Government Accountability, Transparency, and Oversight strengthens the checks and balances that help Americans hold their leaders and government accountable. This project bolsters the existing structural safeguards in our system by, for example, rebuilding congressional capacity to conduct oversight, protecting potential whistleblowers, and fighting for more transparency around government actions. Our grantees also prepare for anticipated threats to the rule of law that could put our democracy at risk.

To date, Democracy Fund has provided support to a number of organizations strengthening government accountability, shining a light on government actions, and safeguarding our institutions. Some examples of our partners’ work include:

  • The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) has pushed to enforce government ethics rules, improve whistleblower protection policies, and strengthen bipartisan congressional oversight efforts.
  • A FOIA lawsuit filed by Lawfare and Protect Democracy Project helped secure the release of more than 100 FBI emails that contradicted the White House narrative that Director James Comey had lost Bureau support before his firing.
  • The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has worked to defend the Congressional Budget Office from attacks on its credibility.

The Democracy Fund Voter Study Group, our fourth special project, is a research collaboration of more than two dozen analysts and scholars from across the political spectrum examining and delivering insights on the evolving views of American voters. As the 2016 presidential campaign unfolded, it became increasingly clear that the underlying values and beliefs driving voter decisions need to be better understood. To that end, Henry Olsen of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, John Sides of The George Washington University, and Joe Goldman of Democracy Fund convened a politically diverse group of conservative, progressive, and independent public opinion experts to study the electorate together. The group seeks not to achieve consensus, but to engage in discussion about how the views of the electorate are evolving and what the implications of those changes may be.

The Voter Study Group’s unique longitudinal surveys are translating into a richer understanding of the public’s views and concerns. For example:

  • Emily Ekins’ Five Types of Trump Voters illustrates the breadth of the President’s supporters’ views on a variety of issues including immigration, race, American identity, moral traditionalism, trade, and economics.
  • Robert Griffin’s Party Hoppers shows how a majority of the key Obama-to-Trump voters now identify as Republicans.
  • Most recently, Follow the Leader, by Lee Drutman, Larry Diamond, and Joe Goldman, reveals that while a majority of Americans still support democracy, more than one in four express some support for authoritarian politics.

In the coming weeks, Democracy Fund will publish blogs describing the progress of these projects. We are inspired and encouraged by the hard work and commitment of the bipartisan coalition of leaders and allies with whom we stand to ensure our political system is healthy and responsive to the needs of the American people. We look forward to continuing to work with these voices and leaders in defense of our common democratic ideals.

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How do you know that learning has happened?

Srik Gopal
/
March 7, 2018

​Learning is having its moment in philanthropy. Recent publications from the Center for Effective Philanthropy, FSG, and GEO all highlighted the increasing importance of learning in foundations.

The interest in learning has manifested in different ways — from “learning officer” type positions, to innovative structures and processes, and different ways of thinking about reporting results. However, these are still largely “inputs” that support learning, rather than “outputs” that show that learning has happened.

So how does one know that learning has, in fact, happened?

Learning is Action

At a wedding I attended several years ago, the pastor delivered a speech titled “love is action.” She made the point to the newlyweds that no matter how much they might say they loved their partner, it would ring hollow without action that showed the same. The pastor asked, “What are you willing to change about yourself? What behaviors are you willing to engage in that go beyond your comfort zone, but would be responsive to your partner’s needs?”

Taking a cue from the pastor, I would contend that the only way to truly know if learning has happened is if something has changed. For example, learning could result in:

  1. a tweak in strategy or approach;
  2. bringing new grantees or partners into the mix; or a
  3. change in programmatic focus, including entry into new areas and exit from old areas.

This raises the question whether every new learning requires an action. The answer is no, as there is still need for strong judgment to determine whether and when action is warranted. In the context of board-approved, long-term strategies, we don’t want to be “lurching” from one path to another. However, informed inaction is very different from blindly sticking to the status quo. There is still a clear choice that is being made not to act.

