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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.

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The Ones Who Care

Laura A. Maristany and Anne Gleich
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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.

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

Stacey Scholl
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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.​

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Celebrating Civility in 2017

Betsy Wright Hawkings
/
December 19, 2017

At a time when some are uncertain about the strength of our democracy, organizations supported by Democracy Fund give me reason to feel grateful, and hopeful.

Along with the Hewlett Foundation’s Madison Initiative, Democracy Fund’s Governance Program is not only seeing increasingly robust programming by our grantees, but also more of them working together to coordinate and maximize the impact of their efforts to support congressional function.

Before Thanksgiving, the National Institute for Civil Discourse – a model for collaboration – developed a “Setting the Table for Civility” initiative as part of their Revive Civility campaign. In the wake of the bipartisan response to the shooting of Majority Whip Steve Scalise and other members of Congress during practice for the Annual Congressional Baseball game, NICD and the Faith and Politics Institute developed a series of videos by Members of Congress noting their ability to work together; a highlight is Republican Whip Steve Scalise and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer discussing ways they find to “disagree without being disagreeable.”

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, working with the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, has developed the Staff Up Congress initiative to strengthen and diversify the pipeline of senior staff working in the House and Senate. If it is true that Congress will be more responsive to the American people when it better reflects the perspectives and backgrounds of ALL Americans, then this initiative can help ensure a Congress that not only better serves our country, but in doing so also helps make our discourse more civil and respectful of others’ differences.

(L) Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Arturo Vargas, (R) Rep. Barbara Lee at Staff Up Congress event.
(L) Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Arturo Vargas, (R) Rep. Barbara Lee at Staff Up Congress event.

And who says campaign operatives cannot get along – or even agree? At the University of Chicago School of Public Service this fall, digital strategists working to elect both Democrats and Republicans came together to discuss how social media has changed democracy and came to a very civil agreement on best practices in social media campaigning.

Members of the Freshman class of 2017 committed to each other during the New Member orientation in Williamsburg in January that they would continue to reach across the aisle and work together on a bipartisan basis to get things done for the country despite their differences. They felt that this was the message of the 2016 election and that they needed to make a commitment to each other to not allow the forces of partisanship pull them apart once they were actively serving in Washington. They have maintained this commitment, through their “Summer of Civility” and most recently with their holiday “Civility Pledge.”

The R Street Institute, through its Legislative Capacity Working Group, along with Protect Democracy, StandUpRepublic, and others, is working to promote regular legislative order and amplify efforts to strengthen Congress as the institution established by Article One of our Constitution.On the same day TIME Magazine celebrated “Silence Breakers” as the Person of the Year, former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson was partnering with a bipartisan group of legislators to introduce bipartisan legislation to strengthen the congressional offices of Compliance and Employment Counsel.

Congressional Accountability Hearing
Photo from the Congressional Accountability Hearing

The efforts of the working group, the Women’s Congressional Policy Institute and the bipartisan “Joint Session” women chiefs of staff group, and others, was evident in the wake of the sexual harassment revelations on Capitol Hill.The relationships developed through this and other bipartisan programming helped both members and chiefs reach across the aisle and work toward a responsible, bipartisan reaction to the exposure of outdated processes and lax outreach and disclosure by the Office of Compliance. Together, they are working with the House Administration Committee to support development of credible legislation to better support Hill offices and the institution of Congress as a whole.What do all of these organizations have in common? As we note in our systems map, a key component of increased congressional function is breaking down hyper-partisanship, intolerance, and anger so that the sharing of ideas and civil discourse can occur; this is the first step toward a more functional legislative process and, ultimately, a higher-performing Congress.

While the institution still faces many challenges and much much more work lies ahead, this commitment to working across partisan lines to support increased civility and helping the institution work better – not just for those who serve there but for all Americans – is a key focus of Democracy Fund’s Governance Program. As 2017 comes to a close and we look toward 2018, we see signs of hope, and are grateful for our partnership with the Hewlett Foundation Madison Initiative and others to support the good work of so many organizations promoting this essential quality of a more effective government of, by and for the people.

