Governance
For the People
In a healthy democracy, governing institutions at every level provide equal voice and power to all Americans, leaders are accountable and responsive, and abuses of power are rare. Achieving this vision requires unrigging our institutions so that voters see themselves and their opinions represented in government and its policy decisions.
Representative and Accountable Institutions
Our governing structures are deliberately flawed, designed from the beginning to be exclusionary. These structures disproportionately empower certain groups, enable anti-democratic policies that often target communities of color, and undermine our system of checks and balances.
Combined with increased polarization, the result in recent years has been an uptick in government officials abusing their authority to entrench and exercise power in illegal and highly unethical ways, with little to no accountability. To respond, we must build institutions that protect bedrock democratic values and provide equal voice and power to all Americans.
Our Approach
Governance program strategies seek to strengthen the pro-democracy movement, defend against authoritarian threats, and advance long-term, structural change by shifting power to the people and away from a select few.
This work requires a long-term approach that recognizes that anti-democratic practices aren’t confined to specific geographic locations or people — abuse of power and lack of accountability in one part of the United States threatens democracy for the entire country.
Preventing Authoritarian Abuse of Power
To protect our democracy from authoritarian threats, we work to strengthen legal guardrails, build more resilient institutions, and bolster accountability measures to prevent future abuses.
See how we’re helping to prevent abuse of power at the federal levelState and Local Accountability
State and local government abuses of power disproportionately impact communities of color and other historically disenfranchised groups. We invest in organizers, advocates, and networks focused on these abuses and who have long been under-resourced in their fight for accountability.
See how we’re helping to prevent abuse of power at the state and local levelsRepresentative Institutions
In order to have effective and representative governing institutions in our multiracial democracy, they must be structurally transformed to be inclusive and reflective of our country’s diversity.
We seek to advance structural changes that give each person equal power — accounting for the historical lack of representation of communities of color, and increasing the responsiveness of government institutions to the needs of all communities.
Check back regularly to learn more about how this work is progressing. If you are a fellow funder, we welcome opportunities to collaborate on these efforts.
Our Team
Rudy Mehrbani
Senior Director, Governance
Winny Chen
Associate Director, Governance
Nathaniel J. Turner
Program Manager, Governance
Anne Morley
Senior Program Associate, Governance
Sean Raymond
Senior Program Associate, Governance
Sarah Dickson
Senior Associate, Program Strategy and Learning for Elections and Institutions
Safa Syed
Program Associate, Governance
Maria W. Rapisarda
Team Coordinator, Governance
Learn More About Our Work
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Other Areas of Focus
Democracy Fund strengthens and defends democracy through four core programs and a number of term-limited special projects.
Free and Fair Elections
Since its founding, the American voting system has intentionally made it difficult for marginalized communities to equitably participate. The Elections and Voting program works with community organizations and leaders to build a voting system that is fair, trustworthy, and inclusive, with racial justice at the center.
Learn more about this work
Just and Inclusive Society
Political and climate crises are forcing people to relocate, with communities of color disproportionately affected. The Just and Inclusive Society program works to ensure migrant and refugee communities in the United States have the resources to build and lead an intersectional social movement that protects their rights and addresses global threats.
Learn more about this work
A Vibrant and Diverse Public Square
Reliable information is getting harder to find, leading to less informed voters and greater threats to democracy. To increase civic participation, the Public Square program invests in those who work to ensure communities have access to the information they need, online and offline.
Learn more about this work