Our Giving Fund: Defending Democracy in H1/2025

Now with a new research partner

Since July 31, 2025, new donations to the fund have been allocated based on the recommendations of our new partner Power for Democracies. We are very excited about the first cohort of recommended organizations, which we expect by the end of October.

We already shared news about this transition—which for us marks an exciting step toward even greater impact—in the Fund Update Q4/2024 and in a special update for recurring donors in mid-July.

In a recent blog post by Markus N. Beeko, founder and CEO of Power for Democracies, you’ll find more interesting background information. And of course, we’ve also updated our fund website as part of the transition.

Urgent promotion of the international perspective

On our new fund website, we have written the following about “Backsliding in the middle of Europe”:

“Even though the example of the United States under the second Trump administration—according to the V-Dem Institute “the fastest autocratization in modern U.S. history”—is particularly striking and concerning, it is also clearly and currently reflected in the example of Europe.

• Researchers no longer classify Hungary and Serbia as democracies — they are so-called “electoral autocracies”. These are countries under autocratic rule with heavily manipulated “pseudo-elections” intended to maintain the appearance of democratic governance.
• Several European countries have, in recent years, fallen back into the category of “electoral democracy”, including Greece, Poland, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and Austria. Poland is currently striving to return to the ranks of liberal democracies, although the results of the presidential election in June 2025 have made success less likely.
• In the analysis, several other countries are still classified as “liberal democracies” according to the scientific data, but they have government participation from right-wing populist or far-right parties that are pushing these countries toward autocratization: this applies to Finland, Italy, Croatia, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Slovakia.”

There are therefore numerous parallel hotspots, and all the more reason to use the resources of the giving fund as wisely and evidence-based as possible on an international scale.

We thank you for your commitment to this cause!

Current allocation of funds

From January through the end of July, we were pleased to see nearly €335,000 in new contributions to the Defending Democracy Fund, which we are now distributing to the supported organizations. These include three “long known faces”—Verfassungsblog, HateAid, and Flow Fund for Eastern Germany—as well as an exciting newcomer, Alliance4Europe.

In all cases, of course, the central criteria for our decision are fulfilled: On the one hand, we assess the work of these organizations in the landscape of democracy defense and promotion in Germany as particularly relevant, clearly neglected, and comprehensibly effective. On the other hand, all recipient organizations and projects still have significant funding requirements for their core projects in 2026 that cannot be reliably covered from other sources.

In view of the increasing public and covert attacks on civil society organizations and their funding - particularly in the area of democracy - we have given the second aspect, namely the funding situation in 2026, a somewhat higher priority than before.

The following three organizations or projects may already be familiar to you if you were a donor in 2024. If not, you can find more detailed introductions to them in the blog posts here (Verfassungsblog), here (HateAid), and here (Flow Fund for Eastern Germany):

• Verfassungsblog (€100,000): Core funding for 2026. The organization’s work remains crucial, urgent, and unique. In its Justice Project, it examines where the judiciary in Germany could be threatened by constitutional adversaries—both at the federal and state levels. The Thuringia Project had already identified similar risks for Thuringia in 2023/2024, and developments since the 2024 state election demonstrate how justified the concern for the state’s legal system was.
• HateAid (€100,000): Core funding for 2026. We continue to see an urgent need to defend and enforce the Digital Services Act and the AI Act in order to safeguard fundamental rights in the digital space. The urgency of this issue grows daily with the rapid advancement of generative AI, particularly affecting children and adolescents as well as older citizens who have limited knowledge of the many manipulative, polarizing, and often illegal activities on so-called “social media.”
• Flow Fund for Eastern Germany (€30,000): Funding a spot in the second cohort of this project, led by the Schöpflin Stiftung and Kinnings Foundation. This highly innovative approach aims to strengthen, connect, and build cohesion among pro-democracy individuals in the eastern German states. The primary method is providing donation funds that are distributed to projects by the so-called “Flow Funders”—engaged young people who, with deep knowledge of local conditions and opportunities, decide how the funds are used, guided by the foundations’ experts. The evaluation report for the first cohort (2024) can be found here.

And there is a new addition:

• Alliance4Europe (€105,000): Core funding for 2026. Alliance4Europe was founded in 2018 as a non-profit GmbH based in Munich and has increasingly focused in recent years on promoting and defending a pro-democracy, digitized European society. Key initiatives include the Europe-wide Counter Disinformation Network as well as public campaigns and advocacy work on EU digital legislation and democracy promotion.

News on previous grants - from the organizations

Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (150,000 euros from the Q4/2024 funds)

“With this support, the Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF) has been able to expand its commitment to democracy and a strong civil society - above all through more intensive and better communication such that it can reach more people with its services and provide them with targeted support.

The GFF uses legal tools to protect civil society engagement against far-right extremism and to strengthen local actors and non-profit organizations. This includes information resources, the legal aid fund “Gegenrechtsschutz,” and strategic litigation. In addition, GFF strengthens democratic discourse online and the transparency of major online platforms through the Center for User Rights. In doing so, it advocates for users’ rights and actively contributes to the enforcement of the Digital Services Act (DSA).

RAA Sachsen (50,000 euros from the Q4/2024 funds)

“YOUth lead the change - our motto and our thanks!

Thanks to the support, the training of more than 30 motivated young people from Saxony to become multipliers and role models for diversity sensitivity, the communication of values and social commitment was continued and completed. The peerleaders have set a variety of examples against exclusion and discrimination at seven secondary schools in Saxony with almost 2,500 pupils, strengthening themselves and their personalities and changing attitudes and perspectives on a small and large scale.

“A few weeks ago, we created a display mannequin at our school on the topic of democracy. One day, when we came to school, we noticed that
it had been stripped, which really upset us. We then decided to talk with the students from the class who had done it. At first, we were quite
unsure, but we knew we had to address it. We spent some time talking with them, explaining why we were doing this and what the idea
behind it was. In the end, the other students thought it was really cool too. This showed us that talking to each other can solve problems very quickly.” – Quote from a peer leader

The donations were used to finance three supra-regional training weekends, pay expense allowances for the trainers, who are also young people, organize one-day seminars and methodological training and raise awareness of the topic of diversity orientation in Saxony through public relations work.”

HateAid (377,000 euros from the Q4/2024 funds)

“Legal cost financing

In addition to providing advice, we support those affected in enforcing their rights by covering court and legal costs. During the project period, we were able to finance 88 criminal charges, 30 warning letters and 14 civil lawsuits in court thanks to the support provided by our legal costs funding. In suitable cases, we offer to finance civil proceedings for those affected. This included one case during the project period in which we were able to help a client successfully defend herself against cyberstalking. The perpetrator is now no longer allowed to stalk her digitally (or in person), otherwise he faces imprisonment or a fine. This is the first violence protection order we have applied for.

Digital Services Act

Thanks to this support, we were also able to critically monitor the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in the first half of 2025, test the instruments of the DSA in practice and consistently report possible violations of the DSA to the responsible supervisory authorities. This enabled us to provide even better support to those affected by digital violence and help to ensure that existing (EU) law is consistently enforced in the interests of those affected.”

(Photo source of the title image: Sphere within a Sphere, sculpture by Arnaldo Pomodoro, United Nations New York; photographed in 2005 by Alfred Hutter aka Gentry.)

About the author

Stephan Schwahlen.

Senior Advisor Donor Advisory

Book a meeting

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.