Integrity Institute Receives $1 Million from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Thanks to the general operating support from William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Integrity Institute can expand its capacity to protect the social internet and enable it to help individuals, societies, and democracies thrive.
New York, NY – The Integrity Institute announces that it has received $1 million of general operating support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Since its founding in October 2021, the Integrity Institute’s activities have had global impact in the United States, the European Union, and beyond. Thanks to this generous and flexible support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Integrity Institute will be able to expand organizational capacity to operationalize open-source research through fellowship programs; to increase offerings in support of global elections integrity; and to engage more intensively with policymakers, regulators, and civil society organizations.
“When we started funding cyber policy work a decade ago, the field was at an inflection point, with a growing recognition that we needed more experts with the right mix of skills to craft effective responses to malicious actors in cyberspace,” said Eli Sugarman, who leads the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s Cyber Initiative. “Today, it’s just as clear that the trust and safety field is at a similar inflection point, and we’re proud to support the important work Integrity Institute is doing to keep people safe online.”
Jeff Allen, co-founder and chief research officer of the Integrity Institute, said, “We are grateful for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s support as we work toward a healthy social internet. This support is a vote of confidence in the impact we have already made so far, and its flexible structure will allow us to have global impact at a critical time when governments around the world are implementing internet regulation, countries and platforms are preparing for a wave of elections in 2024, and the industry downturn has created a pivotal moment for integrity and trust and safety work as a profession. We look forward to developing additional resources aimed at helping practitioners on social media platforms and policymakers across the globe hold platforms accountable for better practices and fewer social harms.”
The Integrity Institute is a think tank powered by a community of integrity professionals: tech workers with experience in integrity roles — roles dedicated to fixing harms to people and society within social internet platforms. As of June 2023, the Institute cultivates a thriving community of 210+ integrity professionals with experience on trust and safety, product, integrity, and quality teams across 40+ different platforms – including Facebook, YouTube, Google, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Quora, and Clubhouse. Institute members have observed, and often helped build, the architecture of the social internet, and they are committed to sharing their expertise so that the social internet can help individuals, societies, and democracies thrive.
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