How Learning Happens at Democracy Fund

At Democracy Fund, we recognize the value of learning to our organization. Given the nature of the complex, intractable problems we are trying to solve, ongoing learning and adaptation remain our surest bets for creating the impact we care about. To this end, we are putting together a “learning architecture,” that includes different structures, processes, and systems to make learning actionable at multiple levels:

  1. Internal: Through ongoing program evaluations, learning labs, and portfolio reviews, we will engage our staff not just in “What” we are learning, but the “So What” and “Now What” steps coming out of it for our strategy.
  2. Board: Through an annual learning and progress report to our board, as well as a deeper board learning conversation that happens for each initiative every 18–24 months, each team will provide a snapshot of lessons learned that either confirm or contradict initial hypotheses and the implications of these lessons going forward.
  3. External: This remains the least developed part of our learning architecture at the moment, but our goal is to have a robust set of products that share our lessons and implications with grantees, partners, and the broader field. We also hope to build a community of fellow learners along the way.

We fully expect this to be a work in progress over the next one to two years, but our goal is to make actionable learning an integral part of the way we do business, in service to what we ultimate care about — a strong and resilient American democracy.

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Democracy Fund Welcomes New Teammates

Margaret Yao
/
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.

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The Ones Who Care

Laura A. Maristany and Anne Gleich
/
February 23, 2018

​Laura Maristany co-wrote this blog post with Anne Gleich.

As we welcome a new year — and inch closer to midterm elections — the makeup of our current Congress continues to gain attention. With growing frustration around their perceived dysfunction, the need for leadership development and, particularly, candidate development programs across the nation have become a topic of national concern. In response to the spotlight, many groups are using the opportunity to launch new efforts and create pipelines of new candidates for Congress with hopes that helping the institution look more like the rest of America will increase its ability to function. In 2017, we conducted an environmental scan of leadership development programs geared towards elected officials and identified over 700 groups currently committed to this work. While the scan focused on identifying an average number of groups in this space – and not necessarily their models or effectiveness – it made it clear that we are all looking for the secret sauce to ensure more representative, more functional institutions. The question is, does broader representation on its own lead to a more functional Congress?

There is no doubt that we should continue to identify and support groups committed to developing the next generation of leaders, as well as those working with current elected leaders to promote their continued growth. These groups should continue to develop leadership pipelines to Congress and acknowledge that it is not simply about changing the landscape. We also need to ensure this pipeline is filled with constructive voices. We often hear that Congress would be more functional if it looked more like the America it represents. This could help, but we also need to develop leaders who can promote more constructive politics.

Democracy Fund has embraced this challenge as a foundation. To understand why, let’s take a step back and talk about bipartisanship, which is often viewed as a key to making a dysfunctional government functional. The problem is, forcing people — and particularly elected officials — to choose bipartisanship won’t address the underlying issues. People are partisan — generally we believe our own policy approach is the best approach. Our work in systems mapping tells us that even when we agree, there might be other forces — like towing the party line — that get in the way of compromise, and ultimately lead to gridlock and hyper partisanship. In this context, it is not enough that we commit to creating pipelines of diverse voices: we also need to shift political incentives. In our opinion, the missing ingredient to the “secret sauce” is whether the leaders in those pipelines, and our elected officials, care enough about the issues to come to the table to discuss, debate, and ultimately pass legislation with civility and respect. In other words, how willing are they to stand up for their constituents?

Democracy Fund believes that when our leaders care enough — about their community, constituents, or policy agenda — they will be willing to come to the table, have tough conversations, and accomplish the goal of legislating. We believe this work is crucial to the continued health of our democracy. Therefore, Democracy Fund is proud to support organizations and programs that are working to build diverse pipelines and bridges for constructive conversations, including:

Aspen Socrates Program American Values Seminars (AVS) will leverage their network and convene local leaders from a wide range of backgrounds and sectors under the tested Socrates seminar model with the aim of creating connections, promoting civil discourse and increasing dialogue in local communities. AVS will serve as a forum for the open exchange of ideas and the cultivation of leadership steeped in our shared American values. This duty, of citizen engagement and civic responsibility, remain as timely and as timeless, as ever.

