What’s Happening in Philanthropy:
- The Hewlett Foundationannounced $19M in grants “to strengthen civic participation, reduce corrosive polarization, and help communities rebuild a sense of shared purpose.”
- The announcement came from Philanthropy Program Officer Marselle Alexander-Ozinskas and Special Projects Director Eli Sugarman. Grants were:
- $10M — Be The People, a multiyear national campaign spearheaded by Stand Together(AP coverage here) “focused on restoring contribution and participation in civic life as central parts of American identity.”
- $4M — GivingTuesday
- $5M — Shared America, which “tells the story of who we are, and can be, as Americans—helping develop connection, optimism, and trust.”
- The initiative is led by Ken Himmelman. 990 filing here.
- The announcement came from Philanthropy Program Officer Marselle Alexander-Ozinskas and Special Projects Director Eli Sugarman. Grants were:
- The newly-renamed Andrew Carnegie Foundation (formerly the Carnegie Corporation of New York) announced 41 grants totaling ~$50M, including:
- $1.5M over 2 years — Chicago-Kent College of Law to expand the Civic Mission Schools Network
- (Congrats, in part, to Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg!)
- $1M over 2 years — Center for Civic Education
- $1M over 2 years — More Perfect, for their national service democracy goal
- $600K over 30 months — Institute for Strategic Dialogue (“to mitigate cybersecurity threats from both internal and external forces on U.S. elections”)
- $500K over 30 months — The Chamberlain Network
- $500K over 30 months — RightCount
- $500K over 24 months — SNF Agora Institute – map of U.S. civic infrastructure
- $500K over 24 months — SNF Agora Institute – Shaping a Conservative Agenda for Democracy program
- The Marguerite Casey Foundationhas committed to giving a minimum of $500M over the next 10 years, a 50% increase compared to the past decade!
- Some exciting philanthropy transitions and board announcements:
- Former Governor of Montana Steve Bullock has joinedthe Packard Foundation board!
- Eric Dayton has joinedthe board of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund!
- Haley Sonenthal Goodman has joinedAlta Futures as Program Director!
- According to Democracy Fund, $268M in 501(c)3 support has already been moved via All by April to strengthen nonpartisan election work!
- The Fred and Barbara Erb Family Foundation(a Michigan foundation in spend-down mode) announced $2.75M in democracy-focused grants, including:
- $500K — Voters Not Politicians Education Fund (to support the My City Votes and Detroit Votes programs)
- $750K (over 3 years) — Michigan Voices
- $750K (over 3 years) — Mothering Justice
- $500K (over 2 years) — Promote the Vote Fund
- Microsoft is funding three journalist roles to expand local reporting capacity in North Central Washington ($500K over two years).
- They’re supporting a partnership between the Washington State University Murrow Fellows and Report for Washington.
- Minnesota folks!! Applicationsare now open for the Minnesota Civic Resilience Fund ($300K in total funding, $25K to 12 grantees).
- The pooled fund is housed at the Minnesota Council on Foundations.
- It’s designed to strengthen democratic participation and long-term civic infrastructure across Minnesota.
- LinkedIn post here!
- Open Society Foundations announced a five-year, $300M initiative focused on:
- (1) Defending civil liberties and standing for the rule of law, and
- (2) Expanding civil rights and creating economic opportunity.
- They’ve already committed $20M this year to Democracy Defenders Action, Interfaith Alliance, Democracy Forward, and others.
- The Workday Foundation announced a $500K microgrant program in their Human Connection Grant Portfolio.
- $10K max grant size, and org budget must be below $500K! Small orgs and informal community organizations are encouraged to apply.
- Last week the Apsen Institute’s Alliance for Social Trustand Allstate announced $5.25M in grants to the 2026 Trust in Practice awardees!
- 11 collaborations were funded, representing 44 nonprofits.
- The Trust for Civic Life goes digital! This year they piloted a small portfolio of Digital Civic Experiments.
- This effort was informed by their learning brief,“Online for Offline: What local communities are telling us about digital tools, AI and novel civic tech.”
- Courtesy of Carnegie Corporation of New York, there’s a new class of 24 Andrew Carnegie Fellows! Each will receive a $200K research stipend.
- Neat projects they’re supporting include:
- Measuring the psychological toll of apocalyptic fundraising messages on voters.
- How online gaming communities shape the political identities of young men and reinforce extremism and partisanship.
- Neat projects they’re supporting include:
- Community foundation leaders are not pleased about Fidelity Charitable, Vanguard Charitable, and DAFGiving360 (Schwab) refusing to honor donor requests to give money to the Southern Poverty Law Center after the Trump DOJ announced an indictment.
