Harassment of U.S. funders and their grantees is increasing and is likely to be an ongoing problem as authoritarians erode America’s democratic norms. Harassment comes in many forms, including physical, cyber, legal, and political threats, and it affects a range of organizations and leaders, from social conservatives to progressives. The common thread is that it makes it harder for grantees and their funders to be effective, as it closes the civic space that is vital to any functioning democracy. Harassment drains resources, stops institutions from advancing their missions, and sends a chilling signal to others.

Fortunately, funders are in a position to make a difference on this urgent issue for the field. Please join the Democracy Funders Network and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for a briefing with leading experts, including Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Senior Fellow Rachel Kleinfeld and philanthropic strategist Peter Teague, on the nature of the problem and potential solutions to keep funders and grantees safe and effective, keep the public space open, and de-escalate tensions that lead to violence. This program is relevant for funders in the democracy space as well as a range of other areas such as climate change, education, women’s rights, and LGBTQ+ rights.

Register here. 

In a high-risk moment for political violence like the one America faces today, steering individuals away from political violence is a critical element of supporting the health of our democracy. There are a few key ways to approach this goal, including creating off-ramps for individuals who are being drawn into extremist spaces and ensuring violent actors are held accountable as a deterrent to would-be followers.

Join DFN’s Political Violence Working Group (PVWG) to hear from leaders working in these spaces. Their work includes tactics such as deploying targeted online advertising to steer at-risk individuals away from extremist content; creating resources for parents, teachers, mental health counselors, and others to recognize and intervene at the early stages of radicalization; brining impact litigation to cut off violent groups’ funding and momentum; and supporting legal accountability for political violence. We’ll discuss the bright spots in this work, and what resources and support are still needed to ensure our elections, communities and institutions are safe from violent extremism.

All funders in the DFN community are invited to join us for peer conversation and discussion with our featured speakers:

• Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Founding Director, Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL)

• Vidhya Ramalingam, Founder & CEO, Moonshot

• Rachel Goodman, Counsel, Protect Democracy

REGISTER HERE>

DFN’s Political Violence Working Group is a forum for funders interested in preventing and mitigating political violence. Members meet monthly to connect with and learn from each other and leading practitioners in the space, and to explore political violence trends, intervention bright spots, and needs in the field. Email DFN Program Director Carly Straus Chan to learn more at carly@thirdplateau.com.

As political violence increases, various civil society actors and organizations can play important roles in preventing and responding to such incidents. Trusted and respected communal leaders including business leaders, veterans, and clergy members can send important signals to their communities by supporting the rule of law, nonviolent norms, and democratic processes. Additionally, the communities these leaders are part of, particularly Evangelical Christian communities and veterans, are often targeted for recruitment by extremist groups, making it essential to provide counter-narratives and opportunities for positive engagement.

The DFN Political Violence Working Group invites all funders in the DFN community to join this open meeting. We will engage in peer conversations and learn from leading practitioners in the field about how organizations are effectively involving veterans, faith communities, and business leaders in political violence prevention. The discussion will focus on successful strategies and identify the remaining needs for further strengthening this area of work.

Featured Speakers:

• Ellen Gustafson, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director, We the Veterans

• Jeanné Lewis, CEO, Faith in Public Life

• Mike Ward, Director, Business Engagement, Rebuild Congress Initiative

DFN’s Political Violence Working Group is a forum for funders interested in preventing and mitigating political violence. Members meet monthly to connect with and learn from each other and leading practitioners in the space, and to explore political violence trends, intervention bright spots, and needs in the field. Email DFN Program Director Carly Straus Chan to learn more at carly@thirdplateau.com.

PVWG members - no need to register here, you already have all the event details.

REGISTER HERE>

Our communications and information ecosystems play a huge role in shaping the political violence landscape in the US. Many recent acts of political violence have been carried out by individuals who were radicalized and motivated by online mis- and disinformation and extremist networks. Journalistic choices in coverage of politics and incidents of political violence can help reduce polarization and build towards peace, or further inflame tensions and inspire copycat violence. And our overall narratives about violence, democracy, and governance processes help shape the bounds of acceptable behavior in society.

The DFN Political Violence Working Group’s May meeting is open to all funders in the DFN community. In this deep dive on influencing the communications ecosystem, we will explore how philanthropy can invest in projects that shift online spaces, journalism and media, and cultural narratives towards political violence prevention and mitigation.