The Cato Institute Project on the Prospects for Liberal Democracy which seeks to defend and improve liberal institutions as a way of avoiding the threat of populism. The project will make a concerted effort to vindicate liberal institutions and bolster them where they are weak by identifying reforms that can make them more responsive — not to transient public passions, but to what Madison termed “the cool and deliberate sense of the community.”

The Millennial Action Project works to re-establish cooperation over party lines in Congress by working with millennial members of state and national legislatures to encourage a new generation of lawmakers in our country. It also works to increase the thoughtful engagement of millennial constituents by elected officials.

The National Institute for Civil Discourse at the University of Arizona encourages political and civic leaders to embrace vigorous debate in a way that allows diverse perspectives to be shared, complex issues to be discussed thoughtfully, and challenging topics to be explored. NICD travels the country to provide trainings to elected officials on how to act civilly to one another.

Cultivate the Karass provides tools for emerging leaders to overcome polarization, establish common ground, and build trust with one another. With the goal of promoting a healthy democracy through cultivating civil discourse and bipartisanship, Cultivate the Karass brings together leaders from different disciplines and political backgrounds to work together and acts as another model to break down barriers to civil conversations.

We hope you will join us in tackling this challenge.

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$3.25 Million to Support Knight First Amendment Institute

Tom Glaisyer
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February 22, 2018

A range of technological, economic, and cultural forces are putting new pressures on the First Amendment — a pillar of our Bill of Rights. The freedoms of speech and of the press protected in the First Amendment ensure that Americans can openly participate in civic life and have access to a robust, free press that helps hold power accountable. Without these freedoms, the promise of a vibrant public square — both physical and digital — can be easily manipulated and the health of our democracy suffers. ​

The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, under the direction of Jameel Jaffer, is a new leader in the fight to protect the First Amendment against both longstanding and emerging threats. Today, Democracy Fund with our colleagues at First Look Media announced a general operating support grant of $3.25 million to support the Institute because their research, litigation, and public education efforts are an important building block in our support for First Amendment freedoms — especially our commitment to ensuring freedom of the press. ​

There have been many rhetorical attacks on the press in 2016 and 2017, and many concerns that these attacks will chip away at trust in the press and consequently result in tangible constraints on the news media. This concern is one shared by experts outside the country as evidenced by the new Inter-American Press Association mission to the United States, where free press advocates from other countries in North and South America are visiting to talk with US legislators and others about their concerns for press freedom here. The founding of the Press Freedom Tracker by a consortium of groups, including Democracy Fund grantees Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, ASNE, Online News Association, PEN America, and Free Press is further evidence. ​

No less significant a concern is the fact that our First Amendment freedoms are under extraordinary stress from a parallel host of challenges associated with digital technologies. The move from print and broadcast to always-on digital distribution and engagement with news has yielded huge benefits in the free flow of information. Yet there is much that needs to be understood about how the platforms operate and how they address issues that concern press freedom. There is an emerging consensus that our new digital public square is subject to manipulation by nefarious actors, and we see example after example of how those who do participate in public conversation can be subjected to harassment and trolling. These trends raise profound questions that require serious answers, including an understanding of how the market place of ideas can work in a digital age where the limiting factor is often human attention.

This is why we have provided significant support to the fast-growing Knight Institute. Though it was only created in 2016 following a significant commitment by the Knight Foundation, it has made its mark quickly with strategic litigation, research, and public education efforts in three areas:​

  • Strengthening legal frameworks for government transparency;
  • Reviving the First Amendment as a constraint on government surveillance; and
  • Protecting the integrity and vitality of public discourse

We are very pleased to announce this support in parallel with the Charles Koch Foundation’s grant of $3.25 million and to join the long list of other foundations and supporters who have previously invested in the Knight Institute — including the Knight Foundation, Ford Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, Hewlett Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Laura and John Arnold, and Columbia University. Broad support from such a range of foundations and donors underscores the critical importance of the freedoms of speech and the press to our democracy, ensures its independence, and reinforces the shared belief that the Knight Institute is well positioned to identify and navigate new threats to these freedoms. ​

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NewsMatch Leads to Record Setting Year for Nonprofit News

Josh Stearns
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February 14, 2018

​We launched NewsMatch — a $3 million fund to match donations to nonprofit newsrooms — because we believe that strengthening local and investigative journalism is critical to a healthy democracy. The fund was a partnership with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation designed to make 2017 a record-breaking year for giving to local and investigative journalism.

