Hope in the Dark: Four Tests for the Pro-Democracy Movement in 2026 | Nonprofit Quarterly | Civic News. Empowering Nonprofits. Advancing Justice. Our democracy has already moved into being a competitive authoritarian system in which the playing field is uneven. If we fail the four tests, then that unfairness may well get locked in for decades t...

Hope in the Dark is a new series by @joegoldman.bsky.social to explore what it means to maintain hope while honestly confronting the realities of the situation facing our democracy.

Read the first piece now and follow along on @npquarterly.bsky.social: nonprofitquarterly.org/hope-in-the-...

Funders Need to Get Dollars Out the Door for 2026 Midterms | Nonprofit Quarterly | Civic News. Empowering Nonprofits. Advancing Justice. With less than one year until the midterm elections, Democracy Fund is working to support the integrity of our voting process in 2026 by supporting nonprofits on the frontline of this work—work that c...

Early giving is one of the clearest ways funders can protect democracy.

In a new @npquarterly.bsky.social op-ed, @joegoldman.bsky.social outlines why internal processes, not external barriers, are often what slow election-year funding, and how funders can fix that now.

📢 We’re excited to announce that All by April 2026 starts TODAY!

When we first launched #AllByApril in 2024, hundreds of funders accelerated their timelines and moved $155M to support nonpartisan election-related work.

🏁 Let’s get moving and see what we can do in 2026!

allbyapril.org

Blue graphic with yellow and white text on the left side that says:The Giving Done Right Podcast. "Courage breeds more courage. Solidarity breeds more solidarity." Joe Goldman. Season 5 | Episode 6. A photo of Joe Goldman is on the right side of the graphic.

Check out Democracy Fund president @joegoldman.bsky.social’s recent interview on the Giving Done Right podcast, where he shared insights on how the pro-democracy community can move forward in these challenging times. givingdoneright.org/season-5-epi...

We must have absolutely no tolerance for violence in our political and civic life. Period. It is incumbent upon us to make clear about our absolute disapproval of political violence in any form.

We should probably develop some strategies...

In response, funders are making more flexible funding available (52%, up from 43% in October 2024), helping grantees respond to legal challenges and scrutiny (47%, up from 30%), and supporting grantees with improved cyber and physical security (34 percent, up from 23%).

Funders are very concerned about potential harassment of journalists (77%), opposition leaders and activists (74%), and pro-democracy non-profits (66 percent). 68% are very concerned about pro-democracy orgs facing legal challenges and 51 percent about legislative and regulatory scrutiny.

Importantly, 44 percent of respondents say that efforts over the past decade to promote the health of democracy have been largely unsuccessful and 70 percent believe that philanthropy does not currently possess the strategies needed to significantly improve U.S. democracy.

Only about 4 in 10 (42 percent) 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 has declined by 21 points, from 64 percent in October 2024 to 43 percent in February 2025

Donor advisors and donor network leaders were much more likely to say that the donors they work with will be reducing their democracy giving or that they are unsure about future plans. Only 28% of this group said they expected giving to increase or stay at the same level.