Democracy Guidelines
The Joyce Foundation’s Democracy Program seeks to build a more equitable democracy by investing in policies to protect and expand voting rights, fair representation, and accurate census data. The brief description below explains our approaches to this work and the types of projects we seek to fund as part of our 2021-2025 strategy. For any questions you may have about our work or to inquire about applying for funding, please feel free to reach out to [email protected].
OUR APPROACH
Voting Rights and Elections
Protecting voting rights and well-run elections are the very heart of a functioning democracy. Elections should be free, fair, accessible, and trusted. Yet, far too often, our elections fall short of that aspiration. We will support two interrelated areas of work within this area: (1) protect and expand voting rights and access to the vote, and promote tested elections best practices; and (2) support research and policy solutions to remedy voting barriers that are a product of systemic racism or have discriminatory impact. Both initiatives will encompass work throughout the policy spectrum – research and testing, public education and engagement, policy and legal advocacy, support for implementation, and evaluation and refinement.
Fair Representation
In a healthy democracy, representation should be determined by the electorate in a fair, transparent, and accountable process. Our approach here involves two initiatives.
First, we will support adoption and implementation of fair redistricting policies and practices within the Great Lakes states. We will support proactive efforts to achieve reform, as well as implementation in states that have adopted redistricting reform to help them run effectively and to learn from their experiences. We will also support defensive work to push back against gerrymandering and other efforts to draw districts behind closed doors.
Second, we will explore the need for reforms to other laws or policies that undermine voters’ ability to determine who represents them. The broader representation work encompassed in this second initiative is likely to begin with research to identify and assess other policies that undermine representation, and then lead to engagement and advocacy once recommended reforms are identified.
Census Data Accuracy
The 2020 decennial census experienced multiple complex problems that impacted census operations and, ultimately, appears to have impacted the quality of census data. The Foundation will support three census-related initiatives: (1) assess the impact of 2020 census problems on data quality, including the extent of any inaccuracies overall and with respect to specific subpopulations; (2) support corrective action to remedy census data integrity and alternative options if census data is too flawed for certain uses; and (3) policy improvements for future censuses gleaned from assessment of the 2020 census.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Does Joyce fund voter registration or get out the vote work? Yes, but only within certain limitations. Joyce has to follow special rules that apply to private foundations, which generally cannot make project grants to fund voter registration unless the project meets very narrow exceptions – it must take place in five or more states and during more than one election cycle (note a primary and general election for the same office counts as the same cycle). Joyce does support other permissible, related activities including public education about the voter registration process and advocacy to improve voter registration policy. For more information about the voter registration limitations on private foundations, see Bolder Advocacy’s helpful one-pager. Other nonpartisan voter education, engagement, and get out the vote programs conducted by 501(c)(3) organizations may be considered for funding if those programs are part of an overall project aligned with Joyce’s voting rights strategy described above.
Do you support civics education or civic engagement? Mostly no. We do not work on civics education or general civic engagement. The only exception is if a project is part of an education and engagement strategy related to one of our three focus areas (see above) or is focused on addressing barriers to voting that are a by-product of systemic racism. One such example is Democracy Program funding to support implementation of Illinois’ “Unlock Civics” law that incorporates civics and voting education in state corrections settings and removes barriers to voting for returning citizens and citizens held in county jails.
Do you support high school or college student voter engagement? Yes, both the Foundation’s Democracy Program and Education and Economic Mobility Program support student voter engagement. To qualify for the Democracy Program, we look for projects that seek to remove barriers to student voting or that improve voting and elections policies to make voting more accessible to students. To qualify for the Education and Economic Mobility Program, we look for efforts by college students to improve state higher education policy. If you are unsure which program may be better aligned with your project, please feel free to reach out to the relevant program staff to inquire.
Do you fund litigation? Yes, we do fund litigation if it aligns with our Democracy Program focus areas.
Do you fund work on other democracy subjects such as money in politics, fair courts, government accountability, or civil discourse? No, our Democracy Program work is currently focused on voting rights and elections, redistricting and representation, and census data accuracy only.
If I want to submit a request a funding, what would be an appropriate amount? Ultimately, it's up to each applicant to decide on an appropriate request amount based on the specifics of the project, but we can provide some context that may help inform your request. While there are exceptions, typical Democracy Program grants tend to be in the $25,000-$100,000 per year range for one-time or state-specific projects to approximately $200,000 per year for larger multistate projects. The majority of our Democracy Program grants are for one year or two years. We do not typically provide general operating grants.
Do you support events? Occasionally, if the event is relevant to the Democracy Program’s three focus areas described above. Please contact Democracy program staff to discuss prior to submitting a letter of inquiry.