The Trust for Civic Life has launched Digital Civic Experiments, a pilot grantmaking portfolio supporting eight organizations that use digital tools to strengthen community connection, increase civic participation, and drive meaningful offline engagement among underserved and place-based communities nationwide. Grantees range from Entidad, which builds documentation tools for farmworkers, to Front Porch Forum, a Vermont-wide neighborhood network that consistently moves online interactions into real-world civic life, to the Relational Tech Project, which builds hyper-local tools collaboratively with and for approximately one hundred neighbors at a time. Informed by the Trust's own community research, the portfolio reflects a community-first philosophy that treats trust, local design, and offline impact as core criteria for what makes digital civic technology worth funding. For NCDD members navigating the intersection of technology and civic engagement, this portfolio offers both inspiration and a useful framework for distinguishing digital tools that genuinely serve dialogue and deliberation from those that merely replicate its surface features.

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation warns that civil society is under growing threat worldwide, with shrinking funding and rising restrictions, intimidation, and retaliation against leaders. As core freedoms decline in 60 countries—including increasing limits on protest and politicized free speech in the U.S.—these trends jeopardize the ability of advocates and organizations to serve communities. The Foundation argues that philanthropy must invest in strengthening civic infrastructure, protecting the sector, and supporting movements, emphasizing that democracy depends on people’s ability to organize and act peacefully. Read more in the blog post below.

Survey data from Democracy Fund and PACE shows near-universal pessimism among democracy funders—almost all see U.S. democracy as threatened and 88% say it is “broken”—yet 75% still plan to maintain or increase giving in 2026. Funders are skeptical of their own effectiveness, citing weak strategies rather than poor coordination. Funding is shifting toward defensive priorities such as election protection, civil-society safeguards, and counter-authoritarian work, with less support for grassroots organizing. While two-thirds are open to collaboration, barriers include institutional misalignment, strategic rigidity, and limited collaboration skills. Experts urge grant-seekers to show strong analysis, tap regional and family foundations, and use bridge-building language—guidance directly relevant to NCDD practitioners navigating the current funder landscape. 

​The David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s report, “AI and Democracy: Perspectives from an Emerging Field,” synthesizes insights from various stakeholders on how AI disrupts democratic institutions, elections, government, information ecosystems, civic participation, labor markets, and the economy. It positions AI as an accelerant that amplifies strengths and weaknesses across existing systems, with democratic futures dependent on rapid adaptation to ensure technological change doesn’t outpace democratic governance. The report includes an appendix mapping over 130 organizations working at the intersection of AI and democracy, offering systems-level analysis and a focus on how funders must respond to AI’s democratic implications. This work advances NCDD’s mission by providing a framework for understanding how AI shapes conditions for democratic participation, civic engagement, and institutional trust, emphasizing the importance of collective capacity to respond to accelerated change through coordinated action addressing election integrity, information ecosystem health, algorithmic accountability, and democratic adaptation across multiple domains.

Democracy Notes will release its 2025 Trends report on January 15, 2026, offering a comprehensive overview of developments in the U.S. democracy space over the past year, sponsored by the Democracy Funders Network and Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement to help practitioners, funders, and advocates understand emerging patterns, significant developments, and key shifts in democratic institutions and civic participation. Democracy Notes serves a crucial infrastructure role through its newsletter, communities of practice, and convening events, which create spaces for practitioners to identify broader patterns and connections across the field. These events analyze developments, ranging from dialogue and deliberation initiatives to voter engagement, civic education, and advocacy campaigns. For NCDD practitioners, this report provides valuable context for understanding how dialogue and deliberation fit within the broader ecosystem of democracy strengthening, supports strategic decision-making, helps identify potential partners and complementary efforts, and enables the field to collectively assess what's working and where opportunities for collaboration and innovation exist.