The Democracy Innovation Fund is a core element of the E-Volve Foundation’s vision for a more inclusive, participatory and engaged public commons. The Fund provides grants, technical assistance, and connections to aligned efforts and other grantmakers for ongoing as well as start-up online activism, as well as creating a networked approach for solving social problems.
Fund participantsinclude:
- Individual donors
- Collegial organizations and companies
- Grantmaking Institutions
- Socially Responsible Businesses
Fund Governance
- Consistent with our belief in the power of decentralized decision-making
- Transparent investment guidelines with online voting mechanism for investments over $25,000
- Advisory Board of technology and progressive leaders to provide issue direction and community connections
The Democracy Fund 2005’s Goals are to:
- Provide grants for innovative civic engagement technologies including www.civicspacelabs.org (formerly known as Dean space), AdvoKit, and Just Vote.
- Provide common platform and technical infrastructure for “Civic Commons” suite of free community software that provides individuals and small organizations with the ability to create their own campaign web sites that include blogs, mailing lists, and petitions.
- Support the pilot testing of a leadership development workshops aimed at building the “online literacy” skills of grassroots activists
- Commission up to three original papers on the state of online advocacy and democracy efforts
Ultimate Results
- A decentralized network of tools, people, organizations and campaigns that is the bedrock for building a stronger democracy.
- Solutions to social problems
For more information, please contact Allison Fine at
allison@evolvefoundation.org.