With Canadian democracy under stress, a new national network of foundations is working to strengthen philanthropy’s contribution to a pluralist democracy. The authors write on behalf of the steering committee of Democracy Funders Canada.
Canadian democracy is under stress. Many people – young people in particular – have lost faith that democracy can deliver. Disinformation and the amplification of polarizing and hateful rhetoric move faster than our capacity to counter them. Local news outlets are closing. Foreign interference is a well-documented reality, set to expand with cheap access to powerful technologies. As a result, many have stopped believing they have a meaningful say in public decisions that affect them and have lost trust in the democratic system.
For some communities, particularly those whose rights have been historically denied or inadequately protected, democratic skepticism is nothing new. They have experienced democratic and legal systems as broken promises of equal protection. These tensions are only exacerbated by fundamental and unresolved constitutional questions about the scope of rights protections and the recognition of Indigenous rights and title.
Canada has notable institutional strengths: an independent judiciary, trusted electoral agencies, strict election financing laws, diverse traditions and models of governance, and a genuine commitment to pluralism. Many actors across civil society, academia, journalism, and communities are working to keep our democracy strong, but we lack a coordinated philanthropic response that allows us to learn from one another, collaborate, and have some confidence that our efforts aren’t duplicating or working at cross-purposes.
That is the gap Democracy Funders Canada exists to fill.
Democracy Funders Canada is a newly established national network of foundations working to strengthen philanthropy’s contribution to a pluralist democracy. It provides a platform for funders to learn from one another, build relationships across difference, coordinate efforts, and collaborate to increase impact.
We do not come to this work with a shared diagnosis or single solution set. Foundations in this country hold different mandates and serve different communities. This diversity of perspectives is a strength. Democracy does not require consensus or even agreement: it starts from the recognition that each of us holds a partial view of the challenges and opportunities facing our country, and requires collective decisions even when we disagree – often vehemently – about policy.
We have an opportunity to model within our own sector the kind of democracy we hope to strengthen: one that can work across ideological, geographic, and cultural differences in pursuit of a shared future.
Canada’s democratic traditions are grounded, at their best, in the ability to work across difference. That ability is what every foundation in this country depends on, regardless of mandate. Whether focused on health, the arts, youth, sports, housing, environment, education, or reconciliation, foundations require engaged publics, constructive public debate, and functioning governments. Ignoring the basics of our democracy at this time would be to imperil progress in all areas of policy.
Now the harder part. As a network of foundations, we need to hold ourselves to the same standard. The people in this network will not always agree with one another. The temptation will be to sort ourselves the way the rest of society is increasingly sorted: by ideology, identity, or geography. If we do that, we will only reinforce existing echo chambers. But there is good reason to think we can do better. Citizens’ assemblies and other experiments in participatory democracy have shown, repeatedly, that when Canadians sit down together to work through hard questions, they find far more common ground than our public discourse would suggest. We should expect no less of ourselves.
Foundations bring particular strengths to this work. We can connect community organizations with institutional resources, work across sectors and jurisdictions, support a range of approaches, and invest in experimentation. Unlike many other actors, we can also make long-term commitments that extend beyond electoral cycles. These capacities do not give foundations a privileged understanding of the public interest, but they do give us an opportunity and a responsibility to support the conditions in which people can debate and pursue it together.
By collaborating, we can also reduce friction for our partners. Shared learning, coordinated funding approaches, and stronger relationships can make it easier for organizations to access resources, build connections, and spend less time navigating multiple funders.
Collective action also allows us to tackle challenges that would be difficult to address individually. By exploring common approaches to due diligence and learning from one another’s successes and failures, we can reduce risk while supporting innovation. And where promising solutions emerge, coordinated or pooled funding can help scale them more quickly than any single foundation could on its own.
This work is urgent. It needs foundations willing to step out of their comfort zones, develop honest relationships with new peers, listen deeply, speak honestly, and believe that we are stronger as a collective than we are individually. In doing so, we have an opportunity to model within our own sector the kind of democracy we hope to strengthen: one that can work across ideological, geographic, and cultural differences in pursuit of a shared future.
Through Democracy Funders Canada, participants will learn together, strengthen relationships across the sector, and identify opportunities for coordinated action. We believe now is the time to strengthen and renew our democracy, while remaining open to what democratic life might become. All Canadian grant-making foundations interested in these questions are invited to join us.