- Newsrooms + creators! $800K in grantsfrom the Lenfest Institute for Journalism to support 10 news organizations in partnering with creators.
- Funding comes from the Esther A. & Joseph Klingenstein Fund, the Google News Initiative, and Comcast NBCUniversal.
- (More creator-related news below…)
- Blandin Foundation awarded a three-year $490K grant to the Department of Public Transformation to strengthen civic engagement in rural Minnesota.
- MacArthur Foundation awardeda three-year $100K general operating grant to Media Impact Funders!Grants, grants, grants!
- Einhorn Collaborative awarded $10M (!) to C&S (formerly the Institute for Citizens and Scholars) to support campus initiatives to counter polarization.
- Hear from Heather Gerken of the Ford Foundationon Daniel Stid’s podcast, “The Art of Association.”
- Brian Eule, the Heising-Simons Foundation’s new President and CEO announceda new grantmaking initiative focused on journalism!
- Minnesotans! Nominate someone for the McKnight Foundation’s Virginia McKnight Binger Heart of Community Honor($10K).
- NPR received $113M in two gifts from Connie Ballmer ($80M) and an anonymous donor ($33M).
- And…shoutout to Public Media Company’s Public Media Bridge Fundwhich has raised $73M to disburse to public media outlets jeopardized by the elimination of funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
- Inside Philanthropy coverage here!
- And…shoutout to Public Media Company’s Public Media Bridge Fundwhich has raised $73M to disburse to public media outlets jeopardized by the elimination of funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
- On Tuesday, the Ford Foundationannounced $60M in new funding to support democracy, via President Heather Gerken’s presidential reserves.
- Organizations publicly mentioned as recipients in Ford’s press release and Gerken’s Chronicle of Philanthropy op edinclude:
- Pillars of the Community, Veterans for all Voters, All Voting is Local, Campaign Legal Center, and We the Veterans Military Foundation.
- Also, check out the recording of Gerken’s conversation with The Chronicle of Philanthropy CEO Stacy Palmer.
- Organizations publicly mentioned as recipients in Ford’s press release and Gerken’s Chronicle of Philanthropy op edinclude:
What to Read & Listen to:
- Given the happeningsin Ohio…a reminder that Protect Democracy has a great toolkit for nonprofit organizations facing government investigations! It includes:
- Also re: Ohio, check out #HandsOffOhio!
- Westminster Foundation for Democracyis looking for orgs specializing in democratic governance for a Preferred Supplier list of Expert Partners.
- Read more and apply here!
- Great statement and call to action from Patagonia about the SAVE Act and the Callais decision.
- Today’s political parties “have become hollow, campaign-driven organizations.”
- What’s the alternative? Associational party-building!
- A new report from New America’s Tabatha Abu El-Haj unpacks how New York’s Working Families Party offers a model for how parties might rebuild organizational capacity.
- “One birthday, two party planners: Freedom 250 vs. America250, explained.”
- In short:
- Freedom 250 = Trump admin,
- America250 is the nonprofit supporting the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which was established 10 years ago through an act of Congress.
- There’s been controversy about both, for different reasons.
- The Semiquincentennial Commission controversy is very well explained on its Wikipedia page.
- Freedom 250 had almost all of its musical acts drop outover the past few days.
- S. There’s a nonprofit planning “FreedomFest,” a musical celebration of a pro-democracy, pluralist vision of America’s future.
- Drop me a line if you’d like to learn more!
- In short:
- What’s the purpose of public education? And what’s its connection to democracy?
- A new series in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, supported by the Hewlett Foundation’s education program and the Stuart Foundation, “Renewing Public Education’s Purpose,” explores those questions.
- The series includes: “Schools as Shared Civic Infrastructure” by Generation Citizen’s Elizabeth Clay Roy, and “Education and Its Public Purposes” by Danielle Allen.
- A new series in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, supported by the Hewlett Foundation’s education program and the Stuart Foundation, “Renewing Public Education’s Purpose,” explores those questions.
- How can 501(c)(3) public charities engage in ballot initiative campaigns while staying within legal guidelines?
- Alliance for Justice’s “Seize the Initiative: A Legal Guide on Ballot Measures for Nonprofits and Foundations” is a great resource to find out!
- Helpful data from a new(ish) kid on the block, Equal Futures, on how the U.S. compares to other OECD countries on voting rights!
- Biiiig month for electoral reform in the media:
- Monday’s editionof POLITICO Playbook, “The anti-gerrymanderers’ future,” was all about electoral reform. (PDF here.)
- (And it included quotes from folks at FairVote, Protect Democracy, Common Cause, and more.)
- On May 19th, Lee Drutman was onThe Ezra Klein Show talking about proportional representation.
