Democracy and Media Fund
We provide grants for initiatives that contribute to our mission.
Innovative perspectives
One of the ways we fulfil our mission is to provide grants (financial support) to projects and organisations that work within our focus areas. Our aim is to boost relevant developments in these areas. For this reason, we prefer to support initiatives that bring innovation, change or fresh perspectives. In doing so, we do not shy away from initiatives that may cause tension. We also provide grants to initiatives that cannot, or hardly, find support elsewhere, for instance due to the progressive, innovative or uncertain nature of the solution they seek. The initiative’s quality and potential are always the main focus: that is why we give grants to everyone – from established organisations and informal collectives to individuals. Our focus is on initiatives with an impact in the Netherlands.
Our approach
We have a proactive approach, which means that we ourselves seek or help to create initiatives that have the greatest impact. We invite parties from our network or beyond to apply, put out theme-based applications to which expert individuals or organisations can respond, and bring together relevant parties – such as civil society organisations or researchers – to work together on new initiatives.
At the same time, we want to remain open to parties that are perhaps less visible to us. We are therefore also accessible, via our ideas form ook laagdrempelig bereikbaar voor mensen en organisaties met ideeën die binnen onze focusgebieden passen. Find our grounds for exclusion at the bottom of this page.
We respond to an idea submitted via the ideas form within four weeks. If the idea is positively assessed, the applicant can apply for project support. This application generally takes six weeks to process, as do project applications by invitation. We will only consider an application for organisational support if we ourselves have issued an invitation for these applications. We do not apply a fixed deadline for processing those applications.
Types of grants
We provide different types of grants:
Project support
We support both small and larger projects, short-term or multi-year, from the exploratory phase to implementation. The added value of our contribution in boosting relevant developments is decisive here.
Support for partnership
We provide separate support to organisations and individuals who wish to work together to increase joint impact or initiate new solutions in the area of our strategic priorities.
Organisational support
We provide multi-year, general support to a small group of organisations whose work is closely aligned with our values and goals. We maintain close relationships with these organisations.
Focus areas
Our current strategy has three focus areas. Periodically, a specific topic within these focus areas is highlighted. This allows us to work flexibly and deliver targeted impact where and when we can add value. You can stay up to date through our newsletter
Vigorous democracy
In a vigorous democracy, accessible and inclusive public debate is the basis for shaping our society. This is why we provide grants to:
- Initiatives that give a platform to underserved, vulnerable or forward-looking interests and perspectives in the public debate.
- Initiatives that help democratic decision-making to find a basis in equitable public debate.
- Initiatives that fight the undermining of public debate or democratic decision-making.
Future-proof journalism
Independent, diverse journalism is indispensable for well-functioning, democratic rule of law. This is why we provide grants to:
- Journalistic productions or platforms that give a needed and structural boost to the diversity of the independent media landscape in the Netherlands and, occasionally, beyond.
- Initiatives that encourage reflection on the position of journalism and strengthen it within the democratic rule of law.
- Initiatives that seek to create relevant, contemporary journalism that also reflects diversity in our society.
NB: The DMF upholds the importance of independent media and a pluralistic media landscape. That is why we support a wide range of media initiatives, always without exerting influence on content or compromising editorial independence. To maintain high standards of journalistic professionalism, the DMF requires that supported journalistic productions adhere to the generally accepted basic principles of journalism, as articulated in the Bordeaux Code.
Resilient rule of law
A resilient, democratic state must be able to arm itself against threats. This is why we provide grants to:
- Initiatives that work towards systemic protection of groups of citizens whose fundamental rights and freedoms are under threat.
- Initiatives that proactively defend the rule of law against harmful narratives that undermine the fundamental rights of certain groups of citizens.
- Initiatives that vigorously and innovatively promote the values on which our rule of law is based.
- Initiatives with a historical focus on periods in Dutch history when certain groups lacked fundamental rights and freedoms, in particular World War II and the Dutch colonial and slavery past.
Grounds for exclusion:
- We do not fund initiatives with a party-political or religious motive
- We do not fund initiatives by government agencies or government-affiliated executive agencies
- We do not fund initiatives with a purely commercial objective
- In principle, we do not finance purely educational projects and curricula.
Veelgestelde vragen
Basically, anyone can send in an idea. We review all ideas carefully. Each idea is reviewed by several colleagues to test whether it is sufficiently in line with SDM. We work from our three focus areas Decisive Democracy, Resilient Rule of Law and Future-Proof Journalism. What falls under these focus areas can be read here. You can also read our grounds for exclusion. Factors considered include the content and form, the profile of the applicant, the purpose and intended impact of the project. You can read what the next steps are under the next question.
Because of capacity and budget, we have to make sharp choices. Unfortunately this means that we do not explore every idea further, even if we think it is a good idea. Because of the large number of ideas we receive, if an idea is rejected we will send a standard e-mail. We will contact you if we have additional questions about the idea. If we think the idea qualifies for a grant we request that you submit a comprehensive application. Based on the comprehensive application, we will decide whether we will proceed with an award. It is therefore possible that even after submitting an application, no award will follow.
Unfortunately, due to the large number of ideas we receive and our limited capacity, we do not have the ability to provide feedback on individual ideas.
In principle, there is no maximum amount. SDM takes into account, among other things, the form, scale and feasibility of the application. SDM supports initiatives at different levels. Read more about the grant types that we give.
An application for organizational support is only possible at the invitation of SDM. This is because we only provide organizational support to organizations with which we have established a relationship by first providing project support.
SDM is certainly open to multi-year projects. The duration of the project is negotiable.
Due to the large number of contacts approaching us, it is unfortunately not possible to get acquainted with everyone. If you have a concrete question or idea, please use the idea form.
As SDM, our focus is on the Netherlands. In exceptional cases, we support initiatives with a European or global impact.
You certainly can. We look at each idea individually and a maximum of two ideas from the same person or organization at the same time.
Supported initiatives
Photography by: Anne van Zantwijk