U.S. Democracy Hub is an online foundation and nonprofit database that is a project of the left-of-center Democracy Funders Network (DFN) and Impala. ¹

U.S. Democracy Hub was established in 2024 following the end of Candid’s Funding for U.S. Democracy online database. The new Hub was designed to provide resources for funders and nonprofits to better understand election-related nonprofit funding. ² As of September 2024, U.S. Democracy Hub has created profiles for roughly 4,267 nonprofits and analyzed roughly 70 different custom ecosystems to classify these organizations. ¹

History

U.S. Democracy Hub was first launched in September 2024 for private entities. On October 1, 2024, the U.S. Democracy Hub officially launched. ^{3 2}

U.S. Democracy Hub was established following the end of Candid’s Funding for U.S. Democracy online database. The new Hub was designed to provide resources for funders and nonprofits to better understand election-related nonprofit funding. As of September 2024, the hub provided financial and organizational data for more than 4,200 organizations and 23,000 funders. ²

Democracy Funders Network (DFN) spent nearly two years collaborating with other funders and nonprofits to design the U.S. Democracy Hub before the launch of the project. DFN’s collaboration for the project included the creation of a “Healthy Democracy Ecosystem Map” with the advocacy group National Civic League. ⁴

Activities

U.S. Democracy Hub is an online foundation and nonprofit database that is a project of the left-of-center Democracy Funders Network and Impala. ^{1 1} The U.S. Democracy Hub’s resources are based on public information and are intended to be used by nonprofits, researchers, funders, and journalists who track nonprofits that are involved in election data and administration. ⁵

The U.S. Democracy Hub uses information compiled by one of its umbrella organizations, Impala. Impala created profiles for nonprofit organizations in the United States based on their public Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax return forms (Form 990s). Once a profile has been created, organizations in the U.S. Democracy Hub database are classified to classify each organization that U.S. Democracy Hub deems to be “democracy-related” into several curated information ecosystems. ¹

U.S. Democracy Hub classifies organizations into different ecosystems including “empowered electorate,” “quality leaders,” “good governance,” “counter authoritarianism,” “informed public,” “beloved communities,” “democratic imagination,” “just society,” and “Stronger Fields” such as strengthening infrastructure. As of September 2024, U.S. Democracy Hub had created profiles of more than 4,500 nonprofits and created 70 different custom ecosystems to classify these organizations. ¹

The hub claims to also conduct “landscape assessments” to categorize the fields of scope within various “democratic” institutions, conducts gap analysis, helps nonprofits find grantees, and works to collaborate with other similar organizations. ¹

U.S. Democracy Hub was developed through engagement and analysis on roughly 1,000 organizations. According to the website, any nonprofit can request to be added or reclassified within a particular category in the taxonomy, pending DFN approval. ²

U.S. Democracy Hub uses taxonomy to categorize what it considers democracy-related work. The organization’s platform compiles data from individual donors and donor-advised funds. ² The platform also connects donors and nonprofit groups based on real-time data from IRS filings, while DFN claims it establishes advisory groups for said organization. ²

Funding

U.S. Democracy Hub is a project of data visualization software company Impala as well as the Democracy Funders Network (DFN). ³

1. “Unveiling the US Democracy Hub.” Democracy Funders Network. September 19, 2024. Accessed September 29, 2024. https://www.democracyfundersnetwork.org/events/launching-the-us-democracy-hub-20240919.
2. “Key Takeaways from the U.S. Democracy Hub Launch Webinar for Grantmakers.” Impala. September 23, 2024. Accessed September 30, 2024. https://impala.digital/blog/webinar-recap-u.s.-democracy-hub-launch-webinar-for-grantmakers.
3. “Introducing the U.S. Democracy Hub.” Impala. Accessed September 30, 2 024. 23,326 funders have been involved with this effort. https://impala.digital/blog/u.s.-democracy-hub-launch.
4. “Introducing the U.S. Democracy Hub.” Democracy Funders Network. September 19, 2024. Accessed September 30, 2024. https://impala.digital/democracy.
5. “Home.” Democracy Funders Network and Impala. Accessed September 29, 2024. https://impala.digital/democracy.