Defending Rights & Dissent (DRAD) is a national civil liberties organization that defends free speech, the right to protest, government transparency, and protections for dissent. It combines grassroots organizing, policy advocacy, investigative FOIA work, and public education to challenge political surveillance, secrecy in national security, criminalization of protest, and prosecutions of whistleblowers.
Advocacy against political surveillance and excessive national security secrecy; defending First Amendment free expression and assembly rights; protecting whistleblowers and journalists; promoting FOIA transparency and government accountability; opposing undue expansion of executive war powers and laws that criminalize dissent.
Primarily funded by tax-deductible individual donations and grants from foundations and philanthropic organizations, supplemented by project-specific grants and small grants for investigative work.
Result of a merger of the Defending Dissent Foundation and the Bill of Rights Defense Committee; frequently works in coalitions with civil liberties organizations and advocacy groups such as the ACLU, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Amnesty International, the National Lawyers Guild, and grassroots protest networks.
501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (civil liberties advocacy)
