Australian Democracy Network

Funding area: Public debate

The Australian Democracy Network works for a healthy democracy which puts people and planet first. ADN brings people and organisations together to share resources and strategy to achieve the changes that make our democracy more fair, open, participatory, and accountable.

Visit website: australiandemocracy.org.au

Grants

2023 Signature Grant, $50,000

2022 Signature Grant, $70,000

2021 Rapid Response Grant, $20,000

2021 Signature Grant, $100,000

2020 Signature Grant, $100,000

Core and responsive funding

Mannifera has provided core and responsive multi-year funding to ADN. Since ADN’s first ever funding provided by Mannifera (in early 2020), the team has grown from one to five part-time staff and its annual budget has grown tenfold. ADN runs two flagship collaborations:

#OurDemocracy is a movement of people and dozens of organisations working together to address state capture and get big money out of our political system, so that our democracy can work for all of us. Leading up to the 2022 federal election, #OurDemocracy joined forces with The Big Deal documentary team to disseminate the Framework for a Fair Democracy, informing and bolstering the work of the many community-led Independent campaigns focused on integrity.

Hands Off Our Charities is an alliance of over 100 Australian charities who have successfully defended our right to advocate for the charitable sector and the communities it serves, including getting the proposed ACNC Governance Standard 3 amendments disallowed in the Senate, stopping the passage of Voter ID legislation and getting amendments to the ‘political campaigner’ bill.

The passage of anti-protest laws in 2022 has spurred greater public engagement on this issue than has been seen in years, creating the preconditions for a national civil society-led movement. In 2023, ADN received funding to support their coalition with Human Rights Law Centre to protect the democratic right to protest.