Who funded us in 2022

We are extremely grateful for the generous support of foundations, editorial partners and individuals. See below for a list of our supporters and partners covering the period 2020.

The support we receive through the generosity of ordinary readers is really important to us. Please consider supporting us to help openDemocracy survive and grow.

You can support openDemocracy with charitable grants and gifts to the openDemocracy programme of openTrust, a UK-registered charity (#1086404).

Financial highlights

In 2022 we received £3.44m in income

And we spent £3.33m

Foundations and non-profit organisations that gave us grants

Luminate: $630,000 over 24 months for investigative journalism that promotes democratic debate; to build and deepen our impact on strengthening civic society and defending civil and human rights; to increase our readership and promote wider engagement.

Oak Foundation: £750,000 over 36 months for journalism exposing the backlash against women’s and LGBTIQ rights, influencing laws, policies and public opinion; and to increase the capacity of women and LGBTIQ journalists working in Africa, Latin America, Europe and Eurasia.

openTrust, supported by Foundation for a Just Society: $600,000 over 34 months for the expansion of our Tracking the Backlash project.

openTrust, supported by Ford Foundation: $750,000 over 39 months for cross-border work to track and challenge the backlash against women’s and LGBTIQ rights globally and contributing to a changed narrative that forefronts their perspectives and voices.

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation: $600,000 over 50 months for reporting and investigative journalism on sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Open Society Foundations: $600,000 over 33 months for exposing threats to sexual and reproductive health and rights and gender equality.

Wellspring Philanthropic Fund: $800,000 over 51 months for the expansion and strengthening of our Tracking the Backlash project in Latin America and East Africa.

Children's Investment Fund Foundation: $486,193 over 40 months for exposing global threats to sexual and reproductive rights, ensuring sexual and reproductive health rights programmes are able to operate effectively and safely.

openTrust, supported by Humanity United: $200,000 over 24 months to support our Beyond Trafficking and Slavery project.

Open Society Foundations: $340,000 over 24 months to support our investigative reporting on money laundering and corruption in the UK.

Open Society Foundations: $155,000 over 19.5 months to support democraciaAbierta.

Global Strategic Communications Council/European Climate Foundation: £80,000 over 12 months and $15,196 over eight months to expose how political and corporate influence is trying to prevent action on climate change and feeding the rollback of democratic norms, and to investigate biodiversity loss and corporatised agriculture in the UK.

Neo Philanthropy, supported by The Reva & David Logan Foundation: $100,000 over 12 months for general operating support.

Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust: £64,067 over 12 months to support our work on freedom of investigation.

openTrust, supported by Partners for a New Economy: £150,000 over 30 months to support our work on a fairer and more sustainable economy.

Open Society Foundations: $160,000 over 27 months to support reporting on human rights, labour, economic and social issues in the post-Soviet space.

openTrust, supported by Ford Foundation: $110,000 over 12 months to support our Latin American project, democraciaAbierta.

Neo Philanthropy, supported by Wallace Global Fund: $50,000 over 12 months to develop our Documenting the Resistance initiative.

openTrust, supported by The David and Elaine Potter Foundation: £40,000 over 12 months for general operating support.

openTrust, supported by Rockefeller Brothers Fund: $45,000 over 12 months to support our work on a fairer and more sustainable economy.

openTrust, supported by Legal Education Foundation: £76,500 over 24 months to support our work on government accountability and transparency.

Joffe Charitable Trust: £30,000 over one year for our work on the UK’s role as an enabler of illicit finance and corruption in the post-Soviet space.

The Robert Gavron Charitable Trust: £75,000 over three years to support our UK investigations.

Journalismfund Europe: €13,764 in 2022 to support us to scrutinise and examine the role of London’s influence industry in lobbying against climate-change action.

Fritt Ord: 150,000 kr over nine months to support our coverage of Ukraine and Russia.

openTrust, supported by Network for Social Change Charitable Trust: £19,192 over 18 months to support our work on government accountability and transparency.

Transparency International: £15,000 over 19 months to explore the relationship between property, politics and money, and their potential impact on London and Londoners.

openTrust, supported by Network for Social Change Charitable Trust: £7,857 over eight months to support our work on economics and climate.

Justice for Journalists Foundation: $30,000 over ten months to support our work on strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPPs).

openTrust, supported by Rockefeller Brothers Fund: $85,000 over 12 months to support our environmental journalism.

Common Action Forum: €6,000 over six months to support democraciaAbierta.

Fritt Ord: 100,000 kr over 12 months to support our work in the Middle East and North Africa.

Bath University, supported by European Research Council Executive Agency: €12,500 over 60 months to support our Beyond Trafficking and Slavery project.

Social Change Nest: £5,000 over five months to support our work on on lobbying of the UK government by the oil and gas industry.

Editorial partnerships

Free Press Unlimited as a partner in our ‘Killing the Truth’ podcast: €17,000.00 over seven months.

Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Migration and Integration, Toronto Metropolitan University, as a partner in our ‘Borders & Belonging’ podcast: £7,684 over 12 months.

Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Migration and Integration, Toronto Metropolitan University, as a partner in our Migration Futures project: $20,000 over 12 months.

London School of Economics as a partner in our ‘Changemakers’ project: £3,557 over 12 months.

Maastricht University, participating in the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Information Project ‘Spreading and Relating EU Affairs Beyond the EU Institutions’ (RELAY), as a partner in our Technology and Democracy project: €3,500 over 14 months.

Individual donations

Three thousand, nine hundred and fifty-six individuals who donated less than £5,000 each gave us £605,270 in total.

openTrust received donations made for openDemocracy projects on behalf of individuals of just under £125,000 during 2022 (and just over £9,000 in related Gift Aid). £55,375 was for work in and about Ukraine, £28,750 was for legal costs and the rest for openDemocracy’s core activities. For more details of openTrust’s finances, please see its accounts.

We received £19,546.45 from a joint crowdfunding campaign with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism to support our legal costs in a case brought by Jusan Technologies Ltd.

For details of our supporters for 2012-21, please follow this link

You can also find our accounts on the Companies House website