National Democratic Institute

National Democratic Institute
AbbreviationNDI
Formation1983
TypeNon-profit non-governmental organization
52-1338892
Headquarters455 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., U.S.
President
Tamara Cofman Wittes
Websitewww.ndi.org Edit this at Wikidata

The National Democratic Institute (NDI)[a] is a non-profit American non-governmental organization whose stated mission is to "support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide through citizen participation, openness and accountability".[1] It is funded primarily by the United States and other Western governments, by major corporations and by nonprofits like the Open Society Foundations.

The NDI was founded in 1983, shortly after the United States Congress created the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).[2] The NED's creation was followed by the establishment of three related institutes: the Center for International Private Enterprise, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and the National Republican Institute for International Affairs, later renamed the International Republican Institute (IRI). NED provides funds to these three institutes and an expanding number of private sector groups so that they are able to carry out their programs abroad.[3]

While headquartered in Washington, D.C., NDI operates exclusively outside of the United States, promoting democratic civil participation, elections, debates, democratic governance, democracy and technology, political inclusion of marginalized groups, and gender, women and democracy, peace and security, political parties, and youth political participation worldwide.[4][5] Officially non-partisan, NDI takes no position on U.S. elections, though maintains a loose affiliation with the Democratic Party and is an associated partner of the social-democratic Progressive Alliance,[6] a "cooperating organization" with Liberal International and an affiliated organisation of Centrist Democrat International.[7][8][9]


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  1. ^ About NDI, 23 January 2017
  2. ^ Idea to Reality: NED at 25
  3. ^ NED: History
  4. ^ NDI: What We Do
  5. ^ Martin, Michael (August 31, 2023). "Why have we seen so many recent coups across West and Central Africa?". NPR. Retrieved November 28, 2023.
  6. ^ "Progressive Alliance". progressive-alliance.info/. Retrieved 2024-08-22.
  7. ^ FAQs Archived 2015-08-01 at the Wayback Machine at ndi.org
  8. ^ "Cooperating Organisations". Liberal-international.org. Retrieved May 20, 2018.
  9. ^ "IDC-CDI". idc-cdi.com/. Retrieved 2024-06-01.