NetGain Partnership is a partnership of left-of-center philanthropies and foundations that hosts events, publishes research, and trains individuals to address challenges and opportunities associated with emerging digital and technology issues.

As of October 2023, NetGain Partnership’s members include the Democracy Fund, Ford Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, left-of-center funder George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, Skoll Foundation, and the Wallace Global Fund. ¹

Background

NetGain Partnership was founded in 2015 by several left-of-center philanthropic foundations to address challenges and opportunities associated with digital and technology issues. ²

NetGain Partnership is a partnership of several left-of-center foundations with a focus on grantmaking and other efforts to influence digital and technology policy. ³ The Partnership supports the critical race theory-influenced concept of social justice and works to guard digital spaces against what it views as censorship, self-segregation, misinformation, and polarization online. It also trains individuals to work on these topics. ⁴ Each year, NetGain Partnership’s partners pledge more than $80 million of resources towards its stated goal of cooperation on digital issues at the intersection of philanthropy and technology. This engagement includes meetings of experts, events focused on digital and technology issues, published research, and grantmaking. ⁵ Previously efforts have focused on the social implications of artificial intelligence and the internet of things (IoT). ⁶

As of October 2023, NetGain Partnership’s members include the Democracy Fund, Ford Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, liberal funder George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, Skoll Foundation, and the Wallace Global Fund. ⁷ The left-of-center Omidyar Network has also been associated with the  NetGain Partnership. ^{8 9}

Activities

NetGain Partnership expresses the view that philanthropy plays a role in creating a critical race theory-influenced “equitable world.” The partnership is guided by several principles supporting the creation of open, safe, and equitable space for free express, economic opportunity, knowledge exchange, and civic engagement. ¹⁰

To support these policy priorities, NetGain Partnership publishes research on data research and platform accountability and has hosted a series of webinars on the impacts of COVID-19 on civil society. ¹¹ The Partnership’s workshop on disinformation, digital hate, and Big Tech claimed that “extremists” capitalized on COVID-19 to leverage “white racial resentment” and spread what the partnership considers hateful content and speech across the internet. Speakers in this event included representatives from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Political Research Associates, First Draft News, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and Media Democracy Fund. ¹²

In May 2020, NetGain Partnership hosted a COVID-19 and the U.S. democratic process webinar that was funded by Ariadne Network, Human Rights Funders Network, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund and featured speakers from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, Color of Change, United We Dream, and the Media Democracy Fund. ¹³ NetGain Partnership has hosted other events on possible Biden administration policy to address what NetGain Partnership considers misinformation, disinformation, ¹⁴ and “racialized disinformation” online. ¹⁵

Policy Advocacy and Grantmaking

NetGain Partnership also runs a small grant fund for projects focused on what it considers threats to democracy, disinformation, and public interest research on online platforms. ¹⁶

In August 2023, NetGain Partnership published a letter urging Facebook to continue doing research into the concept of disinformation after Facebook closed accounts from New York University’s Cybersecurity for Democracy project. ¹⁷ In 2021, NetGain Partnership supported center-left Center for Democracy and Technology and American Association of People with Disabilities to host an event about the left-wing concept of disability justice. ¹⁸

In 2018, NetGain Partnership distributed $225,000 of Mozilla Foundation awards to explore artificial intelligence and machine learning to combat what the partnership considers biased algorithms, skewed data sets, and broken online recommendations that it believes can radicalize YouTube users, promote racism, and spread “fake news.” ¹⁹

NetGain Partnership committed $18 million in grants to support public interest technology (PIT) in 2016. ²⁰ Projects funded by these grants included New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, Mozilla Foundation/MIT Media Lab’s Open Leadership Executive Education, Code for America’s Research Action Design and the Open Technology Institute, New Venture Fund’s Media Democracy Fund, and Harvard University’s Data Privacy Lab. ²¹

