With November Fast Approaching, Donors Organize a Giving Pledge for Democracy Funding
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poll workers count vote by mail ballots during Nevada's 2020 primary election. Trevor Bexon/shutterstock
This article was originally published on September 1, 2020.
Should philanthropy give more to safeguard democracy? There have always been political undertones to that question, and the situation seems murkier and more fraught than ever in 2020. Still, philanthropy’s duty to democracy—whatever that may be—is a matter of immense and immediate concern this year as unforeseen perils threaten not only the health of Americans, but the health and stability of the republic itself.
Funders haven’t been asleep at the wheel. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation and the progressive donors involved with Way to Win provide just a few recent examples of heightened philanthropic commitment to democracy work. And as this goes to print, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg just made a big announcement that they’ve committed $300 million to promote safe and reliable voting during the pandemic. While philanthropy’s overall level of commitment to a functioning democracy is arguably far lower than it should be, the unique nature of this year’s election season seems to be spurring a sizable boost in funding, particularly among left-leaning donors and foundations.
With November drawing near, a new “philanthropic collective” called One for Democracy is yet another effort that’s emerged to address the deficit. The group just announced that it has raised $40 million for work to protect voting rights and engage voters, putting it well on the way to its $100 million goal. “Protecting American democracy is the fight of our lifetime,” said investor Michael Novogratz, one of the founding donors. “Through the One for Democracy pledge, we are committed to putting power in the hands of community leaders who can help protect the 2020 elections and help pave the way for a better future.”
The One for Democracy pledge is just that: a donor or foundation’s stated commitment to contribute at least 1% of their assets to voter protection and engagement. Like the Giving Pledge, it’s an attempt to shift philanthropic culture—this time, away from a status quo where most funders shun democracy work as “too political.” But unlike the Giving Pledge, One for Democracy asks its pledgers to hustle: the 1% must go out the door in the year 2020. So far, over 70 individuals and foundations have taken the pledge, and the tempo has increased in recent weeks and months as concerns about the election mount. Though its focus is the immediate future, One for Democracy’s growth may be a window into philanthropy’s ever-evolving role as an institution adjacent to politics.
Dinner and Democracy
One for Democracy got its start as a lot of these collaborative efforts do—it grew from casual conversation. Back in March, a group of philanthropists including Michael and Sukey Novogratz realized over dinner that their donations to safeguard this year’s election didn’t match the urgency they felt about it. One for Democracy emerged from those initial conversations as a way to catalyze more election-year support for ground-level democracy organizations, both from pledgers themselves, and, hopefully, from other well-off people in their social circles.
Mike and Sukey Novogratz were among the first donors to take the pledge and help found One for Democracy as an organization this spring. Through Galaxy Gives, Mike Novogratz has channeled the proceeds of his success as a cryptocurrency investor toward criminal justice reform and other causes. One for Democracy’s other founding donors include Novogratz’s investor colleague Sam Englebardt, activist and artist Molly Gochman, and Lava Records founder Jason Flom.
Those early conversations among donors—which took place just prior to COVID’s exponential spread in the U.S.—led some into a common predicament. They wanted to give more for voter protection and engagement, but didn’t know how to do so effectively. That’s where the One for Democracy organization comes in. With input from an advisory board of six movement experts, a team led by William Watterson of Galaxy Gives oversees four funds that direct money to vetted democracy organizations. Pledgers have the choice of supporting democracy work on their own or channeling money through the funds.
In the beginning, only two such funds existed—the 501(c)(3) One for Democracy Fund and the 501(c)(4) One for Democracy Action Fund. This summer’s racial justice groundswell prompted the creation of two more (c)(4) funds—the Justice Fund and the Latinx Fund. Organizations in the Justice Fund are Black-led and/or Black-centered and support a range of political organizing to empower Black communities. Those in the Latinx Fund do the same for Latinx communities. In addition to administering the funds, One for Democracy employs donor organizers to support pledgers in their democracy giving wherever helpful.
According to Jason Franklin, a philanthropy advocate and donor organizer who serves as senior advisor to One for Democracy, the initiative is meant to complement efforts like the Movement Voter Project and Way to Win, whose work involves pointing donors toward the most effective ground-level democracy organizations. While its funds do something similar, “One for Democracy’s lane is asking people to support with 1% of their assets, in the style of the Giving Pledge and the Founders Pledge,” Franklin said. “The percent-based frame offers a way to engage foundations and donors to ensure you sustain the infrastructure of democracy.”
Diverse Donors, Targeted Funding
The 70-plus funders who’ve taken the One for Democracy pledge include individuals as well as foundations. In addition to the founding donors already mentioned, just a few of the other individual donors include Franklin himself (he says he’s committed 2.5% of his assets) as well as Pritzker scion and Blue Haven Initiative founder Liesel Pritzker Simmons, Chorus Foundation founder Farhad Ebrahimi, Bert and Mary Meyer Foundation founder Barbara Meyer, hedge fund manager Jeremy Mindich, Sagner Family Foundation president Deborah Sagner, and entrepreneur Gideon Stein.
