The Foundation supports initiatives that protect and strengthen the democratic spaces where people participate in public life and hold power to account. We encourage organizations to review our What We Fund and Our Approach pages to assess whether there is alignment between their work and our mission.

We recognize that many organizations play an essential role in supporting inclusion, representation, and the well-being of diverse communities. Strengthening civil society and reducing barriers to participation are important contributions to a more equitable society. The Euphrosine Foundation’s “Foster diverse participation” priority is specifically focused on participation in democratic life. We do not typically fund initiatives whose primary objective is to support or enable the participation of a specific group through services, community programming, or capacity-building alone. We prioritize initiatives that directly shape, expand, or transform participation in democratic processes and public life—such as voting, civic engagement, elected office, public dialogue, or decision-making—particularly where the primary focus is on influencing systems, institutions, or broader patterns of participation, rather than supporting individuals’ participation on a case-by-case basis.

The Foundation may support work related to tax policy and fiscal governance where it directly contributes to democratic accountability, institutional integrity, or the functioning of public institutions. We are more likely to support initiatives focused on issues such as transparency, anti-corruption, access to information, illicit financial flows, or the democratic implications of concentrated economic power. The Foundation does not support initiatives focused on advocating for specific redistributive or fiscal policy outcomes, particularly where the work is strongly associated with partisan or ideological economic positioning.

The Foundation’s human rights-based funding is focused on rights and freedoms that shape democratic participation and the relationship between individuals and public institutions. Our interest in this area is rooted in strengthening the conditions necessary for an open, pluralistic, and democratic society. This includes work related to fundamental freedoms, civic participation, equality rights, Indigenous self-determination, institutional accountability, and the protection of democratic space. Because our focus is specifically tied to democratic functioning and participation, the Foundation does not typically fund initiatives primarily centered on socio-economic rights (e.g., housing, environment) or criminal law matters. We also do not generally support individual representation or case support unless the work is designed to produce broader systemic or precedent-setting impact.

We recognize that local journalism is essential to healthy communities and a functioning democracy. While we deeply value the role of local media, the Euphrosine Foundation does not directly fund local journalism initiatives at the moment.  Our own funding in this space is focused on supporting organizations and initiatives that operate at a systemic level, particularly those whose core mission is investigative journalism and accountability reporting, as well as efforts that strengthen the information environment, press freedom, access to data and information and public discourse. We also support the broader journalism ecosystem through strategic investments in collective initiatives such as the Journalism Futures Fund, led by the Inspirit Foundation.