Civic engagement nonprofits say democracy needs support in between big elections. Do funders agree?
Civic engagement nonprofits believe democracy is an exercise in need of constant support — not just extra money around major major campaigns
NEW YORK — A nonprofit law group dedicated to protecting the rights of Southern voters of color had more on its plate this year than just the 2024 presidential election.
The Southern Coalition for Social Justice hosts voter registration drives and monitors election certification. Staff attorneys help run a legal hotline for voting irregularities. Teams challenge electoral maps and restrictive laws deemed unfair. It's costly, year-round work that senior counsel Mitchell Brown considers vital to participatory democracy — but also work that gets less attention outside of high-profile campaign cycles.
“A lot of people exert a lot of energy during the presidential year and it falls off for the next three to four years," Brown said. «That can’t happen. Because there’s a lot of changes that are occurring in between those four years between presidential elections.”
“There are no more off years anymore,» he added.
The coalition benefited this spring from a progressive philanthropic network organized around the belief that democracy is an exercise — not a given — in need of constant support. Led by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s Democracy Fund, petitioners pledged to reverse existing boom-and-bust dynamics where money floods politically engaged nonprofits late into election years only to dry up afterward. Beginning with the “All by April” campaign to move money early, the effort is continuing with the “Election Day to Every Day” push to shore up next year's funding.
However, according to interviews with other nonprofit leaders in the left-leaning civic space, the philanthropic sector at large
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