Craig Newmark thinks election security should be a nonpartisan effort, so he’s put up $250,000 to make sure it’s seen that way.

The San Francisco founder of Craigslist gave the money to the National Election Defense Coalition, a nonprofit group in Davis that focuses on making the machines that count the votes more accurate, more trustworthy and better able to resist hackers from inside or outside the country.

“Attacks against our voting system and voting rights put the integrity of this country’s democracy in serious jeopardy,” Newmark said in an email exchange. “Election officials and other organizations that help to facilitate our voting process can be at risk of hacking by foreign and domestic adversaries.”

The money, which came from Craig Newmark Philanthropies, “shows a lot of confidence in our work,” said Susan Greenhaigh, vice president of policy and programs for the coalition. “We’re trying to organize people on the right and people on the left” to get behind the effort to make voting technology more secure.

The group has had notable success in assembling that bipartisan support. An Aug. 26 letter calling for the House and Senate committees dealing with elections to hold a hearing with voting machine vendors was signed by organizations that included the conservative FreedomWorks and the liberal/progressive Public Citizen, along with nonpartisan groups like the NAACP and the League of Women Voters.

The letter got action. Politico Pro reported Wednesday that the Committee on House Administration is planning to hold a hearing on voting system vendors and cybersecurity.

The coalition “has a significant track record of bridging divides and helping people with different perspectives unite for the common cause of securing our elections,” Newmark said. “This is difficult work that requires a lot of expertise and I am quite proud to back their efforts.”

The group has been involved in efforts to force states to require that all voting machines provide a paper trail so the accuracy of the machine counts can be hand-checked if necessary. It’s a rule that California has had for more than a decade.

“Eleven states still have machines that only record voting electronically,” Greenhaigh said. “In 2016, foreign entities tried to hack our elections with cybertechnology. That raised the stakes quite a bit.”

This isn’t Newmark’s first excursion into the world of election technology. Earlier this year, he gave more than $1 million to the Global Cyber Alliance to develop a cybersecurity tool kit for election officials. Newmark has also backed efforts by Voto Latino to develop VoterPal, a mobile app that allows people to register their friends to vote.

His concerns extend beyond voter technology. Newmark has worked with the Brennan Center for Justice on efforts to highlight voter suppression efforts by states and organizations.

“Millions of Americans are discouraged, harassed and even forbidden from exercising their right to vote because of discriminatory ID laws, gerrymandering, cutbacks in opportunities for early voting and more,” Newmark said. “These are all-hands-on-deck matters, and we must all support those who work to secure our voting systems and who protect the rights of voters.”

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth