About Lever for Change

Lever for Change is a nonprofit affiliate of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. We help donors find and fund solutions to the world’s greatest challenges. We do this in two primary ways:

• We develop and manage customized philanthropic grant challenges that award a minimum of $10 million in funding (payable over five years) to rigorously evaluated proposals and provide other tailored opportunities to help donors find and fund bold solutions capable of accelerating social change.
• We invite all Lever for Change challenge finalists to become members of our Bold Solutions Network, a growing global network that helps members connect with donors, secure additional funding and amplify their impact.

Navigating this Collection

This collection features ten projects from across Lever for Change competitions, all with work locations in the United States, that focus on democracy. Five of the featured projects are finalists from the Stronger Democracy Award, a $22 million grant competition designed and managed by Lever for Change and sponsored by members of the ICONIQ Impact community.

The Stronger Democracy Award launched in March 2021 and sought to identify bold solutions addressing systemic barriers and advancing structural reforms in three key areas of U.S. democracy: voting and elections, policymaking, and civic engagement. The award received 172 submissions from nonprofits across the U.S, and peer applicants and multi-disciplined experts evaluated submissions based on four criteria: whether they were transformative, feasible, innovative, and scalable.

Five Stronger Democracy Award finalists were announced in February 2022: Accelerate Change, Inc.; All Voting is Local; The Center for Ballot Freedom; City Bureau; and Rise Education Fund. Three awardees were then announced in July 2022: The Center for Ballot Freedom ($10 million Awardee), City Bureau ($10 million Awardee), and Accelerate Change, Inc. ($2 million Awardee).

The project tiles are organized alphabetically by lead organization name, with the Stronger Democracy Award finalists listed first. Within each tile, you will find a brief snapshot for each proposal where you can gather key organizational details and project information that was captured during the challenge process. For ease of viewing, you may click on each tile to expand the snapshot.

Next Steps

These organizations are ready to solve critical problems and are seeking resources to implement their solutions. Please contact Karen Minkel, Philanthropy Director, at Lever for Change, if you are interested in any of the following:

1. Requesting additional information about a proposal: We are happy to provide you with an organization’s full proposal and a summary of evaluations and due diligence, if available.
2. Connecting with the organizations: We can also facilitate introductions to the organizations featured on this list so you can learn more about their work and ask specific funding questions.
3. Supporting organizations: Ready to support one of these compelling solutions? We can answer questions you may have about how to best support the selected proposal(s) and/or organization(s).
4. Requesting another curated list: If you have other philanthropic interest areas, we’d be happy to share additional curated lists like this.

Please let us know if you supported one of the projects on this curated list.

We are thankful for the important role donors play in helping Lever for Change accelerate social change.

Please click the below link to let us know if you’ve supported one of the projects featured on this curated list.

Report Your Funding