IP Briefing: What’s Going on With Philanthropy for U.S. Democracy
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In Inside Philanthropy’s weekly briefings, we provide an overview of what’s happening in a particular area of philanthropy, loaded with links to our past coverage and State of American Philanthropy research. This week: U.S. democracy.
In a sentence
Philanthropy has tended to shy away from anything that seemed too political, but as U.S. democracy falters, more funders are directly supporting democracy-related causes—and not only in election years.
What’s going on
Ahead of the 2020 election, we published a guest post by Dr. Carmen Rojas of the Marguerite Casey Foundation and Dimple Abichandani of the General Service Foundation that warned, “our democracy is under attack and philanthropy needs to act now.” Some donors did step up to meet the moment, with new funders joining the few who have long prioritized this issue.
Key funders
As reported in our State of American Philanthropy paper on the topic, key funders of democracy-related work include the Ford Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Open Society Foundations. Ford is by far the leader in terms of dollar amounts, giving four times as much ($384.57M) to democracy causes as the No. 2 grantmaker in this area, Hewlett, in the years 2014 to 2018. Other funders to note are the Carnegie Corporation and the W.K. Kellogg, James Irvine, and John S. and James L. Knight foundations.
The largest single democracy-related gift in the recent past is Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s $400M to promote safe and reliable voting. That kind of massive philanthropic support for election administration was unprecedented. At the same time, Facebook, the source of Zuckerberg’s wealth, is under fire for its role in spreading disinformation that undermines democratic norms.
Mega-donor MacKenzie Scott gave $72 million to support “functional democracy” in 2020. And community foundations are also involved, especially through local civic engagement programs. (For a long list of other grantmakers in this space, check out the members of the Funders Committee for Civic Participation.)
By the numbers
Around $280 million in foundation grants per year went toward democracy-related causes in the years 2014 to 2018—less than a fraction of 1% of total foundation giving in that period.
Funding in this area has typically risen and fallen with election cycles, but there are signs that’s changing. Fundraisers at democracy-focused nonprofits reported a rise in giving in 2020 that’s continued into 2021.
Wait—are we all talking about the same thing?
While liberal and progressive funders of democracy-related work tend to support efforts to expand voting access and increase turnout and ease of voting, conservative funders often direct funds to “voter integrity” efforts, which have the effect of making it harder for certain groups to register and vote.
What’s being funded?
Most grants and gifts in this area go to community organizations focused on registering and mobilizing voters, while the largest grants go to national organizations, including policy groups that engage in advocacy and litigation. Funders are also supporting things like civics education.
New and notable
Sustained funding helped build up key grassroots organizations that drove democratic participation across the U.S. in 2020. Organizers say long-term grants had more impact than last-minute campaign contributions.
One for Democracy, a giving pledge for democracy, launched in 2020. Participants including Farhad Ebrahimi, Liesel Pritzker Simmons and the Marguerite Casey Foundation, and Arnold Ventures pledged to dedicate at least 1% of its net worth toward the protection and improvement of U.S. democracy.
Home Depot founder Arthur Blank is ramping up what appears to be a long-term commitment to democracy funding. An inaugural round of $10 million in grants went to groups including the Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute and NEO Philanthropy’s State Infrastructure Fund.
Quotable: “Philanthropy, like many other sectors, made a very bad assumption, not just in the last four years, but the last few decades, frankly, that U.S. democracy is somehow self-correcting and self-sustaining. It isn’t.” —Paul Di Donato of the Proteus Fund, here.
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