This article was originally published on The Bridgespan Group and can be viewed here.
American Democracy has always been an ambitious and complicated experiment. While questions about what philanthropy can do to strengthen democracy in the United States may be particularly salient in the wake of a contentious US election season, these issues predate this moment and would have been pressing regardless of the outcome in November 2024.
Still, The Bridgespan Group is increasingly hearing from donors wrestling with the questions: What kind of contributions matter? Where to go from here? We have spent months—before and after the election—talking to donors, field leaders, and advisors, reading what others have written, and reflecting on our own work to try to provide insight into those questions.
Many others have written about the challenges we face—pointing out problems with the ways our media, education, economic, electoral, lobbying, judicial, and philanthropic funding systems work.1 In this article, we are going to focus on some of the things that are working and what donors can learn from them.
“We are in an existential fight with those who oppose our vision of a more inclusive multiracial democracy. And if we lose too many battles in that fight, it will create a level of damage and harm that could take a generation or more to recover from.”
There may not be a simple recipe or formula that can guarantee the path to a truly multiracial, pluralist democracy—one where people of different races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, genders, and religions are respected and empowered in the civic space. However, it is not only possible to build such a democracy that works for everyone—there are bright spots where it is already happening. In fact, many people who now experience the greatest threat are also proactively leading the charge, benefiting the broader society by offering a vision of what democracy can look like. And much of that work takes place outside of the structures of elections and focuses on how communities can be heard and included.
We found four ways such work is already happening on the ground and share examples that bolster our optimism. Some of these efforts are finding common cause around issues; others are shaping narratives to be more inclusive; some use elections to shift power and support pluralism; and some focus on supporting leaders and communities to wield power once they have it.
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It is also important to note that the desire for a democracy that works for everyone is not a partisan pursuit. In fact, not getting trapped by a party or partisan framing allows multiracial, pluralist efforts to thrive.
Overall, from our discussions, we found three big lessons for donors:
- Go long:Building a multiracial, pluralistic democracy is the work of decades if not generations. The challenges are deep, and organizations doing this work need funder partners who can think long-term and remain committed, even if the work is not completed in a single election cycle.
- Go local:Leaders are increasingly seeing the importance of building democracy from the community level up, fostering trust in systems and collaboration among different groups around shared interests.
- Don’t go it alone: Collaborate with the leaders on the front lines and fellow donors. There are existing networks and collaboratives looking for support and offering opportunities to learn and coinvest.
Angela Glover Blackwell, founder of PolicyLink, has written that building a thriving multiracial democracy will be “the next great US innovation.” It serves not only as a stark reminder that a democracy that works for everyone has not yet existed—but also provides the kind of audacious North Star that philanthropy is built for. We invite donors to embrace the opportunity.
Notes:
- Justin Gest and Tyler Reny, What Promotes Pluralism in America’s Diversifying Democracy?, New Pluralists, June 2023; Lukas Haynes, “Philanthropy to Protect US Democracy,”Stanford Social Innovation Review, October 13, 2022; Connor Carroll, William (Zev) Berger, Hanh La, and Katherina M. Rosqueta,We the People: A Philanthropic Guide to Strengthening Democracy, The Center for High Impact Philanthropy, School of Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania, 2019; Daniel Stid, Taking Democracy for Granted: Philanthropy, Polarization and the Need for Responsible Pluralism, SNF Agora Institute, Johns Hopkins University, July 14, 2024; Mohit Mookim, Rob Reich, Nadia Roumani, and Ayushi Vig, “How Can Philanthropy Help Rehabilitate Democracy?,” Stanford Social Innovation Review, January 6, 2021.
