For more than 13 million women in Texas, access to safe reproductive health care lies in the hands of just a few (mostly male) appointed judges. …

What does it mean to engage in social good if only a few voices get to define and engage in the work? — This is a lightly adapted excerpt from Brandolon Barnett’s memoir, Dreams Deferred: Recession, Struggle, and the Quest for a Better World. In 2015 I started a new role for another organization working in the “social good economy”: I would be the Research Manager at the Council on Foundations. Operating as…

This is a lightly adapted excerpt from Gemma Bull and Tom Steinberg’s, Modern Grantmaking: A Guide for Funders Who Believe Better is Possible. A Philanthropic Horror Story ‘The sheer power of grantmaking! People laugh at your jokes when they’re not funny. If you convene 100 people, 150 will show up…

Local governments have a unique opportunity to strengthen our democracy every single day by involving citizenry in a meaningful way. By Susan Charland, AICP I remember the moment I saw the headlines on January 6, 2021 and read that thousands of Americans were attacking the US Capitol. As I stared…

In an era of “alternative facts,” policy juries can take conversations out of a hyper-partisan frame — America today has a problem: its citizens fundamentally don’t trust each other. The level of partisanship in American politics has reached historic levels. This division is often personal. One recent study found that roughly half of Republicans say Democrats are “more immoral” than other Americans, while a similar number of…

Can theater increase citizens’ voice and power to influence their government? — In 2014, the New York City Council passed a historic bill to curb the invasive practice of stop-and-frisk policing, which disproportionately criminalized New Yorkers of color. During the roll call, one council member dedicated his vote to a trans woman of color named Giselle, whom he had seen share a…

Participatory budgeting can give people real agency over how their government spends its budget. — By Meg Massey and Ben Wrobel In 2014, political scientists Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page asked an important question: Just how much power does the average person have in setting federal policy? Their study’s introduction put it more bluntly: “Who really rules?” Their central finding echoed at least half…

A series exploring ideas for re-engaging citizens in the democratic process — The future of democracy should never rest on the results of a single election. But for a few days last November, it sure felt like it did. When the networks called the presidential race for Joe Biden in the late morning of November 7, the stakes couldn’t have been higher…

The secretive announcement shook up philanthropy. A dozen years later, we have to ask: was it for the better? — In May 2009, in the midst of the Great Recession, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett invited Oprah Winfrey, Michael Bloomberg and several dozen other wealthy peers to a private dinner in New York City for a frank talk about philanthropy and the role of the rich in society. The world…