- Monday’s editionof POLITICO Playbook, “The anti-gerrymanderers’ future,” was all about electoral reform. (PDF here.)
- From the FrameWorks Institute, some nifty new narrative guidance! Check out:
- Their report, “From Protecting the Status Quo to a Vision for Change: Framing Democracy in a Time of Authoritarianism,” and
- Their toolkit for practitioners, “Reviving Our Democracy: A narrative for the new political system we need,” co-created with Democracy Revival Centerand the Bloc.
- The Center for Inclusive Democracy, previously housed at the USC Price School of Public Policy, will becomean independent organization on July 1!
- Lawyers!! People with lawyer friends! 21 projects are looking for volunteersto help with voting rights and fair elections work!
- Very neat new database of research on local news: the Local News Research Hub.
- (It’s co-created by Rebuild Local News and Syracuse University’s Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship!)
- A Webby for the democracy space! (Actually, two!)
- Congratulations to OpenSecrets for winning best website at The Webby Awards in the Government & Associations category! (And winning the People’s Voice Award in the same category!)
- Announcements from News Creator Corps(NCC), including:
- A Creator Safety Initiativefocused on protests, demonstrations, emergencies, and crisis reporting,
- A legal defense fund for creators facing legal threats,
- A nationwide network of NCC trained, accredited, and accuracy-focused creators called The Collective, and
- A new Rural Creator Fellowshipfocused on communities affected by local news collapse and news deserts. Damn!!
- From Urban Rural Action, Conservative Leadership for a United America(CLUA), a national virtual cohort to “strengthen the Republic and prevent political violence ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.”
- Community foundation peeps! Big reportfrom CFLeads, the Rhode Island Foundation, the National Civic League: “Community Foundations for Civic Health: Learning & Action in 2025 and Directions for 2026.”
- A deep dive into strategy, impact, and learning for democracy orgs, from folks with international experience (Brendan Halloran and Suvarna Hulawale)!
- Check out their discussion paper, published in Expand Democracy.
- A big thank you to Lisa Quay for shouting outDemocracy Notes’ field-building efforts!
- From Rachel Kleinfeld, the factson political violence in the U.S. in 2026.
- Congrats to D-HUB on the launch of their new “Anti-Authoritarian Toolkit!”
- It’s National Library Week! Help Shamichael Hallman with a new writing project…share your library love via a short letter!
- Do Trump-era protests move elections in the U.S.? Aninteresting new paperusing data from the Crowd Counting Consortium says no.
- Congratulations to the Alliance for Higher Education’s inaugural cohortof fellows!
- They’re ~distinguished scholars~ who will spend the next 12 months (in part) strengthening the connection between higher ed and democracy work.
- Where is the Trump coalition at when it comes to the war in Iran? A new pollfrom More in Common breaks it down!
- I laughed. I cried. I understood what all the Ryan Gosling hype was about.
- But does Project Hail Mary’s story help democracy?
- Democracy 2076 reviewedthe movie through the lens of their work on narratives in the entertainment industry. We love a pop culture crossover!
- (There are spoilers, beware!!)
- Early-career election administrators!! Apply forKeep Our Republic’s upcoming cohort of “Next Generation of Election Leaders” — exciting!
- From Joanna Kenty at The Renovator, another excellent civic education news roundup!
- Orbán lost! Really nice roundupof analyses of Hungary’s election by Dan Froomkin in Heads Up News.
- We love a merger!! Local Policy Laband Spread the Vote have become programs of National Civic League! Congrats all around!
- We love an acquisition!! Hearken, which helps local news outlets engage with their communities, is now part of Indiegraf.
- Even better, Hearken’s founder, Jenn Brandel, wrote this incredible reflection: “My 33-Year-Old Self Had Questions. My 44-Year-Old Self Finally Has Answers… and News!”
- From the Packard Foundation, Michelle Shevin, Kelly Born, and Fiona Kirby’s new report: “AI and Democracy: Perspectives from an Emerging Field.”
- The American Enterprise Institute launched “The First Branch Society (FBS),” which is:
- A bipartisan community of congressional staffers “dedicated to strengthening Congress and restoring its central place in the American constitutional system.”
- The goal is to “enable Congress to reinforce its institutional capacities and reassert its constitutional prerogatives.”
Events:
- Here is a 2026 roundup of democracy-related events.
Transitions, transitions:
- Ryan P. Haygood is nowPresident and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
- Beauregard Pattersonhas joined Democracy Defenders Action as a Litigation Counsel, Election and Voting Rights!
- Guillermo Creamer Jr. is Neighbor to Neighbor MA’snew Development Director!
