A recent survey of democracy funders presents a pessimistic picture about the state of American democracy and where the country is headed. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of respondents — 80% — reported the country’s democratic system is broken and in need of fundamental reform. But just how the democracy philanthropy ecosystem should respond is an open question.
The survey, released in late March based on research conducted in two waves by Democracy Fund in collaboration with Freedman Consulting, found that 94% of those who took part reported being unsatisfied with the way democracy is working in the United States. The poll also found that 70% believe philanthropy does not currently possess the strategies needed to significantly improve democracy in America.
Democracy donors are deeply worried about threats to their grantees, civil society as a whole, and to philanthropy itself, noted Joe Goldman, president of Democracy Fund, which was created by billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar in 2011. Surveyed funders were very concerned about the potential harassment and intimidation of journalists (77%), opposition leaders and activists (74%) and pro-democracy nonprofits (66%), according to the poll. Sixty-eight percent said they were very concerned about pro-democracy organizations facing legal challenges and 51% said they were very concerned about legislative and regulatory scrutiny.
“This is a soul-searching moment for the field,” said Robert Griffin, Democracy Fund’s associate director of research.
In the first wave of polling, in the fall of 2024, 156 people responded to emailed questions; a further 151 responded in the second wave of queries in February and March of 2025. Even without a consensus on the best path forward, funders have begun to change course, Goldman noted. Donors are now making more flexible funding available (52%, up from 43% in October 2024), helping grantees respond to legal challenges and scrutiny (47%, up from 30% last fall), and supporting grantees with improved cyber and physical security (34%, up from 23% last fall).
The survey found funders split about philanthropy’s efforts in the past to strengthen democracy and the role it can play in rising to the occasion. “In terms of strategies, though, funders aren’t split: We don’t have them,” said Griffin.
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Poll suggests philanthropy needs to pick up the pace
There was no clear consensus on strategies for the future, according to the survey report. Respondents were generally dissatisfied with past efforts employed by democracy philanthropy and were also divided between seeing a need to double down or write a completely new playbook. Many expressed support for countering authoritarian threats, grassroots movement-building, and developing a robust media ecosystem to help better inform the public, the survey noted.
Survey respondents agreed there is a need to act and to respond to threats — including legal, physical and cybersecurity threats — for both grantees and grantors. Other major concerns: cuts to government institutions and workforce, and harassment and intimidation of pro-democracy nonprofits and funders — and with good reason, given recent administration actions.
While there isn’t a strong, unified movement of resistance — yet — there is agreement around what’s not working and the belief that tinkering with the status quo won’t cut it. As one anonymous survey respondent wrote: “Continuing to behave politely and simply moving from one cycle to the next, as though slight modifications to previous strategies will suffice, has already proven catastrophic.”
The pace — or lack thereof — at which philanthropy responds to threats was seen as a problem by survey respondents. Wrote a different participant: “The threats to U.S. democracy are happening in real time, and philanthropy has historically not been equipped at responding quickly to evolving/rapidly changing dynamics like this.”
Philanthropy is unprepared for “the speed at which norms are getting erased, rule of law in being threatened, and corporations are acquiescing,” another respondent wrote.
The survey included responses from 38 funders who donated $1 million or less in democracy-related giving between 2020 to 2023; 42 who gifted between $1 and $10 million during the same time period, and 48 that distributed more than $10 million in that three-year window. For its part, the Democracy Fund and its partner organization Democracy Fund Voice have committed almost $425 million in grants since 2014 to support grassroots efforts in the trenches to strengthen U.S. democracy.
The results were gathered from a range of funding entities, with private foundations, individual donors, donor networks and collaboratives, funding intermediaries, and donor/philanthropic advisors responding to questions. Democracy Fund will likely circle back with survey participants in fall 2025 and take their temperature again.
Right now, many donors are asking hard questions about the work they support. Only about 4 in 10 (42%) said they will not be revisiting their overall funding strategy. Compared to an earlier survey of democracy donors, optimism about the role of philanthropy in strengthening democracy declined by 21 points, from 64% in October 2024 to 43% in February 2025.
That said, there was some optimism among survey respondents about their own organizations, with large foundations and pooled funders more optimistic than donor advisors and networks. Few democracy donors, though, think that pausing existing programs is the way forward. Said Griffin: “They’re not flipping over the apple cart.”
While 89% of respondents said that they are concerned about a significant decline in donor funding for democracy, the majority of foundations and pooled funds said they are planning to increase their giving (26%) relative to 2024 or maintain the same funding levels for democracy (42%). Only 10% said that their democracy giving will decline this year.
And a majority of funders believed their own organization was either somewhat prepared (61%) or very prepared (12%) to act quickly and support the field on democracy issues as they emerge — even if they also felt philanthropy as a whole is overwhelmingly unprepared, with 64% saying philanthropy is not very prepared and 16% saying not at all prepared.
“This is a group of people significantly on their back heel,” said Griffin. “It’s an unsettling time and there are multiple layers to the challenges here. There is the sense here that things need a shakeup and democracy funders are in a search of a new direction.”
