Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) is an independent project housed at New America and affiliated with the Open Technology Institute. We are grateful to our funders and institutional partners (who have contributed office space, staff time, or both) for their ongoing support and enthusiasm for RDR’s work.

Current Funders

• Craig Newmark Philanthropies
• Democracy Fund
• Ford Foundation
• John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
• Luminate
• Mozilla Foundation
• Open Society Foundations
• U.S. Department of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

Note: A full list of dollar amounts and time periods for all of RDR’s contracts can be found by entering “Ranking Digital Rights” into the search box of the Active Funding Transparency Table on New America’s funding information page. Former funders are listed here.

At no time have either New America’s board, or its CEO, or any other New America program directors, been involved in any part of research conducted by RDR, including the selection and scoring of companies for the RDR Corporate Accountability Index. RDR pays New America for use of its administrative services and facilities. RDR does not take funding from any companies it ranks or any companies it may possibly rank in the future.  Work on the RDR Corporate Accountability Index and activities related to its promotion are funded entirely from the sources listed on this page.

Current Partners

• Center for Media, Data, and Society, Central European University, Hungary
• Alexander Von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin, Germany
• Access Now, USA & Global
• Centre for Internet and Society, India
• Social Media Exchange, Lebanon
• OpenNet Korea, South Korea
• Internet Sans Frontieres, France
• Derechos Digitales, Latin America
• Fundacion Karisma, Colombia
• Hong Kong Transparency Report project, Hong Kong
• Stichting Ranking Digital Rights Network

Former Funders

• Natixis Investment Managers (December 2018 speaking honorarium)
• Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (methodology research support)
• Consumer Reports (Digital Standard research contract)
• Fidelity Investments (June 2018 speaking honorarium)
• Omidyar Network (Digital ID research)
• Media Democracy Fund
• John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (2014 Knight News Challenge)
• Hivos People Unlimited
• Global Engagement Fund (Provost’s Office), University of Pennsylvania
• Internews Center for Innovation and Learning
• The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
• The Shuttleworth Foundation (Flash Grant)
• Center for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
• Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
• Mozilla Foundation (Open Web Fellows program)

The 2013 methodology development phase was carried out in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania through an interdisciplinary, university-wide project called “New Technologies, Human Rights and Transparency.” It was hosted by the Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication in collaboration with students and faculty from the Wharton School of Business, Penn Law, Penn Engineering, and the School of Arts and Sciences.

Other former institutional partners:

• Consumer Reports
• Sustainalytics (2015 Index), Canada & Netherlands
• stiftung neue verantwortung, Berlin, Germany
• Instituto de Tecnologia e Sociedade, Brazil

(Last updated:  12 June 2020)