News
Democracy and Power Fund Announces First Round of 2009 Grants
The Open Society Institute Democracy and Power Fund announced its first round of grants in 2009. A total of $3.45 million has been awarded to twelve national organizations, including several leaders in the fields of youth leadership development and community organizing. The Democracy and Power Fund, established in 2008, provides funding to organizations that build the collective power of individuals, communities, and organizations to develop and demand solutions that advance open society in the United States.
Through its strategic priorities, the fund provides capacity-building support to organizations that engage critical constituencies, nurture new leaders, and generate innovative ideas and solutions that address threats to democracy. Later in 2009, the fund will identify a small number of states in which to increase its grantmaking in order to expand open society in regions where it is most threatened.
"OSI is excited to support organizations that address some of the toughest public policy challenges in the United States," said Democracy and Power Fund Program Director Bill Vandenberg. "Through grassroots organizing efforts, and by developing new leaders in cities across the nation, the groups are advancing economic opportunity in these hard times, pressing for justice for immigrants, and increasing civic participation within communities most heavily impacted by ongoing, structural inequality," he said.
Among the new grantees are the National Training and Information Center (NTIC) and the PICO National Network, two community organizing networks with hundreds of thousands of members in cities nationwide, seeking to confront the nation's housing crisis and advance economic equity for low-income and people of color communities. Other grants were awarded to the American Rights at Work Education Fund for its work to advance workers' rights and discrimination free workplaces, and Generation Change and the Young Elected Officials Network, two of the nation's most innovative youth leadership programs, for work to develop new leaders among immigrant and people of color communities.
