The JPB Foundation in New York City has announced a 2024 funding commitment totaling nearly $500 million, with up to $100 million in new grants aimed at strengthening democracy.

The boost in support represents an approximately 40 percent increase from the foundation’s 2022 grantmaking levels, with expanded spending in support of initiatives and organizations working to protect and strengthen democracy, including work around voter engagement and voting rights with a focus on communities of color and young people; community, faith-based, and rural organizing; efforts to combat misinformation and disinformation; and strategies to address the long-term challenges to democratic values. Under an expanded mission, the foundation will support five key areas of work: democracy, gender, and racial justice; community and worker power; movement infrastructure and explorations; faith, bridging, and belonging; and reproductive justice, medical research, and New York City community grants.

The funding plan was announced alongside the announcement of six new senior staff hires, and the appointment of five additional members to its board of directors as Deepak Bhargava begins his tenure as the foundation’s president. 

“The threat to democracy is the single greatest challenge facing our nation,” said Bhargava. “Saving democracy will require building broad alliances across civil society to unite those who may have differing worldviews but agree on bedrock commitments such as the right to vote and the need for representative and responsive institutions. We must work to meet those short-term threats to our formal democratic institutions, while also addressing the long-term drivers of our crisis of democracy.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/LordHenriVoton)