- Meto Koloski has been promotedto Chief Advancement Officer at Freedom House!
- Nathaniel Erb isRebuild Local News’ new Director of Government Affairs and Partnerships!
- Avery Davis-Roberts is now Director of the Democracy Program at The Carter Center!
- Natalie Montelongojoined the Marguerite Casey Foundation as Director in the Office of the President.
- Tom Baker IVfounded Ground Truth NC, departing from Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton University.
- Morgan Marlerjoined Young Futures Org as Director of Partnerships!
- Jacques Hebert is nowVice President of Communications and Public Affairs at McKnight Foundation!
- Adam LeClair joinedthe Board of Directors at Healthy Democracy!
- Alison Leal Parkeris now Program Director, Democracy & Environment at Crankstart (after 24 years at Human Rights Watch)!
- Alex Edgaris the SHRM Foundation’s inaugural Losey Visiting Voice!
- Neetha Tangiralajoined the Piper Fund at Proteus Fund, managing the Protect Dissent Network! Congrats on six months!
- David Kronig joinedCampaign Legal Center as Senior Legal Counsel for voting rights!
- Matthew Vanderwerffjoined Weave: The Social Fabric Project at the Aspen Institute!
- Cole Speidelis now Senior Program Manager at FIDE – North America! Congrats on the promotion!
- Jerad Morey transitionedfrom Director of Strategic Relationships to Director of the Office of Civic Dialogue at Minnesota Council of Churches!
- Syd Abadis now Field Director at Next Up Oregon!
- The Citizen Service namedRashawn Davis as Executive Director!!
- LOTS of promotions over at Generation Citizen! Congratulations y’all!
- Megan Brandonis now Executive Director, South!
- Sarah Kellyis now Chief Development & Growth Officer!
- Kate Mentzis now Senior Program Manager, Mid-Atlantic Region!
- Adam Westbrookis now Senior Program Director, New England!
- Faith Carbonis now Program Director, New England!
- Sunaina Raois now Senior Director, Strategic Learning and Evaluation!
- Teresa Mozur is now Senior Manager, Media Relations at Democracy Defenders Action!
- Hadar Harrisis transitioning from PEN America to Executive Director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA Law School!
- Andrew Ansel is nowVice President of Philanthropy at Issue One!
- Ross Weisman is nowCommunications Manager at Committee of Seventy!
- Joy Linand Luba Mullen have joined the Development & Strategic Partnerships Team at Allbritton Journalism Institute!
- Barbara Davimorais now a Senior Research Manager at the Center for Tech and Civic Life!
- Demelza Baerjoined Campaign Legal Center as Senior Director of Policy!
- New kids on the block! A warm welcome to two new orgs:
- The Democracy Rising Collaborativelooks to mobilize and engage the legal field and civic leaders for “collective action to defend democracy, the Rule of Law and the American way of life.”
- And the Civic Futures Institute, led by Lisa Duty (previously with Leadership Ohio), which aims to“restore civic imagination and help people reclaim their agency to shape the future of American democratic life.” Neat!
- Jody Chong is nowCity Bureau‘s Executive Director!
- A nifty pair of transitions:
- Anna Nielsenis now Vice President of Advancement at Civic Bridgers!
- Adam Phillipsis transitioning out of his role as CEO of Interfaith America, and Amber Hacker and Mary Ellen Giess are now Managing Directors!
- Sierra Sangetti-Daniels(formerly with News Futures) is now a 2026 Gloria’s Foundation Fellow and will continue to lead People’s Perception Project (P3)!
- David Greenis now Interim Organizing Director of Partners in Democracy!
- Caroline Ross is nowCOO of Public Media Company!
- Alana Perssonhas transitioned from communications consultant at RepresentWomen to its full-time Communications Director!
- Kassie Phebillohas joined OutVote HQ as Programming Director!
- Margaret Dylus-Yukins is nowSenior Counsel, Ethics at the Campaign Legal Center!
- Kristin Ford is now Vice President, Communications at Campaign Legal Center!
- Louisa Imperiale has joined American Promise as a Senior Advisor!
- Former CEO of the Skoll Foundation Don Gips is now a Senior Advisor at More Perfect!
- Hayden Richardson has joined Unify America as Senior Director of Strategic Relations!
- Soheïla Comninos is now a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at Accountability Lab!
- Talia Marcus is now Director of Subscription Strategy and Product at Democracy Docket!
- Matt Stempeck has joined the Evens Foundation as their new Director of Technology & Democracy!
That’s all for now. Be sure to subscribe to receive Gabe’s Democracy Notes regularly.
Gabriel Lerner is Author of Democracy Notes and Editor of Democracy Notes Perspectives.