​The results are in, and NewsMatch was a resounding success. Nearly every one of the more than 100 newsrooms who participated raised more dollars from more donors than ever before.

  • From October 1 to December 31, NewsMatch raised more than $4.8 million from individual donors and a coalition of foundations.
  • Local newsrooms raised even more on top of NewsMatch: in total, more than 202,000 donors contributed $33 million to local, nonprofit newsrooms.
  • Of those 202,000 donors, 43,000 were new donors giving to an organization for the first time.

​There is no doubt that NewsMatch helped strengthen journalism in America over the last three months, and supported the growth of charitable giving to newsrooms. Together, the 100+ local and national participants received nearly 320,000 more donations, from 77,000 more donors in 2017, compared to 2016.

​What made NewsMatch a success? We are undertaking an in-depth evaluation of last year’s program to see what lessons we can learn from our efforts. However, we know three key things that made NewsMatch stand out this year.

​1. Creating New Platforms for Journalism Philanthropy

​We created the first one-stop platform for donating to nonprofit news. At NewsMatch.org, donors could give to more than 100 newsrooms with one transaction — simplifying the process for donors and inviting more to join.

​Beyond individual donors, we also built the NewsMatch campaign as a platform for partnerships between local and national foundations. Over the course of last fall, the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, the News Integrity Initiative, the Wyncote Foundation, The Gates Family Foundation, and the Rita Allen Foundation all joined NewsMatch as partners, creating double and triple matches for many of the participating organizations. Around the country, local newsrooms also set up at least 20 other matching efforts with local funders and donors, further extending the reach and impact of this program.

​2. Building the Capacity of the Nonprofit News Sector

​NewsMatch has always been about more than raising money. From the start, our campaign was designed to build the long-term capacity of nonprofit newsrooms to connect with their communities and cultivate support from their readers. In partnership with the Institute for Nonprofit News and the News Revenue Hub, we created a stockpile of campaign templates, provided weekly guidance for small newsrooms who lack big fundraising teams, and offered weekly coaching and training webinars.

​We have seen the impact of this work in the dramatic increase of year-by-year giving and in the boost of new donors — both of which bode well for the field. “With the support of NewsMatch, we had a record setting year, more than doubling the donations we received in past years,” Lauren Fuhrmann of the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism told us. “NewsMatch provided the roadmap, tech support, and national exposure that we needed to have our most successful year-end fundraising drive ever.”

​3. Raising Awareness About the Need to Support Nonprofit News

​While public media and some nonprofit magazines have been around for decades, the current generation of local and investigative journalism organizations are relatively new. For the most part, people aren’t accustomed to giving to nonprofit news. We understood that it wasn’t enough for NewsMatch to double donations if people didn’t understand the importance of donating in the first place. NewsMatch elevated nonprofit news through #GivingNewsDay, which saw journalists, celebrities, and politicians on both sides of the aisle talking about the importance of donating to nonprofit newsrooms. Public voices like Mark Ruffalo, Michael Kelly, Cara Mund (Miss America), Katy Tur, Greta Van Susteren, and others joined the effort. Additionally, Facebook donated $100,000 in free advertising to publicize NewsMatch and its participating newsrooms.

​“One of the most important things we can do is increase awareness about the need for and benefits of nonprofit journalism — that is, to add to the usual American philanthropic checklist of schools, hospitals, churches, and cultural institutions the possibility of donating to journalism. NewsMatch helped enormously in that effort,” Richard Tofel, president of Pulitzer Prize-winning nonprofit news organization ProPublica, wrote to us in an email.

