Welcome back!
For those joining for the first time, I’m Gabe Lerner. My goal is to be a thoughtful curator of your attention — your most valuable resource. (While sharing the best jobs, funder intel, and articles that I find.)
If Democracy Notes is useful to you, share it with a democracy friend or colleague!
There’s a new section in today’s newsletter: “What’s happening in philanthropy.” In last week’s poll, folks found the section it replaces to be least useful — so it’s gone!
Democracy Notes 2/28
What’s happening in philanthropy:
($$$)
The Trust for Civic Life is now accepting nominations for their initial grant cycle.
This grant cycle is focused on rural “hubs” — anchor institutions, community foundations, nonprofit networks, or small businesses — that serve as trusted intermediaries for building local civic programming.
Funding members include: Omidyar Network, Stand Together, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The Hewlett Foundation shared this 2024 priorities document. I found it useful but a tad bit hard to decipher.
Why does the announcement of a Trust and Safety Tooling Consortium at Columbia University matter for the democracy space?
You know those trust and safety teams that Facebook, Twitter (X, whatever), and others have gutted? Remember how much misinfo there’ll be this year?
Hewlett, Omidyar Network, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, and others banded together to fix that by creating a civil society initiative focused on online safety for the public good.
What to read:
(The big news)
Why do I keep citing Eric Ward? Because he’s always on point!
Last week, he wrote about the death of Alexei Navalny. Ward and Navalny were consecutive recipients of the Train Foundation’s Civil Courage Prize (Ward in 2021, Navalny in 2022).
In his piece, What I Learned from Alexei Navalny, Ward talks about how Navalny’s example taught him to embrace the shifts in his positions over time:
“Specifically, I now wholeheartedly believe and advocate for something that makes my beloved colleagues on the left cringe and sometimes fume with exasperation: Echoing Navalny, I now believe we progressives must drop our demands that all our allies agree with us on every issue. We must make space for those seeking to defend democracy even if they also express views we consider outside our personal political comfort zone.
…
Like Navalny the leader, I believe the fight for inclusive democracy calls for a broad-based coalition of nationalists, liberals and progressives who reject racism and embrace universal suffrage and fundamental Constitutional rights.”
Damn. Spot on.
If you’d like to learn more, here’s a great profile of Ward from a couple weeks ago. And here’s his lecture that I included in the first issue of Democracy Notes.
What to watch/listen to/attend:
(Events, podcasts, and more)
This ain’t Texas (credit: Beyoncé), but that’s where Chip Roy (R-TX) is from. This episode of the Politics in Question podcast is a very in-the-weeds discussion of the House rules and whether the House is broken or not.
It’s rare to hear folks in the democracy space interview a sitting elected Republican. It’s worth a listen for that reason alone.
Freedom House is releasing this year’s Freedom in the World report with a virtual event tomorrow morning. (10:30am ET, 2/29)
We’re going to do a whole special issue on libraries, but as a teaser, check out this virtual event on the critical role of libraries in our democracy. (2pm ET, 3/4)
Check out PACE’s great democracy conference recaps.
In-person conference in DC on digital deliberative democracy. 3/15.
Where to work:
(Jobs, jobs, jobs!)
Are you a right-of-center fan of democracy reform? R Street Institute is hiring a Governance Fellow focused on election policy — remote, no $ info
Democracy Fund Senior Research Associate— DC, $112K
Protect Democracy Talent and Culture Specialist — remote, $69K - $81K
The Center for Democracy and Technology Equity in Civic Technology Fellow — DC (remote possible), $70K - $115K
Veterans or military family members! With Honor is hiring a Deputy Comms Director — DC, $75K - $85K
The Center for Popular Democracy Co-Deputy Chief of Campaigns — remote, $120K - $135K
Thanks, as always, for your attention. If you found this valuable, please forward it to a democracy friend or colleague!
P.S. Democracy Notes started a podcast! If you want to know what went down at the 2024 Knight Media Forum in Miami last week, check out this episode where I debrief with Elizabeth Green and S. Mitra Kalita.
Hi Gabriel, how would one share job opportunities to be posted? Thank you!