Two years ago, Voqal decided to focus its funding on organizations led by people of color working to strengthen and protect democracy. The 2016 presidential election illuminated our broken democracy and just how deep the need is for funding to strengthen institutions and build power.

We settled on a grantmaking strategy that funded what we identified as 5 pillars of an equitable, multiracial democracy:

  1. Representative Government: We fund groups working to make sure that every vote is counted, every voice is heard, every person is represented and every policymaker reflects the identities and ideology of the people they serve.
  2. Fundamental Rights: We fund groups working to grant, guarantee, secure, defend, protect and preserve civil rights, civil liberties and basic freedoms for all people.
  3. Accurate and Trusted Communications: We fund groups working to make sure information is representative, accurate and trustworthy and that it enables people to hold policymakers accountable.
  4. Fair Processes: We fund groups working to make sure the way the laws are written, interpreted, and enforced are fair, impartial, non-discriminatory and transparent, and that those laws uphold fundamental rights.
  5. Participatory Engagement: We fund groups working to ensure there are more opportunities for people to shape their representative’s decisions at all levels of government.

Read the full article about funding democracy by Brenda Sears at National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.