Democracy
Government delivery failures erode the public trust on which democratic institutions depend.
Philanthropic PartnershipsA neglected field
A neglected field
A massive opportunity
Philanthropy has neglected government effectiveness and underinvested in field-building. We work where those two gaps meet.
neglect That CompoundsA massive resource gap
A massive resource gap
that deepens the problem
Two bodies of evidence point to the same conclusion: the philanthropic sector is systematically underinvesting in exactly the work that could have the highest leverage.
3%
Of $14.7 billion in foundation funding for democracy-related causes over the past decade, just $478 million went to improving government capacity and performance.
Donors neglect government capacity
“Philanthropic funders are skimping on investing in the capacity and performance of our faltering governing institutions… This is a recipe for failure.”
Daniel Stid, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute. Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2026
State capacity
field-building
Donors neglect field-building
“Field-building efforts are one of the most valuable investments funders can make, but historically such efforts are the least funded.”
The Bridgespan Group, cited in David Beckman, “An Opportunity to Build, In the Crisis”. Stanford Social Innovation Review, March 2025
Resource constraints at the intersection of these two neglects are especially acute
Behind some of the most significant social accomplishments of recent decades — reductions in youth tobacco use, marriage equality, declining teen pregnancy rates — was a common ingredient: focused investment in building the shared capacity and coordination of a field. Funders can play a decisive role in accelerating the growth of nascent fields.
Why this is relevant to Every Donor's Portfolio
Whatever you fund, the path to impact runs through effective government
Government's ability to reliably deliver outcomes in any policy domain hinges on a strong operating model. Wherever your priorities lie, state capacity shapes whether your investments pay off.
Economic Mobility
Workforce development, benefits delivery, and small-business support run on outdated systems.
Infrastructure & Housing
Permitting timelines stretch for years and add billions in cost.
Education
Student learning hinges on a public system that can attract, retain, and develop effective teachers.
Science & R&D
Federal research grants take months to process, and researchers spend nearly half their time on paperwork.
Whatever your focus
Healthcare, immigration, criminal justice, national security, and more... every policy domain depends on a government that can execute.
Who's investing and Why
Donors who are leading the way
A growing group of philanthropies recognizes state capacity as the high-leverage investment it is. They come to this work from different starting points (democracy, science, economic mobility, infrastructure) but share a conviction that strengthening government's ability to deliver is foundational to progress in every domain.
Institutional donors
Individuals & funds
Seemay Chou & Jed McCaleb
through Astera Institute
Minerva FundAdam WinkelKatherine BradleyRobert & Maurine Rothschild FundJohn WolthuisWilliam JanewaySteve NewmanAnonymous donors“Laura and John Arnold have always been willing to take big swings at thorny, systemic problems. When we looked at the lack of state capacity in the United States we saw exactly that kind of opportunity: a foundational issue that affects every area we care about, with almost no one funding it seriously. Investing in Recoding America was a chance to not just fund a project but to change how every worthwhile project gets done. That’s the kind of big bet that can change the trajectory of a whole portfolio of issues.”
“We fund science because we want it to change people’s lives, and that has forced us to confront an uncomfortable truth: the systems meant to carry a discovery into the world are too often the ones holding it back. Government is the largest of those systems, and the most consequential. Whatever your ambitions for science, or for anything else, the road to scale runs through government that actually works, and that is why we’re backing Recoding America.”
The Recoding America FundMatch capital to scale Keep the field focused Shared risk, collective expertise Lower cost for donors
A fund built for an emerging field
The state capacity field is young, fast-moving, and made up of diverse organizations that are still building connections to one another. For donors new to this space, knowing where to place bets, how to evaluate opportunities, and which efforts will compound is a real challenge. For the organizations doing the work, fragmented fundraising from dozens of individual prospects drains time and energy from the mission itself.
The Recoding America Fund is a pooled philanthropic vehicle designed for exactly this stage of a field's development. It aggregates resources, coordinates investments, and lets donors participate in the field's growth without having to build their own program infrastructure from scratch.
Systemic problems require aggregated resources. A pooled fund enables larger, more coordinated investments than any individual funder could support alone.
When organizations chase grants from hundreds of prospects, they can't focus on the work. A pooled fund reduces that burden so the field can concentrate on outcomes.
Pooled due diligence, specialized staff, and deep field knowledge reduce duplication and give donors confidence to back higher-risk, higher-return bets.
Donors avoid the overhead of building their own capacity to invest in state capacity. The Fund is a lean, high-efficiency way to deploy capital in a coordinated way.
Get involved
Fuel the field
This field is ready to grow. The window for reform is wide open. What's missing is capital. If you're a funder who wants your investments to compound across every issue you care about, let's talk.