About the Fund for Democratic Communities

The Fund for Democratic Communities is a Greensboro, North Carolina based limited-life foundation supporting community-based initiatives that foster authentic democracy and make communities better places to live. Operating from 2007 to 2020, F4DC made over $11 million in grants and provided over 100,000 hours in technical assistance to support grassroots democratic efforts, primarily focused in the Southeastern U.S., North Carolina, and Greensboro, our home town.

F4DC was a relatively small foundation, but across our 13 years of operation, we tried to make tangible progress in building a more just, democratic, and sustainable South before we completed the spend out of our resources in 2020. Our decision to sunset, rather than exist in perpetuity like most foundations, allowed us to bring more financial resources to bear faster. Recognizing the limits of our time and resources, we focused primarily on two things: 1) building models and infrastructure for the world we want, and 2) supporting institutions and movements that build economic democracy, especially finance and development infrastructure that supports cooperative enterprises and community ownership