Donate effectively to protect our democracy

Author’s Note: This post was written in 2024. At that time, the only priority was defending democracy in Germany the focus of our charitable giving. Since August 2025, we have been working with Power for Democracies a specialized research partner, which allows us to international recommend effective democracy projects. However, much of the text below goes beyond a purely German perspective; its points can be applied to other countries as well.

Since the publication of the CORRECTIV-investigation “Geheimplan gegen Deutschland” (Secret plan against Germany) on January 10, 2024, the threat to democracy has reached the consciousness of many Germans. More than 3 million people have taken to the streets in recent months to demonstrate against right-wing extremism, representing the largest public protest in Germany since the World War II.

On sober reflection, is the current excitement justified? And if so, what does this mean for donations, especially effective donations?

This is the subject of our two latest blog articles. In the first part, I shed light on what democracy actually is and what we know about how to defend and strengthen it. In this second part, I share my thoughts on where donations can be put to good use in Germany today.

What can we do today?

Thanks to our work over the past five years in the field of donor advice, which has contributed to the establishment of Power for Democracies , we have also gained insights into a large number of measures and organizations in Germany and have built up a network of competent discussion partners. Concrete assessments, explanations and (above all) evaluations of the expected impact, so to the effectiveness of the respective measures are, however, practically impossible to find, as explained in detail in the first part of our “mini-series”.

Due to the urgency of the issue, we would like to share our thoughts on where donations can be used wisely to strengthen democracy in the current situation in Germany, despite the high level of uncertainty. We know the founders and/or leaders of all the organizations personally. Some of them we have been in contact with for years. We consider the measures they are taking to be suitable for supporting the resilience of our democracy, even in the short term. And all of the organizations listed here are currently in need of additional funding to carry out their work on the scale that is urgently needed.

Our Recommendationssince February 2024

Independent, investigative journalism: CORRECTIV – Recherchen für die Gesellschaft gGmbH

Many people are currently hearing about CORRECTIV for the first time. This organization plays a leading role in non-profit investigative journalism. Its mission is to strengthen democracy and, since its foundation in 2014, CORRECTIV has repeatedly received awards for his journalistic work. CORRECTIV is currently focusing in particular on the New Right and the German elections in 2024 and 2025.

Democratic shaping of progress: Demokratie-Stiftung (democracy foundation) campact

Many people already know the name campact : As a citizens’ movement with the structure of a registered association, which is primarily involved in public campaigns to strengthen democracy and human rights and to protect the climate and nature.

The Demokratie-Stiftung (democracy foundation) campact bundles the special expertise and many years of experience of the citizens’ movement and focuses it on finding and supporting promising democracy promotion projects. This enables these projects to become even more successful and to grow.

Democratic participation in the digital world: HateAid gGmbH

HateAid was founded in late 2018 to advise and defend victims of online hate and digital violence. Lawsuits on behalf of public figures such as Renate Künast and Igor Levitt quickly led to greater publicity. Meanwhile, HateAid has become an important voice in German and EU politics when it comes to creating and enforcing laws against digital violence and for democratic coexistence in the digital space.

The Flow Fund East Germany is an innovative program designed specifically to
effective channeling of funds to—compared to Western
Federal states – pro-democratic sentiment is still not strong enough
Civil Society in the Eastern German States. Nine carefully
Selected young leaders use their connections and their
extensive local knowledge of the conditions, and distribute as so-called
”Flow Funder” the funds from the fund.

The project was initiated by the department working in the field of democracy promotion in
Germany’s leading Schöpflin Foundation, in collaboration with Kinnings
Foundation.

Democracy suffers greatly from the destructive way in which the
so-called “social media”: Their algorithms favor
The dissemination of deliberately truncated and emotionally charged content. This core characteristic is ideal for systematic agitation, polarization, and incitement to commit crimes.

Among other things, this has led to anti-constitutional parties such as the AfD dominating many social media platforms, most strikingly on the Chinese platform TikTok, which is used primarily by young people: For 23% of 18- to 24-year-olds worldwide, TikTok is a key “news” channel.

The #reclaimtiktok project was launched in the spring of 2024 to counter the media dominance of the AfD and the many affiliated accounts working on its behalf on TikTok, such as, among others,. here is explained.

This list will be updated as we identify new funding priorities. If you’d like to support our current recommendations, you can do so directly through our dedicated Giving Funds Defend Democracy do.

Join us in making a contribution to defending our democracy!

About the author

Stephan Schwahlen.

Senior Advisor Donor Advisory

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I have been advising major donors on their grant decisions since 2018, and since 2023 as part of the Effektiv Spenden team. I am also a co-founder of Power for Democracies gGmbH. Feel free to reach out if you have any thoughts on our recommendations or would like to donate a larger sum. We can suggest projects that can only be implemented with larger donations. I look forward to hearing from you via e-mail.