Commitment Campaigns

Opportunity

By listening to its constituency, Democracy Fund identified a gap threatening the effectiveness of the pro-democracy movement—vital organizations were receiving funding too late, and often only during active election seasons. This “boom-and-bust” funding made it difficult to hire and train staff, challenging to sustain capacity for year-round and multiyear strategies, and left organizations unable to fully ramp up work when immediate threats to voters and voting emerged. Democracy Fund recognized that this was little more than a matter of misaligned timing and that with intention and coordination, it could bring timely, meaningful support to the pro-democracy movement.

Approach

Democracy Fund invited Williams Group to build two coordinated digital commitment campaigns designed to inform funders about the challenges facing the field, and compel them to make minor logistical shifts for the sake of effectiveness and impact. All by April was a commitment campaign built on a targeted platform urging funders to commit to getting “dollars out the door” by April, so organizations could plan, build and hire for sustained voter-centered programs ahead of the election season. The complementary Election Day to Every Day campaign advocated for sustained, multi-year funding commitments to support year-round democracy work, not just election-season activities.

Both websites featured dynamic, real-time displays of the growing partners and commitments—creating powerful social proof that motivated participation and built visible momentum. Williams Group rapidly deployed the platforms in WordPress, with designs that deliberately minimized Democracy Fund’s visual branding to help potential signatories see this as a collective movement rather than one foundation’s initiative. We crafted messages that spoke directly to peer funders about the impact of misaligned funding cycles, and the promise of participation in addressing those issues. Importantly, we designed platform functionality to balance transparency with security—protecting against bots and bad actors while accommodating funders who preferred either public recognition or anonymous participation.