Democracy Fund Voice

Democracy Fund Voice is a left-of-center electoral advocacy group within the philanthropy network of eBay chairman and founder Pierre Omidyar. ¹ The group advocates for left-of-center policy issues including election administration changes while funding organizations which support left-of-center policies on election administration and environmentalism such as Stand Up Republic, ² the Niskanen Center for Public Policy, ³ and Defending Democracy Together. ³

It is the advocacy and lobbying arm of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Democracy Fund. ⁴

Background

Pierre Omidyar, the founder and chairman of online retailer eBay, founded Democracy Fund Voice in 2014, at the same time he founded sister organization Democracy Fund. Democracy Fund Voice was intended to be the lobbying arm of Omidyar’s philanthropic group, the Omidyar Nexus. Democracy Fund Voice funds other advocacy groups as well as hires lobbyists to promote left-of-center policies including election administration, voter registration, and journalist policies. ⁴

Omidyar Nexus

For more on the philanthropic network created by Pierre Omidyar of which Democracy Fund Voice is a part of, see Omidyar Nexus.

Democracy Fund Voice is one of ten separate organizations in Pierre Omidyar’s philanthropic network known as the Omidyar Group. Another group within the network is media company First Look Media, which has previously received over $250 million from Omidyar and is the publisher for left-of-center outlet The Intercept.  ⁵

Another organization within the Omidyar Group is the Omidyar Network, a think tank that incubates projects and programs for Omidyar’s funding priorities, including both Democracy Fund and Democracy Fund Voice in 2011 before they launched as independent sister organizations in 2014. Other organizations in the Omidyar Group include Flourishing, Hopelab, Humanity United, Imaginable Futures, and Luminate. Most of these groups act as funding organizations for various projects around environmentalism, elections, civic participation, and local projects in Omidyar’s home state of Hawaii. ⁶

In 2024, the Democracy Voice Fund received over $13 million from Omidyar, who donated $16.4 million that year to 501(c)(4) “social welfare” electoral-advocacy and lobbying organizations. ⁷ In 2023, Omidyar donated almost $29 million; ⁸ in 2022, he donated over $24 million; ⁹ in 2021, he donated almost $20 million; ¹⁰ and in 2020, he donated almost $15 million. ¹¹

Leadership

Pierre Omidyar, a co-founder of eBay, and his wife Pam are the sole known funders of Democracy Fund Voice. The Omidyars have committed hundreds of millions of dollars to their group of nonprofits and funding organizations, known as the Omidyar Nexus. As of June, 2025, Omidyar is worth approximately $10.5 billion and was listed by Forbes  as the 103rd richest American and the richest resident of Hawaii. ¹²

The Omidyars have previously contributed to the presidential campaigns of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama. In addition, they have previously made six-figure donations to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. ¹³

Joe Goldman is the president and co-founder of Democracy Fund Voice and Democracy Fund. Prior to founding Democracy Fund, Goldman worked as vice president of citizen engagement at AmericaSpeaks. Before this, Goldman worked as a community planner on the Neighborhood Action Initiative for former District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams (D). ¹⁴ From 2019 to 2023, Goldman served as a board member of the US Climate Action Network. From 2011 to 2014, Goldman worked as a director of the Omidyar Network. ¹⁵ In 2023, Goldman earned $522,413 in total compensation from Democracy Fund Voice. ¹⁶

As of 2023, Laura Chambers is the chief operating officer of the Democracy Fund Voice and Democracy Fund. Chambers previously worked as chief operations officer for the Democratic National Committee, chief of staff of the United States Peace Corps, and director of field services of the AARP’s Experience Corps program. She also worked for the Global AIDS Alliance, Civic Ventures, and the Advocacy Institute. In 2023, Chambers earned $394,762 in total compensation from Democracy Fund Voice. ^{16 17}

As of 2023, Kelly Reed is the deputy chief operating officer of the Democracy Fund Voice and Democracy Fund, after starting at the organizations in 2018 as a director. From 2015 to 2018, Reed worked as an associate director and then director at Arabella Advisors. From 2009 to 2015, she worked at the Ploughshares Fund. In 2023, Kelly Reed earned $277,597 in total compensation from Democracy Fund Voice. ^{16 18}