Funding

NetGain Partnership receives funding and support from its members, the Democracy Fund, Ford Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, liberal funder George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, Skoll Foundation, and the Wallace Global Fund. ²²

Ford Foundation has given at least $250,000 the New Venture Fund’s Media Democracy Fund to manage and support NetGain’s work across the technology-related grant sector. ²³

1. “About.” NetGain Partnership. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/about.
2. “About.” NetGain Partnership. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/about.
3. “NetGain Partnership – Disability Justice in Technology Policy: Exploring the Intersections of Disability and Technology.” Center for Democracy and Technology. July 13, 2022. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://cdt.org/event/netgain-partnership-disability-justice-in-technology-policy-exploring-the-intersections-of-disability-and-technology/.
4. “Principles.” NetGain Partnership. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/about/principles.
5. “What We Do.” NetGain Partnership. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/what-we-do-2.
6. “What We Do.” NetGain Partnership. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/what-we-do-2.
7. “About.” NetGain Partnership. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/about.
8. “Principles.” NetGain Partnership. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/about/principles.
9. “Refiguring the Future, A NetGain Event.” MacArthur Foundation. May 3, 2018. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.macfound.org/events/refiguring-the-future-a-netgain-event.
10. “What We Do.” NetGain Partnership. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/what-we-do-2.
11. “COVID-19 and Digital Society Webinar Series.” NetGain Partnership. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/resources/2020/7/27/covid-19-and-digital-society-webinar-series.
12. “Disinformation, Digital Hate and Big Tech.” NetGain Partnership. June 10, 2020. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/events/covid19/disinformation.
13. “COVID-19 and the US Democratic Process.” NetGain Partnership. May 13, 2020. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/events/covid19/us-democratic-process.
14. Mis/Disinformationon Platforms: Can Federal Policy Reduce the Harm?” NetGain Partnership. July 1, 2021. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/events/2021/07/01/mis/disinformation-on-platforms-can-federal-policy-reduce-the-harm.
15. “Racialized Disinformation and Real-World Consequences.” NetGain Partnership. May 20, 2021. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/events/2021/4/29/racialized-disinformation-and-real-world-consequences.
16.  “NetGain Partners Invite Concept Notes for Small Grants Fund.” NetGain Partnership. October 20, 2020. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/news-announcements/2020/10/netgain-partners-invite-concept-notes-for-small-grants-fund.
17.  “Facebook Must Not Block Research Into Disinformation.” Netgain Partnership. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/news-announcements/2021/8/17/facebook-must-not-block-research-into-disinformation.
18. “NetGain Partnership – Disability Justice in Technology Policy: Exploring the Intersections of Disability and Technology.” Center for Democracy and Technology. July 13, 2022. Accessed October 13, 2023. https://cdt.org/event/netgain-partnership-disability-justice-in-technology-policy-exploring-the-intersections-of-disability-and-technology/.
19. Gaylor, Brett. “Mozilla Announces $225,000 for Art and Advocacy Exploring Artificial Intelligence. NetGain Partnership. June 4, 2018. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/news-announcements/2018/6/8/mozilla-announces-225000-for-art-and-advocacy-exploring-artificial-intelligence.
20. “Five Major Foundations Announce Groundbreaking Plans to Develop Public Interest Technologies.” Open Society Foundations. February 16, 2016. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/newsroom/five-major-foundations-announce-groundbreaking-plans-develop-public-interest.
21. “What Is Created Makes the World More or Less Fair, Whether or Not That is the Intention.” NetGain Partnership Grants. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/grants/.
22. “About.” NetGain Partnership. Accessed October 11, 2023. https://www.netgainpartnership.org/about.
23. “Core support for the Media Democracy Fund to manage and coordinate the NetGain partnership to help grant makers focus on a topic at the broad intersection of technology and the public interest in order to increase knowledge and collaboration.” Ford Foundation. May 2019. Accessed October 13, 2023. https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/new-venture-fund-133008/.