​This work would not have been possible without our partner funders, grantees, and newsrooms who brought such creativity and passion to the project. We are especially grateful to Lindsey Linzer at the Miami Foundation — which hosted the fund — and Jason Alcorn, who served as project manager.

​NewsMatch catalyzed a lot of energy and proved that people support reporting they trust and rely on: but it is just one piece of a much larger puzzle. No one campaign can reverse what has been lost from local news and investigative journalism over the last decade of layoffs and cutbacks, but we are nonetheless optimistic. We continue to be encouraged by the rising nonprofit news sector and intrigued by what it can mean for renewing public service journalism as a core part of our communities. At Democracy Fund, we are committed to investing in the people and organizations who are helping build a brighter future for local news, and we look forward to continuing this work with NewsMatch in the future.

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Local People Will Create the Future of Local News

Teresa Gorman
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February 7, 2018

Josh Stearns co-authored this piece with Teresa Gorman.

Local news is critical to a healthy democracy, and we believe that the future of local news is local. This simple idea has shaped the way Democracy Fund has thought about its work to support and strengthen the public square in America.

Today we are announcing two new locally-based and locally-driven funds — totaling more than $2 million — that will invest in ideas, people and organizations that are working to ensure people have access to the news and information they need in these communities. The funds will focus on building more vibrant news ecosystems as vital parts of just communities and a healthy democracy.

These funds are not focused on maintaining the status quo in local news, but on pushing forward changes that improve how journalism serves the public and makes news and information more resilient over the long term. Through these funds, we will work closely with local partners to increase giving to local news and invest in long-term solutions — over short-term fixes — especially in the areas of business models, collaboration and community engagement.

In New Jersey, we will build on our previous work in partnership with the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the Knight Foundation by establishing the New Jersey Local News Lab Fund with $1.3 million over two years. New Jersey has become a bold laboratory for new models of collaboration, revenue experiments, and community engagement (read more about previous work in New Jersey in this report). This new fund will continue that momentum and help broaden the work there beyond newsrooms to other civic information networks and institutions.

The North Carolina Local News Lab Fund is the start of a new multi-year commitment to the state. We are kicking off the fund with $700,000 for the first 18 months. The work we’ve done in New Jersey to strengthen their news ecosystem will inform our work, but we recognize that this new fund must be built to respond to the unique local context of North Carolina. To that end, we commissioned local journalist and community organizer Fiona Morgan to undertake a year-long research project on the strengths and challenges of local news and information in North Carolina.

The two funds, housed at the Community Foundation of New Jersey and North Carolina Community Foundation, will be managed by advisory groups made up of local stakeholders and Democracy Fund. As a national funder we recognize that we are guests in these communities and have set these funds up to ensure funding decisions are rooted in local knowledge and experience. We take seriously the advice from longtime philanthropy leader Pru Brown who wrote in a paper prepared for Democracy Fund, “ultimately, perhaps the most useful lens for place-based philanthropy is asking at every stage whether the decisions the national foundation is making and the way it is operating promote or undermine local ownership.”

A key goal of these funds is to catalyze new momentum locally around supporting local public-interest news that serves all communities. As such, both funds are built as open platforms for partnership with other funders and donors. We are working closely with local and regional foundations in each state to expand the size of the funds, leveraging even more dollars to support local news and information efforts. That work is ongoing, and we look forward to sharing more about the amazing partners we are working with in the coming weeks and months.

This work is just a piece of Democracy Fund’s broader work on local news, which includes the national NewsMatch campaign, revenue research, and shared services like Membership Puzzle Project and News Revenue Hub. Additionally, Democracy Fund supports bridge builders and network connectors in local regions who are on the frontlines of weaving together stronger news ecosystems through collaboration and capacity building.

We are thrilled and humbled by this work and by the people who are working with us. Democracy Fund is committed to working in deep partnership with local communities, to learning, and to operating transparently and openly. If you are interested in working with us reach out at LocalNewsLab@democracyfund.org and sign up for our weekly newsletter The Local Fix.