As of 2023, Lara Flint is the managing director of Democracy Fund Voice and Democracy Fund. Flint started at the organizations in 2017 and departed in February 2025. From 2013 to 2017, Flint served as chief counsel for national security for U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT). From 2011 to 2013, Flint served as attorney-adviser for political-military affairs at the office of the legal advisor at the U.S. Department of State. Earlier, Flint worked as senior counsel to then-U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) and at the Center for Democracy and Technology. In 2023, Flint earned $302,322 in total compensation from Democracy Fund Voice. ^{16 19 20}

As of 2023, Lauren Strayer is the managing communications director of the Democracy Fund Voice and Democracy Fund. Strayer has worked at the organizations since 2014. From 2010 to 2013, Strayer worked as an associate director at Demos. Prior to this, Strayer worked for Air America Radio and the New Democracy Project. In 2023, Strayer earned $280,730 in total compensation from the Democracy Fund Voice. ^{16 21}

Thomas Glaisyer serves as the executive advisor to the president of the Democracy Fund and managing program director of the Democracy Fund Voice. Glaisyer has worked for the organizations since 2014. From 2012 to 2014, Glaisyer served as an investment principal at the Omidyar Network. Earlier, Glaisyer worked at New America and the New Ideas Fund. In 2023, Glaisyer earned $304,319 in total compensation from Democracy Fund Voice. ^{16 22}

Since 2021, Deepa Isac has worked as general counsel at the Democracy Fund Voice and Democracy Fund. Isac previously worked in similar roles at Greenpeace, the Greenpeace Fund, the Indivisible Project, and the Rainforest Action Network. In 2023, Isac earned $293,523 in total compensation from Democracy Fund Voice. ^{16 23}

Funding

Financial Overview

In 2023, the Democracy Fund Voice reported $28,799,967 in revenue, almost all of which came from Pierre Omidyar’s donations. ¹⁶

In 2014 and 2015, the organization generated $500,000 in revenue before rising to over $5.5 million in 2016. In 2019, revenue rose to $9.3 million, and in 2020, revenue rose to almost $15 million. Revenue reached its peak at almost $29 million in 2023. ²⁴

As of June 2024, the Democracy Fund Voice and Democracy Fund combined had distributed $425 million worth of grants. ²⁵

The following is an overview of the Democracy Fund Voice’s finances: ²⁶

Grant Recipients

The following is a list of grant recipients from Democracy Fund Voice: ²⁷

Lobbying Activity

One of the main reasons for the formation of Democracy Fund Voice as a sister organization to the Democracy Fund is that Democracy Fund Voice is able to engage in state and federal lobbying without limit under Internal Revenue Service rules. At the federal level, Democracy Fund Voice has previously employed the Washington, D.C-based lobbying firms of Frost Brown Todd LLC and Steptoe and Johnson. One employee registered to lobby for the organization was Jason Abel, a former aide to U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). ²⁸

In 2022, 2021, and 2019, Democracy Fund Voice spent $200,000 on lobbying activity. In 2020, the organization spent $310,000. Dating back to 2017, the fund has exclusively hired the lobbying services of Steptoe and Johnson. ²⁹

Grantmaking

In 2017, Democracy Fund Voice announced that it had made contributions of up to $550,000 to Stand Up Republic, a lobbying and advocacy group associated with former Independent presidential and U.S. Senate candidate Evan McMullin, who ran in 2016. According to Democracy Fund Voice’s 2018 tax returns, it granted $475,000 to Stand Up Republic that year. ²

Democracy Fund Voice granted $1.6 million in two grants to Defending Democracy Together, a policy advocacy group founded by commentator Bill Kristol. ³

Democracy Fund Voice granted $175,000 to the Niskanen Center for Public Policy, the lobbying arm of the think tank Niskanen Center, for its “open society project.” ³

The organization also granted $160,000 to the center-right think tank R Street Institute for its American Institutions Network. ³