As foundations and donors step up giving to bolster American democracy, some nonprofit leaders are worried that grant makers are too focused on “technocratic” fixes like expanding motor-voter laws or voter-registration campaigns that culminate on Election Day. Instead, they argue that philanthropy’s most important challenge lies at a deeper, more fundamental level: teaching people, especially those who have been most marginalized, how to be more active citizens.
A growing number of grant makers of all ideologies see restoring constructive dialogue among citizens and fairness at the ballot box as vital to their causes.
“People aren’t born with the capacity for citizenship,” says Hahrie Han, founding director of the Stavros Niarchos Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. “It has to be cultivated.”
The institute was created in 2017 with a $150 million gift from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation with the goal of shedding light on how and why civic discourse breaks down in societies and how to overcome polarization.
It is one of many philanthropic efforts to educate Americans about democracy. Conservative groups are putting their money into efforts to help people with different viewpoints devise solutions to problems and to better understand how democracy works. Meanwhile, some progressive grant makers are working to support people who tend not to vote (and victims of voter-suppression efforts) to be more effective politically, not just when it’s time to cast a ballot but during off-election years, too.
It’s All About Power
Among the most influential progressive donors are the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Ford Foundation, and Open Society Foundations.
Open Society made about $100 million in democracy grants during 2015 and 2016. During the current two-year budget cycle, the foundation plans to increase that figure to $250 million, a reflection of the grant maker’s concern about the state of democracy in the United States. A major focus: helping grassroots organizations develop political muscle throughout the year, not just on Election Day.
“Democracy is not about elections, it’s about power,” says Tom Perriello, a former Virginia congressman who directs the grant maker’s domestic programs. “It’s about whether people actually have the power to hold their government accountable.”
Rockefeller Brothers Fund has also been placing a greater emphasis on building movements of people who enthusiastically participate in democracy. Often the grants are for general operating support, and grantees use the funds to educate policy makers and hold teach-ins and listening sessions about public-policy issues. Doing so helps build “behaviors and a culture” of democratic participation, says Keesha Gaskins-Nathan, director of the fund’s democratic programs. Rockefeller Brothers also steers some of its democracy-building money to nonprofits that push to take money out of politics or make it easier to vote.
Like Open Society and Rockefeller Brothers, the cornerstone of the Ford Foundation’s work is building leaders at grassroots organizations that represent people who have been underrepresented in the political process — whether they are white people in remote rural areas or people of color in major cities — and supporting grassroots coalitions.
As it focuses on movements, Ford has largely phased out its support for get-out-the-vote efforts over the past several years. The boom-and-bust cycle of funding, tied to the election cycle, made it hard for voter drives to make a lasting difference, says Sanjiv Rao, Ford’s director of civic engagement and government. “It’s an important strategy,” he says. “It’s an important tactic. But it’s more limited than the broader change we’re trying to catalyze. We’re really trying to shift beyond a policy campaign mind-set to more of a durable civic leadership mind-set.”
Conservative Approach
Some conservatives scoff at the kinds of work Ford and others do to target specific segments of the population to get active in civic affairs.
Adam Kissel, head of the civic-engagement program at the Philanthropy Roundtable, an organization that represents conservative donors, said foundations would accomplish more by backing broad-based civic literacy efforts. More people need a basic knowledge of the U.S. Constitution and the American political system, says Kissel.
“People don’t have all that much of a smell test for distinguishing demagoguery and tyranny from healthy democracy. But through philanthropy, I have hope that people will internalize a small number of core principles of American government that are unifying,” he says, including a system of checks and balances and the protection of minority rights.
The Charles Koch Foundation backs programs that bring people of different backgrounds and viewpoints together in what it hopes will be a constructive dialogue.
“We’re about to become a majority-minority country for the first time, and that’s incredibly exciting,” says Sarah Ruger, Koch’s director of free-expression efforts. “But when people are confronted with the new and different, they tend to respond with fear and ‘otherize’ one another. And the negative reactions are amplified by social media. But fundamentally, I think people want to cooperate.”
Measuring Impact
One of the biggest challenges facing grant makers’ bankrolling efforts to build movements and promote civic education is measuring impact.
While it’s relatively easy to gauge the results of voter-turnout efforts, for example, it’s much harder to assess whether grant making has helped bring a sense of decorum and deliberation into politics gone haywire.
Despite such challenges, Kristen Cambell, executive director of Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement, a network of grant makers interested in strengthening democracy, says it’s worth supporting efforts to teach people the skills and attributes that promote a vital democracy.
Developing so-called soft skills such as critical thinking, respecting people with different beliefs, and the ability to solve complex problems helps people feel that their voice matters, she says, and that they have the ability to make a difference in society.
Teaching those skills is as important as teaching technology, math, and science — areas that have gotten a lot more attention from grant makers that focus on education. Cambell has gathered nearly three dozen grant makers to consider how to do more to support nonprofits that seek to educate Americans about how to function in a deliberative democracy. The group has no set plans, but Cambell is encouraged. “We have underinvested in the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that prepare people to be engaged in civic life and the democratic process,” she says.