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A New Fund Aims to Put the Public Back into the Public Square

Paul Waters
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January 23, 2018

​Today four foundations are announcing a new joint fund designed to fuel a new era of journalism rooted in listening to communities. The Community Listening and Engagement Fund (CLEF) is dedicated to helping news organizations better listen, engage, and produce more relevant content for the communities they serve. Democracy Fund is honored to join the News Integrity Initiative, Lenfest Institute for Journalism Education, and the Knight Foundation in creating this new resource to bring proven models of public-powered journalism to more newsrooms around the country.

​The new fund, which launches with $650,000 from the four founding partners, will subsidize the costs for newsrooms to adopt Hearken and GroundSource, two incredible platforms designed by journalists to bring the public more deeply into the reporting process.

​Hearken provides newsrooms with unique tools to foster genuine audience engagement. Their model, called “public-powered journalism,” puts everyday people at the center of journalism, so they are able to communicate their information needs to reporters directly. Audiences are not only consumers, but partners in the production of meaningful stories. GroundSource is a unique platform that connects newsrooms to their communities. Outlets are assigned phone numbers that establishes an open line of communication between reporters and their audiences. Journalists can seek perspective on certain stories in the works, or encourage people to share thoughts on local issues most important to them.

​We understand that at the root of so many challenges newsrooms face is the need to make journalism more relevant and responsive to the public. Developing a culture, practice, and workflows around listening is the key to unlocking this potential. Supporting tools like Hearken and GroundSource will help rebuild trust, rethink business models, and rebuild public interest journalism in news outlets throughout the country.

​Read more about the Community Listening and Engagement Fund, why we love the CLEF name, and learn how to apply here. We see this new fund as core to our strategy for strengthening trustworthy journalism.

​At Democracy Fund, our approach to journalism is focused on building trust and engagement. We are working on many fronts to foster practices that make news outlets more responsive and representative of their communities. To that end, we support efforts to help newsrooms authentically connect with and involve community members, transform reporting practices, represent the perspectives of diverse communities, and produce more relevant and thus more highly valued news.

​We break this work up into two key tracks focused on Audience Engagement and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

​Through our Audience Engagement work we invest in innovations and support projects that help journalists better engage and involve their audiences in news generation, production, dissemination, and discussion. For example, we support the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas whose rigorous research is helping test what works and what doesn’t, the Gather Platform which is building a community of practice around engaged journalism, the Coral Project which is helping newsrooms build online communities and the American Press Institute’s Metrics for News program which helps newsrooms understand what communities want and how best to deliver it.

​We recognize that no single product, practice, or platform can improve trust and authentic audience engagement if America’s newsrooms and the organizations supporting them remain disproportionately white in their staff and male in their leadership. We see steady progress on diversity, equity, and inclusion as a necessary condition of success in our work to mend the deteriorating connections between news outlets and the communities they serve.

​Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work focuses on improving the diversity of sources, stories, and staff in news outlets. This work occurs across three dimensions. The first pertains to creating an inclusive environment at news outlets. The second constitutes recruiting, retaining, and promoting diverse staff, including leadership. The third involves working to develop and sustain minority ownership of media properties like Blavity, Q City Metro and the Richmond Times. We are excited for the work of our grantees like the Ida B. Wells Society which is expanding the ranks of investigative reporters and editors of color, the Maynard Institute which is training newsroom leaders, the Emma Bowen Foundation which provides internships for diverse journalism students, and many others. We have begun an exercise to map this space on an institutional level, and we are excited to connect with new organizations.

​We believe that the Community Listening and Engagement Fund can help us work across these strategies, accelerating the adoption of new practices that put people back at the center of journalism. We are grateful to the Lenfest Institute who is hosting and managing the fund and to the vision of the News Integrity and Knight Foundation who are joining us in the launch today. At Democracy Fund, we are committed to supporting innovations in engaged journalism through grantmaking, partnerships and collaboration to strengthen the Fourth Estate and the democratic principles that our nation is founded on. We will continue to seek out opportunities to collaborate with news outlets, journalism support organizations, and partner funders to achieve this goal.

Democracy Fund champions the leaders who defend democracy and who challenge our political system to be more open, just, resilient, and trustworthy.

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