Through peer conversation and engagement with leading practitioners in the field, we’ll learn about how leading organizations are outcompeting mis- and disinformation with fact-based content; training journalists to provide informative but not inflammatory reporting on political violence; and testing new messages and narratives to push back against violence. We’ll discuss bright spots in this work, and remaining needs to strengthen this field further.

Featured Speakers:

• Eric Sapp, President and Founder, Public Democracy

• Dan Vallone, US Director, More in Common

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DFN’s Political Violence Working Group is a forum for funders interested in preventing and mitigating political violence. Members meet monthly to connect with and learn from each other and leading practitioners in the space, and to explore political violence trends, intervention bright spots, and needs in the field. Email DFN Program Director Carly Straus to learn more at carly@thirdplateau.com.

The Trusted Elections Fund and Democracy Funders Network are pleased to invite you to join expert practitioners in conversation on how to reduce political violence and strengthen our democracy. On this webinar, you will hear from Western States Center, Common Ground USA, and Over Zero, who will share their innovative collaboration and strategies to prevent and mitigate political violence. This work will mobilize a broad cohort of local leaders from civil society, faith, business, government, and other sectors as thought partners, conveners, and advisors to build greater resilience in at-risk states, including Arizona, Idaho, Oregon, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and others. We are eager to share this work with you.

At this briefing, we’ll discuss:

• Why the growing localization of political violence is concerning, and how a whole-of-society approach is the solution. 

• Our approach to empowering local leaders to engage in this work. 

• How collaboration is key to our theory of change, and how our organizations each strengthen our collective work  

Now, more than two years after the January 6th insurrection, the risk of political violence and the energy of bigoted and anti-democracy movements has not dissipated but rather spread throughout the United States. Local communities and institutions are facing the brunt of political violence, authoritarian organizing and dangerous narratives. 

 To match the urgency of this moment and scope of these dynamics, these three organizations are leveraging decades of combined experience confronting bigoted and authoritarian movements in the U.S. and preventing political violence around the globe. These groups, and funders like TEF, are working together to strengthen our approaches by drawing from our collective tools and knowledge, covering more ground, and connecting leaders across states to learn from each other.

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Government actors, from law enforcement to elected leaders, play a complex role in political violence. They can be targets of political violence, key partners in preventing and addressing violence, and at times, instigators or perpetrators of it.

The DFN Political Violence Working Group’s March meeting is open to all funders in the DFN community. In this deep dive on supporting & engaging government actors, we will explore the roles civil society can play in activating government as a partner in political violence prevention and mitigation.

Through peer conversation and engagement with leading practitioners in the field, we’ll learn about how leading organizations are supporting and advising election officials and other government actors who are facing threats; educating law enforcement on how to address political violence and extremism both within their ranks and within the communities they serve; and building connections among and supporting coordination between law enforcement, other government actors, civil society groups, and communities under threat. We’ll discuss bright spots in this work, and remaining needs to strengthen this field further.

Featured Speakers:

• David Becker, Executive Director and Founder, Center for Election Innovation & Research

• Joanna Lydgate, President & CEO, States United Democracy Center

• Mary McCord, Executive Director, Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP)

DFN’s Political Violence Working Group is a forum for funders interested in preventing and mitigating political violence. Members meet monthly to connect with and learn from each other and leading practitioners in the space, and to explore political violence trends, intervention bright spots, and needs in the field. Email DFN Program Director Carly Straus to learn more at carly@thirdplateau.com.

PVWG members - no need to register here, you already have all the event details.

REGISTER HERE>

The United States is suffering from a significant rise in political violence. Incidents including the January 6 insurrection, attack on Paul Pelosi, attempted attack on Justice Kavanaugh, anti-Semitic comments by high-profile individuals, and deluge of threats to election administrators, have made clear the scope of the problem. It is critical that philanthropy respond.

The DFN Political Violence Working Group’s first meeting of the year is open to all funders in the DFN community. In this deep dive on data and research, we will get an update on the current state of political violence in the U.S. and what threats we should expect to face in 2023 and 2024. We will learn about how leading data and research organizations track political violence, analyze incident data, and use their findings to support prevention and mitigation work. We’ll also discuss bright spots in the political violence data and research field, and how we can strengthen the field to increase our understanding of this problem space.

Featured speakers:

• Shannon Hiller, Executive Director, Bridging Divides Initiative

• Katherine Keneally, Senior Research Manager, Institute for Strategic Dialogue

• Oren Segal, Vice President, Center on Extremism, Anti-Defamation League

DFN’s Political Violence Working Group is a forum for funders interested in preventing and mitigating political violence. Members meet monthly to connect with and learn from each other and leading practitioners in the space, and to explore political violence trends, intervention bright spots, and needs in the field. Learn more here.

