News
Democracy and Power Fund Announces Second Round of 2009 Grants
The Open Society Institute's U.S. Democracy and Power Fund announced its second round of grants for 2009. A total of $3,555,000 was awarded to twelve national organizations that address the fund's five priority funding strategies:
- Grassroots Organizing & Civic Engagement
- Leadership Development & Youth Engagement
- Policy Innovation
- Social Engagement Through Arts, Culture, & Technology
- Building State-Based Power
The Democracy and Power Fund supports organizations that build the collective power of individuals, communities, and organizations to develop and demand solutions that advance open society in the United States.
The fund provides general and capacity-building funding support to organizations that engage critical constituencies, nurture new leaders, and generate innovative ideas and solutions that address threats to democracy. The fund has, to date, primarily funded national organizations but has recently shifted its priorities to support organizations that work at national, state, and local levels to advance social change.
"OSI is proud to support dynamic organizations that work at the local, state, and national levels to take on the greatest public policy fights," said Bill Vandenberg, Democracy and Power Fund Program director.
"In the face of often overwhelming obstacles - the economic crisis and a tough fundraising climate, powerful and entrenched lobbies, and ongoing structural inequality - OSI grantees are expanding access to economic opportunity, advancing justice for immigrants, and building power for people and communities who do not yet have it," he said.
The 12 grantees include:
- National Domestic Workers Alliance, a New York City and Oakland, CA-based coalition of 15 organizations working to build the power of primarily immigrant women nannies and housekeepers to fight for fair wages and dignity in the workplace;
- Democracia-USA, a Miami, FL-based national organization that seeks to build the power of the Latina/o community through nonpartisan voter engagement and issue advocacy;
- Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, DC-based policy center that researches and reports on economic trends and develops policies to expand economic opportunity;
- Air Traffic Control Education Fund, a San Francisco, CA-based organization that creates innovative experiments to increase social change activism by connecting popular rock, rap, and country music performers - and their millions of fans - to ongoing community engagement and issue advocacy campaigns.
