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About us
The field of democracy has been researched by academics, experts, and practitioners in many ways over many years, resulting in a wealth of data. Yet democracy is highly complex and in its national contexts often highly dynamic. Knowledge and research of the topic is scattered across a wide range of specific research questions and siloed within them. Much of it is non-quantitative and difficult to generalise. Few established methodologies exist for evaluating the effect and impact of tactics and strategies as applied by civil society to defend or advance democracy. Moreover, there are few evidence-based recommendations that donors can rely on. Power for Democracies seeks to fill these gaps.
Power for Democracies is an independent, non-profit registered research organisation. Our work is financed through unconditional grants and donations from foundations and individuals who wish to support liberal democracy across the globe.
Power for Democracies is an independent, charitable research organisation. We are passionate and unapologetic about the transformative power of liberal democracy. But we are impartial and non-partisan when it comes to political ideologies or parties.
Contact our head of communications, Roxanne Escobales, using our contact form or email hello@powerfordemocracies.org. Include your request, deadline, and media outlet.
About our work
If you are a research institution, think-tank, or in any other capacity interested in our work, we would love to hear from you. You can either fill in our contact form on this website or email us at hello@powerfordemocracies.org.
Power for Democracies publishes recommendations of highly effective intiatives to interested donors, partners, and the public, based on impartial, rigorous, and independent research. We are not a grant-maker, and we do not fund initiatives and projects directly.
Power for Democracies focuses on current and emerging threats to democracy and identifies the most relevant civil society organisations and initiatives working to counter them. If you believe your organisation is one of those, get in touch with us at hello@powerfordemocracies.org.
Our work with civil society
We seek to evaluate and recommend a wide range of different civil society actors that strengthen crucial aspects of democracy, including journalists, unions, and think-tanks. The groups we will recommend are politically non-partisan, although they may campaign on specific issues.
We focus on civil society initiatives that our systematic research indicates are likely to deliver meaningful democratic outcomes. We assess these initiatives in terms of both their potential impact and the strength of the supporting evidence. Our mixed-methods approach incorporates a variety of sources, including expert insights, research literature, strategic analysis, quantitative data, and other evaluative tools. This ensures our decisions are both informed and contextually grounded.
We understand how valuable the time and energy of civil society organisations is, and we have designed the evaluation process with ease in mind. The process includes an initial call; completion of a datasheet; and a series of follow-up questions.
If your project meets our impact criteria, we will recommend it for funding to our donor network. Our recommendation will include an overview of the national context in which you operate, and more detail on the impact of your work on liberal democracy in your country.
Our portfolio of recommendations for donors will grow as we continue to identify highly relevant civil society initiatives in priority countries. If you’d like to support these efforts, you can donate directly through Effektiv Spenden’s Defending Democracy Fund, a straightforward way to channel your contributions to the initiatives.
We are building partnerships with donation platforms in additional countries, so that supporters around the world will be able to contribute with ease.
English: https://effektiv-spenden.org/en/defending-democracy/
German: https://effektiv-spenden.org/demokratie-verteidigen/
We only approach an organisation for evaluation if we have meaningful indication about its impact and eligibility for recommendation. Once our recommendations have been decided, we work with our donor network and the implementing civil society organisation to coordinate the allocation of funds collected by our donor network.