On Wednesday 17 April 2024, SIX hosted a public dialogue on what funders can do to strengthen democracy and invited contributions from esteemed panellists, Lisbeth Pilegaard, Chair of the Executive Committee of the European Endowment for Democracy, Lisa Witter, Co-Founder and CEO of the Apolitical Foundation and Željko Jovanović, President of the Roma Foundation for Europe.
You can find a video recording of our panel below.
During this 75-minute online discussion, we discussed why democracy needs a collective effort and evolved notions of neutrality and risk, and the role of philanthropy in changing that. We shared examples of unconventional and transformational approaches and what emerged were seven clear areas that could be funded in order to strengthen and protect our democratic cultures and institutions for the future.
These are seven areas that need urgent funding:
- New ideas as an act of democratic solidarity
Unstable political climates will threaten the impact of funders long term, yet many remain hesitant about framing their work in relation to anything ‘political’. This closes them off to new and innovative ideas that approach democracy through different lenses. There are examples of funders, like the European Endowment for Democracy, who show how to offer support as an act of democratic solidarity, focusing on people’s roles as drivers of change. If exploring a standalone ‘democracy’ programme isn’t feasible, funders could consider a democratic lens across their portfolios. For instance, offering access to basic services like education and healthcare enables people to think beyond their existing circumstances and become more politically engaged, or supporting the arts and culture can enable a shift in public opinion.
- Ecosystems and pathways for innovation
More and more philanthropies recognise the need for greater solidarity with frontline and grassroots actors and different ways of working with others to tackle the scale and complexity of the challenges we face. Funders can increase their impact in this area by nurturing key relationships (especially with governments) in order to enable greater influence and open up doors for grantees; pooling resources to share risk, information and resources; creating spaces for civic dialogue and debate to foster alliances across divides; building new leaders, policies and pathways for innovation within current systems.
“Strengthening democracy is a complex area and no one organisation or sector can do everything.”
- Collective capacity and cross-sectoral collaborations
Strengthening democracy is a complex area and no one organisation or sector can do everything. By taking a networked and asset-based approach, funders will find others who do the pieces they can’t, for instance working with non-registered groups, or younger people, or on human rights. Building trust and connection with grassroots organisations and local communities is also key. They have the deepest knowledge of problems within existing systems and which interventions are likely to work (or not).
- Countries transitioning into democratic systems
For countries transitioning from conflicts or dictatorships into stable, democratic regimes, the role of philanthropy is critical in providing support for citizen activists and advocates who are keeping the pressure up; developing policies for creating and strengthening institutions that promise justice, economic empowerment, environmental awareness and reconciliation; and holding powers to account and offering further resources, including reparations where appropriate, through international, multi-stakeholder coalitions. Democracy transitions are often slow, so the patient capital of private and individual philanthropy is often crucial.
“Philanthropy is critical in providing support for citizen activists and advocates who are keeping the pressure up.”
- Technology that resolves rather than causes issues around privacy and data
Emerging technologies have the potential to significantly harm the principles of a healthy democracy – whether that is through the misuse of people’s data for a political agenda, or the spread of misinformation to influence public opinion, or the increase of surveillance and the risk this poses to activists and grassroots groups. Yet technology also shows exciting potential to improve how democracy works and how people engage with it – by helping people fact check, access information, raise issues and debate them, benefit from direct contact with political representatives and decision making processes, register and vote, raise money, campaign, and much more. Funders can support democracy by helping people to build technology that is used as a positive force for good, helping test and take it to market more quickly than investment capital.
“Funders can support democracy by helping people to build technology that is used as a positive force for good.”
- Political leaders to uphold ethical standards and reject authoritarianism
During our webinar on this topic, Apolitical Foundation mentioned that some funders question whether funding leaders inside broken systems is the best use of their money (as opposed to changing or reforming existing systems). But there are examples, like Apolitical Foundation, that demonstrate the importance of funders investing in leadership competencies and attributes, helping to rebuild dialogue between political leaders and citizens, increasing trust in political leadership, and equipping a new generation of diverse leaders with what they need to uphold ethical standards, reject authoritarianism and respond to the world’s increasingly complex challenges.
“This is an opportunity to understand the issues that young people care about, the futures they are fighting for, to take more risks and be more vocal about things that matter.”
- The next generation of activists and leaders
Many funders recognise the need to support young people either directly, as grantees or on youth advisory boards, or indirectly by supporting voluntary sector youth organisations. This is an opportunity to understand the issues that young people care about, which may sometimes involve explicitly political aims and agendas. This can be dangerous if it runs counter to the values of dignity and respect for all, but otherwise funders may see working with young people as an opportunity to reconsider how existing operations help build, or hinder, the futures young people are fighting for, or as an invitation to take more risks and be more vocal about things that matter.
What more can we do together?
Following SIX’s 2023 Funders Retreat on uniting philanthropy to advance civic engagement and action, in partnership with the Headwaters Foundation and other local funders in Montana, we have continued thinking about the major challenges facing our global democracies today.
In the face of these challenges, we think public and private donors need to do more. But we recognise that there are several remaining questions that need further research and provocation in order to truly advance the field and fill in some of the glaring gaps.
We want to develop these questions into further research, global case studies, working groups and a longer form report. If you are interested in partnering with us on these questions, or for our upcoming European retreat, please get in touch with Josiane Smith on josiane@socialinnovationexchange.org.
We have also posted a content series exploring these topics further, which you can find here, and we kindly invite you to share this with your networks! Thank you!
