Updated Democratic Practice–U.S. Guidelines Address Short-term Challenges and Long-term Needs
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund adopted its previous Democratic Practice–United States (DPUS) program goal “to advance a vital and inclusive democracy in the United States” in 2015 and revised program strategies in 2018 and 2021 to reflect evolving political and social contexts.
During this period, DPUS grantmaking supported election protection and voting rights, anti-corruption efforts, and civic engagement. In 2020, for example, the collective efforts of DPUS grantees helped the United States skirt some of the most dire pandemic-era election scenarios. Voter turnout reached a 30-year high, powerful tech companies prevented widespread dissemination of election misinformation, polling places remained largely peaceful, and all ballots were counted. The 2020 elections were, by all measures, one of the most secure elections in our history.
In 2025, U.S. democracy faces myriad new challenges in 2025. Longstanding but deepening divisions undermine the nation’s social, economic, and political vitality. Emerging technologies could benefit democratic systems, but their unregulated adoption threatens to bolster authoritarianism by expanding surveillance, further concentrating power, and distorting public feedback. Persistent and expanding economic inequality and rising climate vulnerability have degraded individual and community expressions of political power.
Civil society, which has been essential to past democratic progress, is struggling to address the compounding crises of expanded executive power, rollbacks of hard-won civil and human rights, and efforts to restrain public discourse.
The DPUS program has revised its guidelines to respond to this evolving context. The updated guidelines reshape the program’s work to ensure equitable participation and representation, improve the culture of democracy, and disrupt concentrations of economic and political power. DPUS grantmaking will support movement building, innovation, and reform efforts to advance racial justice and reverse authoritarian and oligarchical trajectories in U.S. governance.
Drawing from the experience of the last eight years, the program is grounded in a vision of a United States that can realize its constitutional promises. The updated guidelines are structured to support the creation and implementation of solutions required to address both short-term challenges and long-term needs in our country.
Read the new guidelines here.