On Election Day, Democracy Fund president Joe Goldman volunteered at a local polling station, returning home late to results that promised new challenges for the philanthropic movement to strengthen democracy. His organization and many others had been preparing months for the possibility of a Trump win and what they expect will be authoritarian moves at the White House. Now came the time to act.

Goldman joined Chronicle of Philanthropy CEO Stacy Palmer for our Commons in Conversation series and a wide-ranging discussion about what’s next — how funders can best support grassroots groups, the potential for a more ideologically diverse coalition, and what to expect in the days ahead.

Funders, Goldman said, need to dispense with their usual slow-boiling strategy shifts and support the hundreds of advocacy, legal, and policy organizations that he described as “a bulwark.”

“Our grantees are out there on the front lines, and they need our support now,” he said. “And philanthropy needs to be ready to pivot with them.”

Watch the discussion on the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s YouTube channel or on LinkedIn with free registration. Below is a lightly edited A.I.-generated interview transcript.

Interview with Joe Goldman, Democracy Fund President

STACY PALMER: Welcome to the Commons in conversation. We’re so happy to have you here today, and I am delighted to introduce you to our guest, Joe Goldman, who as many of you know has been incredibly active in democracy funding. He runs the Democracy Fund. But just as important, he has spent a lot of time working in the field to make sure that more grant makers are thinking about effective ways that they can work to strengthen our democracy.

So I couldn’t think of anybody better to talk to after Election Day than Joe, because he has this broad view of the entire field, not just from the grantmaking side, but he’s extremely effective in talking to grantees and understanding what’s happening on the front lines. So we’ll bring you some of that today, although I want most of this conversation to be focused about what’s happening next.

I do want to take a minute to look backwards because philanthropists have invested a lot in making sure that elections run smoothly. And what we saw on Election Day was a sign of philanthropic investments at work to great effect, at least as far as I could tell. And Joe, I know you were actually working at a polling place as a volunteer, but also you have that bird’s eye view of what was happening across the country.

What did philanthropy’s investments do to make a difference in this election cycle and how smoothly everything ran on Tuesday?

JOE GOLDMAN: Sure. First, I wanted to say it’s really great to be here. I’m really excited to be part of this conversation. It’s an important conversation for philanthropy to be having. Look, over the last several years, philanthropy has really stepped up to the challenge of how to ensure that we are on a path towards a more inclusive, multiracial democracy. And part of that work is ensuring that we have free, fair and representative elections that produce a peaceful outcome that’s in the best interests of the American public. And we saw across this election cycle folks working on everything from combating myths and disinformation to supporting a more well-run election system for defending voting rights and supporting more diverse electorate turnout.

And, at the end of the day, this actually was a reasonably well-run election under tremendously difficult circumstances. And I think we can be grateful to hundreds and hundreds of nonprofit organizations that played a role in helping to ensure that was the case.

Read the full interview with Joe Goldman at the Chronicle of Philanthropy website.