The UK Democracy Fund (the Fund) is a pooled Fund set up by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust (JRRT) in 2019 and supported by a group of committed funders, including a number of charitable trusts. Independent and non-partisan, the Fund is helping build a healthy democracy – one in which everyone can participate and where political power is shared fairly. The Fund addresses the challenge of funding democratic participation and tackling political inequality.
The Fund has three broad goals:
Enabling everyone to vote: Building support for reforms to ensure a simple, seamless and accessible voting system fit for the 21st century.
Extending the right to vote: Advocating in support of expanding the franchise for 16- and 17-year-olds and settled UK residents from overseas.
Increasing participation of everyone in our elections: Making an effort to raise the turnout of low-propensity voters to improve fairness in our democracy.
Enabling everyone to vote: Advocating for AVR
The UK Democracy Fund advocates for the introduction of automatic voter registration (AVR), through commissioned research and grant making, such as support for the ongoing campaign from Unlock Democracy.
The Fund has also supported research into improving the UK’s electoral data deficit, making the case for establishing a comprehensive architecture and approach to electoral data to enable a fairer and more inclusive democracy.
Extending the right to vote: Votes at 16 and for settled migrants
Recent grants from the Fund to My Life My Say and Politics in Action (in Northern Ireland) are supporting the campaign for Votes at 16. A new report commissioned by the UK Democracy Fund, Evidence and Good Practice on Lowering the Voting Age to 16 is coming soon.
In 2024, the Fund awarded a grant to the Migrant Democracy Project for their Our Home Our Vote campaign for residence-based voting rights.
Increasing participation: 2024 General Election
Ahead of the General Election in July 2024, the Fund focused its efforts on supporting voter registration and turnout of low-voting demographics.
The Fund made grants to organisations specifically focusing on:
- Young people, especially those with characteristics that make them less likely to vote;
- Those ethnicities and nationalities least likely to vote particularly: people of African heritage; people of Caribbean heritage; people of South Asian heritage; Commonwealth citizens; EU citizens who experience racism or are from racialised minorities;
- Those who move house frequently, private renters and the vulnerably housed; and
- Those with lower incomes, particularly those without educational qualifications.
Find out more
You can find out more about what we have funded here.
And read about our learning so far here.
If you are interested in applying for a grant, please see our funding framework.
What we will not fund
- Partisan activities: The Fund operates on a non-partisan basis. We support grantees to encourage people to register to vote and to turn out to vote, but not for anyone or any party in particular – see Electoral Commission guidance. We will want to talk to applicants about how they will ensure their planned activities are non-partisan, taking account of content, tone, timing and calls to action.
- By-elections and local election activity: we will not fund by-elections or local election activities unless we are learning or testing something that will close the participation gap and/or can be built upon in our plans for voting systems reform.
- Small-scale outreach work: similarly, we will not support small-scale campaigns, unless they seek to generate new learning on how to reach a specific audience, or clearly demonstrate how they will contribute to new evidence to support our goals.
How does the UK Democracy Fund operate?
The Fund operates on an independent and strictly non-partisan basis. It does not seek to influence the outcome of elections.
The Fund is operated and managed by JRRT.
JRRT directors make decisions on which applications contribute most effectively to the Fund’s desired outcomes.
The Fund is open to contributions from a range of sources, charitable and non-charitable. JRRT ensures that charitable funds are used for charitable purposes, and that all funds are allocated in line with electoral law.
We recognise that there are others working to improve the health of our democracy, and aim to contribute to an ecosystem of donors, activists and others keen to engage everyone in the voting system.
If you would like to support the work of the UK Democracy Fund, please contact: DemocracyFund@jrrt.org.uk
Contributors to the UK Democracy Fund
The following funders have contributed to the UK Democracy Fund: Barrow Cadbury Trust Ltd (Registered Charity: 1115476.); Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (Registered Charity: 210037); John Ellerman Foundation (Registered Charity: 263207); Scurrah Wainwright Charity (Registered Charity: 1002755); Andrew Wainwright Reform Trust (Company No. 2608087); The Tinsley Charitable Trust (Registered Charity: 1020294); The Blagrave Trust (Registered Charity: 1164021); Unbound Philanthropy and the Family Office (Company No. OC384120); Paul Hamlyn Foundation (Registered Charity: 1102927); Porticus UK (Registered Charity: 1069245); The Symondson Foundation, a giving fund within the Master Charitable Trust (Registered Charity: 1139904)
JRRT contributes directly to the Fund and additionally provides the grant management, office and finance services.