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News Match Grows as New Funders Step Up to Support Nonprofit News

Josh Stearns
/
November 20, 2017

News Match is already the largest grassroots fundraising campaign for nonprofit journalism ever. More than 100 newsrooms across the United States are working together to raise $6 million dollars—or more —by the end of 2017. NewsMatch.org, the home of the campaign, is an innovative new hub where people can search for trustworthy journalism outlets by geography or topic and then give to multiple newsrooms with one donation. The effort is designed to mobilize thousands of new people to donate to local news and investigative reporting.

But News Match is more than a fundraising campaign. It’s a call to action for all who are concerned about the news and information needs of our communities and the role of a strong fourth estate in our democracy—and it’s growing.

For those in philanthropy, News Match offers an opportunity to not just provide financial support to outstanding newsrooms, but to invest in the long-term sustainability of these organizations by equipping them with the in-depth training, technology, and capacity building they need to reach new readers and foster a community of donors.

News Match began with a small team at the Knight Foundation who had a big idea to ramp up donations to nonprofit newsrooms at the end of 2016. That year Knight matched $1.2 million in donations to 57 newsrooms. This year News Match has doubled the number of eligible newsrooms and nearly tripled the total dollars in the News Match fund.

News Match has become a unique platform for local and national funders to collaborate in the interest of fostering more sustainable and vibrant public interest media.

Today we are announcing four new foundation partners have joined News Match:

  • The Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation is contributing $100,000 to the national News Match fund, while also matching donations to five local newsrooms as part of its ongoing grant making.
  • The Wyncote Foundation is providing an additional match of up to $10,000 each for Next City, Philadelphia Public School Notebook, and NJ Spotlight in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
  • The News Integrity Initiative is contributing $50,000 to match donations to a group of newsrooms that cultivate diversity and inclusion within their organizations and serve underrepresented communities.
  • The Gates Family Foundation is matching donations to Chalkbeat in support of their education reporting in Colorado devoting up to $10,000 during the Colorado Gives campaign that kicks off December 5.

Each of these new commitments is above and beyond the original $3 million donated by the Democracy Fund, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, who together launched News Match at the beginning of October.

In ten other states, individual donors and local foundations have stepped up with challenge grants to encourage people to give to nonprofit news, adding at least another $500,000 to support quality journalism this year. In total, more than 20 foundations, corporations, and individual donors are offering matching challenges, most of which were developed independently by local leadership at nonprofit news organizations.

  • In Texas the John & Florence Newman Foundation is offering a $100,000 matching grant for San Antonio’s Rivard Report and The Kirk Mitchell Public Interest Investigative Journalism Fund is matching gifts to the Austin Bulldog.
  • In Michigan, Bridge Magazine has built strong relationships with local funders and three of them, the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation, Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, and Glassen Memorial, have matches to support the newsroom.
  • In Vermont, corporate donors and local funders such as Vermont Coffee Company, Sustainable Future Fund of the Vermont Community Foundation, and the Fountain Fund are providing matching funds for VTDigger.
  • In Louisiana, The Reva and David Logan Foundation is matching donations to The Lens in New Orleans as part of their ongoing grant making.
  • In California, The Community Foundation for San Benito County is matching donations to BenitoLink and The Jonathan Logan Family Foundation is matching donations to FairWarning as a part of their ongoing grant making.
  • The Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation is matching donations to the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, Pine Tree Watch, Connecticut Health I-Team, New Mexico In-Depth, and Rocky Mountain PBS.
  • Individual donors have also risen to the occasion, creating challenge funds at Wisconsin Watch, The War Horse, EcoRI, and InvestigateWest.

In the face of profound challenges facing journalists today there is enormous momentum gathering to support nonprofit news. However, because all of these are matching programs, newsrooms won’t be able to unlock those dollars unless people donate.

Quality journalism makes a difference every day. Without you, stories don’t just go unread — they go untold. As we head into the giving season, it is critical that we support the news we rely on.

Find a newsroom and donate today at www.newsmatch.org.

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Five Tips for Learning-Focused Meetings

Donata Secondo
/
November 15, 2017

Across philanthropy, organizations are putting greater emphasis on learning, recognizing the importance of rigorous inquiry to improve our impact. Growing from a commitment to evaluation, the trend has now extended beyond it. We now recognize that it takes a facilitative organizational culture, tools and processes – and not just data – to learn. The Center for Effective Philanthropy’s recent Foundation Evaluation Benchmarking Survey shows that foundations are increasingly dedicating attention to – and hiring staff for –these aspects of organizational learning.

