This week's Democracy Notes

Oct 30, 2024

Greetings!

I hear there’s some sort of election coming up? Intriguing…

If we get enough “yeses” I’ll send out a Zoom link for that evening.

We also launched a new Slack channel for discussion of the election! (As a reminder, the Slack is a 501(c)3 space.)

We published a few awesome pieces this past week via Democracy Takes:

Suzette Brooks Masters’ piece on Democracy Funders Network’s new report on strategic foresight.
A piece on making the grantee-foundation relationship less...awkward. (By Adam Ambrogi who worked at Democracy Fund for eight years.)
Campaign Legal Center President Trevor Potter gave us a refresher on the Electoral Count Reform Act (and why the peaceful transfer of power might be OK).

Over the past 18 months, three Omidyar-originated foundations—Democracy Fund, Omidyar Network, and Humanity United—have collaborated to reduce the risks of hate-fueled political violence.
- They’ve committed ~$2M towards this joint strategy.
- If you work on peacebuilding, violence prevention, or related issues, it’s worth reading Tom Glaisyer, Michelle Barsa, and Melanie Greenberg’s blog post in full.
Last week, OpenAI, Microsoft, and the Lenfest Institute for Journalism announced a $10M collab to help metro news enterprises use AI.
- The companies are jointly funding $5M for fellowships and $5M in credits for OpenAI and Microsoft (Azure) products.
- Lenfest announced that five newsrooms received a $500K grant (each) to hire a two-year AI engineering fellow.
Democracy Fund’s Election Day to Every Day campaign has gone from 30 to 63 signers!
- Full coverage of the campaign in the 10/11 edition of Democracy Notes.

Don’t obey autocrats in advance! Don’t let it fall to your humor columnist to endorse in a presidential race!
- Great piece by Ian Bassin and Max Potter on “anticipatory obedience” of the media to autocrats in Columbia Journalism Review.
Who wants a national popular vote? Women! (According to a new University of Massachusetts Amherst/League of Women Voters Poll).
It’s always worth preparing for the worst. Should the US transition to a more authoritarian form of government, what would be needed of the democracy space?
- Erica Chenoweth and Zoe Marks’ working paper provides a clear roadmap.
How polarized are we? The Carnegie Corporation of New York ran a three-part survey with CivicPulse.
- They also win the (entirely new and made up) Democracy Notes prettiest website of the week award.
- Key finding? Turns out, local government is far less affected by division than federal government.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s The Commons is hosting a post-election virtual event with Joe Goldman, President of Democracy Fund. 11/13, 12:30pm ET.
30 years ago, South Africa was very close to civil war. Yet they avoided it. How? Check out Beyond Conflict’s new podcast.
Webinar on Nurturing Cogenerational Social Connections on 11/13 at 3-4pm ET.
- Featuring Eunice Lin Nichols, Co-CEO of CoGenerate and Daniel Pryfogle, CEO and Co-Founder of Sympara.

Contractors! Vendors! Consultants! The American Journalism Project’s Product & AI Studio (PAIS) is looking for a bunch of support. Immediate open roles:
- Project Lead – Revenue Experimentation
- Project Lead – Civic Information
- And many more to come (see here).
Democracy 2076 Deputy Director — remote, $160K-$180K
Media Democracy Fund Executive Director — remote (East Coast US preference), $170K-$180K
The Faith & Politics Institute Chief Executive Officer — remote, $275K-$305K
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), DC (hybrid):
- Spring Policy Intern (law student) — $1K/month
- Spring Policy Intern (undergrad) — $700/month
- 2025 Policy Fellowship — $75K
- Senior Anti-Corruption Policy Counsel/Advisor — $90K-$150K
RepresentUS Anti-Gerrymandering Research Contractor — remote, Nov-Jan, $6K
Campus Compact Director of Finance and Administration — Boston (hybrid), $80K-$105K
American Journalism Project Head of Specialized Support — remote, $184K-$203K
Press Forward Grantee Engagement and Support Manager — remote, $150K-$170K
Center for Tech and Civic Life Senior Program Associate, Professional Development Team (PDT) — remote, $66K
Heartland Fund Strategic Partnerships Director — remote, $150K-$205K
American Promise Chief Communications Officer — remote, no $ info

Richard Sheppard is Generation Citizen’s new Program Manager, West!
Tracy Baim is Press Forward Chicago’s inaugural Executive Director. She brings more than 40 years of experience in community journalism to the role.
Heather Koslov is the League of Women Voters’ new National Development Director! She was previously development director at The Sentencing Project.

Submit your job transitions here!

Can’t get enough of Democracy Notes? Join the Slack community!

Take care,

Gabe