Many of the government policies that shape our media are outdated, racist, and prioritize companies over communities. Bad policies have pushed women and people of color out of media ownership, allowed social media policies to grow unchecked, and made the internet less open and accessible. This makes it even more difficult for people to learn about local elections and be involved in their communities.

We are supporting a movement led by Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) who are advocating for policies that ensure all people can build, enjoy, and access media and technology that meets their needs and serves them.

The Equitable and Civic Infrastructure Initiative invests in BIPOC-led organizations working on:

• Federal policy research and advocacy
• State and local organizing
• Communications and storytelling campaigns

We adhere to a strict policy preserving the editorial independence of all our journalism grantees. In the instance of a grantee approaching a member of our staff for comment, we require them to go through our communications team — not a program officer — and we alert the reporter of the funding relationship. We also request that if they quote a member of our team they disclose our funding of their organization in any story produced.

In addition, the Democracy Fund communications staff does not send pitches to the nonprofit newsrooms we support, and we include language in our grant agreements that we won’t discuss editorial content with journalism grantees or otherwise seek to influence their coverage. However, we may alert newsroom leadership of Democracy Fund developments and news in the course of regular engagement with grantees.