A community of foundation learning officers, like myself, is emerging as a result. We work internally to foster a culture of adaptation and learning. We provide our busy colleagues with venues for learning, tools and practices for reflection, and we encourage their curiosity.

As the community of learning staff finds its footing together, we should be conscious and intentional about how much we have to learn from the colleagues we support. My Democracy Fund peers frequently remind me about the importance of asking not only what our organization should be learning, but to also ask how we can support the learning objectives of our grantees, partners and the wider field. By now, it is common wisdom that foundations learn through and with our grantees – but it is our program staff who live out this wisdom every day.

Recently, I shared with my colleagues a tip sheet for how to build a reflective practice into our staff check-ins. Though I’d envisioned this as an internal resource, my enthusiastic colleagues asked to share these lessons with their grantees. With their help, I am coming to see that my objective as Manager of Learning and Strategy should not simply be for Democracy Fund to actively learn, but to ensure that our grantees and partners have the resources and support to do so as well. Democracy Fund will learn best when we are part of a cohort of robust learning organizations.

Over time, our team hopes to help strengthen learning skills among our grantees, as well as our colleagues. We plan to deliver trainings in monitoring, evaluation, and learning, to provide resources that support these capacities, and to encourage Democracy Fund to be even more participatory and transparent in our monitoring, evaluation and learning activities.

In that spirit, I’m listening to my colleagues. Here, for your use as well as ours, are the five tips for making meetings more learning-oriented, mentioned above. I hope you find value in them – do reach out with your stories!

1. Make Dedicated Space for Learning

Often, there’s no need to create new venues for learning. Consider looking for opportunities to build learning into existing meetings and structures. Team check-ins are an ideal setting, since they are regular, informal, and action-oriented. Consider carving out 20 minutes of an existing check-in for this purpose, or extending a meeting to make time. If you find yourself adding meetings to the schedule for learning, make sure your objectives are specific and explicit. Consider how other agenda items might condition mindsets and participants’ degree of comfort for learning (see Bonus Tip!).

2. Put Learning First

When looking to build your financial savings, experts advise putting aside the first chunk of your paycheck, rather than whatever’s left over at the end of the month. The same applies to learning. The last agenda item often gets cut – so to make sure learning activities occur, put them first on your meeting agenda. Starting off with a learning activity might also help shift the tone of the rest of your meeting, making it more reflection-oriented.

3. Keep it Structured – AND Keep it ENGAGING

Simply asking “what are we learning?” rarely leads to a productive conversation. A light structure helps enhance the conversation and ensure everyone has a chance to be heard. Check out FSG’s guide to Facilitating Intentional Group Learning for ideas – including many activities that can be done in about 20 minutes!

Routine can help build our learning muscles, and over time can lead to reflection becoming part of the culture. Find a tool that works for your team and stick with it for a while. Still, make sure the tool doesn’t become stale – switching things up can keep it engaging.

4. Make It Useful

Reflection for its own sake is worthwhile, but it becomes learning when we apply it to our work. In too many instances, valuable lessons are lost because they never become actionable. Every learning activity should keep an eye on how to the data collected or lessons learned will be useful in the future. Ask “when will we apply what we’ve learned?” and “How will we change our behavior in the future?” Make things concrete, and ensure someone is tasked with carrying the lesson forward into future work. Jot down notes, and circle back on do-outs at future meetings.

5. Model Curiosity

Learning is everyone’s job. All of us can model learning behavior that is hungry for evidence, encourages feedback, and welcomes a diversity of views, to foster a supportive learning environment. While it’s important to have someone structure and guide learning activities, participating in them is everyone’s responsibility – and a learning culture is most vibrant when everyone actively engages. Everyone can enter learning activities curious, and welcoming of the curiosity of others.

6. BONUS TIP — (ESPECIALLY FOR MANAGERS): Watch for Power Pitfalls

By being conscious of how power dynamics and other stressors can affect learning spaces, you can create opportunities for each team member to share their input. Consider implementing explicit norms on open communication, assigning agenda items to different team members, or creating activities in which each member of the team is explicitly invited to speak up.

Want to keep a reminder at your desk? Download our infographic of all of these tips here.

Many thanks to Anna Chukhno, Democracy Fund’s Strategy, Impact and Learning Intern, for her support on this project.

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

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