Stronger Democracy Award
On July 7, 2022, Additional Ventures, The Patchwork Collective, philanthropists Cipora and Vlado Herman, ICONIQ Impact, and Lever for Change announced three recipients for the $22 million Stronger Democracy Award. The Award was launched in 2021 to drive structural reforms to help improve political representation and increase the participation of all citizens in the United States democratic process.
About the Stronger Democracy Award
The $22 million Stronger Democracy Award, launched on March 25, 2021, was sponsored by Additional Ventures, The Patchwork Collective, and philanthropists Cipora and Vlado Herman to address systemic barriers and advance structural reforms in three key areas: voting and elections, policymaking, and civic engagement.
The Awardees
The Stronger Democracy Award recipients are:
- Ballot Freedom Project: Building a Movement for Multiparty Democracy in America ($10 million): The Center for Ballot Freedom will build popular awareness and advance reforms to make a robust multiparty democracy possible at the local, state, and federal levels.
- The Documenters Network: A Civic Infrastructure for Connected Communities ($10 million): City Bureau’s national, people-powered network trains and pays those most impacted by public policy to document government meetings and build a community around democratic participation.
- Civic Revolution: Building a Diverse Democracy ($2 million): Accelerate Change, Inc., PushBlack, ParentsTogether Foundation, Pulso, and Noticias para Inmigrantes will develop a force of 100 million diverse citizens who consistently share news, policy, and voting information with friends and family, increasing voter participation and pressure for democratic reforms.
The award received 172 submissions from nonprofit organizations across the U.S. Applications were evaluated during a four-month review process involving peer applicants and multi-disciplined experts from around the country who evaluated the submissions based on four criteria: whether they were transformative, feasible, innovative, and scalable.
Finalists
On February 3, 2022, Lever for Change and ICONIQ Impact announced five finalists for the Stronger Democracy Award.
The other finalists are listed below in alphabetical order (follow links to their Bold Solutions Network profile pages for more information):
- All Voting is Local: Through grassroots power-building, data analysis, and strategic communications, the Leadership Conference Education Fund and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights will fight to eliminate needless and discriminatory barriers to the ballot before they happen in order to build a democracy that works for us all.
- Everyday Activist: Rise Education Fund will partner with BallotReady and Black Youth Vote! to erase gaps in civic participation among 7 million youth by scaling up an innovative model and technology for peer mobilization by 2024.
Lever for Change will include this cohort of Stronger Democracy Award finalist teams in our Bold Solutions Network ─ which matches donors with solutions to significant social challenges that were highly ranked after rigorous evaluation in one of our competitions.
The sponsors of this competition invite other philanthropists to join them in funding top-ranked organizations working to strengthen American democracy. Donors interested in providing additional funding for the Stronger Democracy Award should contact Dana Rice, Vice President of Philanthropy at Lever for Change.
