To Strengthen Democracy in America, Think Tech

[Commentary] A decade-and-a-half into the digital century, the vast majority of large foundations concerned with strengthening American democracy don't seem to get tech. According to the new Foundation Funding for US Democracy tool recently launched by Foundation Center, out of a total of 18,446 grants awarded since 2011 by more than 1,300 funders focused on the broad range of issues and efforts related to democracy, just 962 have been focused on technology. What's more, that represents only $215 million out of a total of $2.435 billion awarded to study and/or reform campaigns, elections, and voting systems; expand civic participation; research or upgrade government performance; and/or study the workings of the media and improve public access to media.

The Foundation Center tool also reveals that the universe of foundations making technology-related grants is much smaller, at 186, than the overall funder pool, as is the recipient base. Recently, a number of major foundations -- Knight, Open Society, MacArthur, and Ford -- announced the Netgain Challenge, a major new commitment to support the open Internet. It's great they're doing this, but they are all among the usual forward-thinking foundations you'd expect to be involved in such an effort. While I applaud their vision and intent, I also believe it's long past time for some of the other heavy-hitters in the sector to step up, stop editing risk out of their portfolios, and make some big bets on tech.

[Micah Sifry is the co-founder and executive director of Civic Hall]