One for Democracy encourages its pledgers to spread the word among family, friends and networks. “Once I signed, I was inspired to reach out to many of my friends and colleagues, motivating over a dozen others to join,” said Laurie Emrich, a One for Democracy donor who serves on the board of the Global Fund for Women. She added, “I’m not done yet with my outreach, and I hope we can get a hundred or more signers to join as soon as possible.”
Foundations that have taken the One for Democracy pledge include the David Rockefeller Fund, the Woodcock Foundation, the Panta Rhea Foundation and the Langeloth Foundation. Franklin says that additional foundations are in the process of making the commitment, which, of course, can exceed 1% if pledgers choose. Several pledgers have come in at higher percentages—up to 5 or even 10%, according to Franklin.
Of the $40 million committed so far, only around $8 million has flowed through the four One for Democracy funds. The rest consists of direct contributions to organizations aligned with the overall mission of voter protection and engagement. About 73% of that $8 million has gone toward One for Democracy’s 501(c)(3) fund, with the remainder split between the 501(c)(4) funds.
As with the pledgers, the organizations receiving this money are too numerous to list comprehensively, but they can all be found on the One for Democracy website grouped under each of the funds. A few of the (c)(3) organizations include national outfits like the National Vote at Home Institute, the Voter Participation Center, Forward Justice, and the Center for Secure and Modern Elections. There are also a number of state-focused (c)(3) groups in the mix, like the Florida Immigrant Coalition, the Arizona Center for Empowerment, Blueprint NC and the ACLU Michigan. There appears to be a strong swing state focus, mirroring strategies at places like Way to Win and the Movement Voter Project, both of whose leaders serve on the One for Democracy advisory board.
The same can be said for the advocacy groups receiving support through One for Democracy’s (c)(4) action funds. A few examples under the main (c)(4) fund include New Florida Majority, Detroit Action and the Carolina Federation. That fund also includes national organizations like the Voter Protection Corps, the Organizing Empowerment Project and Deliver My Vote. The Justice Fund supports groups like Black Voters Matter, Free the Ballot, Michigan Liberation and the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. Latinx Fund groups include Mijente, Mi Familia Vota, Action NC and CASA in Action.
“One for Democracy is helping make sure that every American citizen has a say in where this country is headed,” said Desmond Meade, president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition. The organization seeks to educate and engage people with past felony convictions who were newly enfranchised by Florida law, and get them registered to vote. “We face huge challenges in doing so,” Meade said, “partly because of COVID and partly because the state of Florida is making it as hard as possible for returning citizens like myself to vote. O4D’s funding is helping us do the most effective type of organizing—peer-to-peer—so that we can help train returning citizens to educate other returning citizens about how to vote.”
A November 4th Question
In its current form, One for Democracy is a short-term endeavor meant to safeguard the 2020 election. But it won’t just disappear after November. Exactly how the effort will proceed is “a November 4th question,” as Franklin put it. But the hope is that One for Democracy’s pledge format will encourage funders “to continue giving year after year so we can build sustained investment in our democracy that ultimately drives the racial, economic and climate progress our world desperately needs,” Franklin said.
One for Democracy has been taking the time to introduce donors directly to the democracy groups on its roster, in the hopes of building a foundation for longer-term giving. Though it’ll be up against democracy funding’s stubborn tendency to rise in election years and fall in off years, One for Democracy has the pledge format in its favor. The Giving Pledge, after all, has shifted philanthropic culture toward greater giving, even if it hasn’t prompted the level of generosity some of us would prefer. And Franklin would know: He used to run Bolder Giving, credited as an inspiration for the Giving Pledge.
Still, efforts like One for Democracy aren’t without their detractors. In recent coverage of democracy giving in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, James Piereson of the William E. Simon Foundation characterized progressive-led democracy commitments as politics in a philanthropic guise. Something similar could, of course, be said about conservative philanthropy’s long history of (c)(3) support for right-leaning policy infrastructure. For the same Chronicle piece, DonorsTrust President Lawson Bader said, “I have a feeling both sides are positioning themselves to cry foul no matter what happens in early November.”
In the end, there’s usually a lot more space for philanthropy to influence democracy than funders tend to assume. Whether particular foundations or donors get involved is a judgement call on their part, one in which both politics and patriotism likely play a role. For the funders involved in One for Democracy, the republic now faces near-unprecedented challenges, and failure in this arena will carry over to all the other causes they care about. Given those stakes, it’s no wonder many of them feel a bit of demographic and geographic targeting is perfectly justified.