PVWG members - no need to register via the link here, you already have all the event details.

REGISTER HERE>

Join Over Zero, the Trusted Elections Fund, the Democracy Funders Network, and More in Common for a virtual session on Thursday, August 11, from 2:00pm to 3:30pm ET, focused on trends, risks, and opportunities related to preventing political violence in the US in 2022 and beyond.

It will feature a brief update on new trends and relevant research on risks of political violence, an update and deeper dive into Over Zero’s landscape mapping for the violence prevention field, and opportunities to connect with a wide range of experts, practitioners and funders.

The goals for this session are:

• To create space for experts, practitioners and funders to check in and connect with others in the field;

• To help generate a shared understanding of relevant trends and findings on political violence and the current field landscape; and,

• To identify high-priority opportunities for collaboration and alignment across the field in the lead-up to the 2022 midterms and 2024 general election.

This session will bring together a wide variety of experts, practitioners and funders, and will build on the scenario planning and other planning exercises many groups have been a part of in 2022.

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Political violence poses a growing threat to democracy, from high-profile events like the January 6 attack on the US Capitol to local threats of violence to election workers and school boards.

In response to this growing concern, The Joyce Foundation, Trusted Elections Fund, and The Klarman Family Foundation initiated a new public opinion research project on the problem of political violence. This project sought to understand the public's view of​ political violence and armed political extremism, if and how threats of political violence may impact the public’s likelihood to participate in (or avoid) civic activity, gauge the public’s support for targeted policy reforms, and provide guidance on effective messages and messengers for talking about these potential threats in a way that doesn’t scare people from voting or participating in other civic activities. The project was led by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research (GQRR) and included national surveys with state and demographic oversamples, focus groups, and social listening. Dave Walker from GQQR will present their findings.

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Political violence is on the rise in the US, and civil conflict experts are seeing many of the trends and issues they've long studied abroad appearing at home. What are key risk factors for the eruption of civil war or massive civic unrest, and which are present and growing in the US today? What might civil conflict look like in modern America? How might we turn the tide of political violence before we get there? In her new book How Civil Wars Start, Barbara Walter explores the escalating violence we're now seeing, what it might mean for our future, and how we can change course.

Barbara will be joining us for a special conversation by video on Thursday, March 10, from 2-3pm ET / 11-12pm PT. Join Barbara and your fellow funders in conversation about the book and these important questions on the future of our nation. If you’d like to read the book before or after the discussion, you can order from Bookshop, your local bookstore, or your go-to book source.

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This book talk is an exclusive opportunity for DFN members and donors. If you haven't yet donated, please email Sydney Simpson (sydney@thirdplateau.com) for more information before registering.

Political violence is rising in the United States, alarming citizens and leaders alike. How many Americans endorse partisan violence and other forms of extreme hostility? What are its deep social, political, historical, and psychological roots? What can be done about it? And what does it mean for democracy?

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Social media and digital technologies have come under fire for their contribution to the development of the groups that ultimately stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Following the insurrection attempt, Facebook, Twitter, Google and other major platforms have banned or suspended President Trump’s accounts. Google and Apple removed Parler from their app stores, while Amazon removed the site from its cloud hosting service, putting an indefinite end to Parler’s reach. This panel will discuss the role of social media during the Trump presidency, including the role of platform policies in fomenting or responding to the recent violence, the benefits and risks posed by steps subsequently taken, and what this means for the future of speech online.

Panelists include:

• Nate Persily, faculty co-director of the Stanford Cyber Policy Center, director of the Center’s Program on Democracy and the Internet, and Professor at Stanford Law School

• Daphne Keller, Director of the Cyber Policy Center’s Program on Platform Regulation

• Alex Stamos, Director of the Cyber Policy Center’s Internet Observatory

• Renee DiResta, Research Manager at the Cyber Policy Center’s Internet Observatory

• Moderated by Kelly Born, Executive Director of the Cyber Policy Center

Hosted by the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.

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As recent events have demonstrated, the United States is not immune from civil and political violence. The toxic mix of uncertainly and upheaval caused by the coronavirus pandemic along with preexisting risk factors such as polarization, systemic racism, and mistrust of institutions has already begun to generate unrest in many parts of the country. In this strategy session we will discuss investment opportunities for responding to and preventing further violence in the lead-up to, and aftermath of, the November election. REGISTER HERE>