Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE): Faith In/And Democracy

Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) administers a funding and learning initiative to invest in and promote engagement at the intersection of faith and democracy. In its second year, Faith In/And Democracy is an effort to explore the ways faith and faith communities can support democracy and civic life.

The initiative will explore these framing questions in 2020-2021:

How do we encourage and support more people to build relationships and work with people who come from different racial, religious, cultural and/or political backgrounds and perspectives? How do we invest in faith communities as viable sites for this work?

Through this question, we seek to understand:

• What personal capacities—values, training, experience—support faith leaders to engage across difference and prepare them to lead that work in their institutions?
• What institutional capacities—strategic, programmatic, tactical—best enable organizations to do that work successfully within and beyond their own constituencies?
• What calls leaders and enables institutions to confront discomfort and disagreement in their efforts to “reach beyond the choir?”

“We have a two-prong operating belief: there is a lot of faith-based civic engagement work happening without adequate resources, and that this work is a high-leverage investment,” said Kristen Cambell, Executive Director of PACE. “Our pilot fund in 2019 received over $6.3 million in funding requests from over 130 organizations. While our contribution remains modest compared to the need, we believe we can play an important role in scaling attention for this important work. As we pivot from pilot to program in 2020, we want to identify new partners and accelerate learnings in hopes others will see the power and potential of faith communities and the role they play during such a critical time in our democracy.”

Click here to learn more about the initiative