Written by Frances Kunreuther The day after Trump’s inauguration, I was one of the 500,000 or 1.2 million who marched in Washington, D.C. I was glad to be there, even with the flaws. There was a feeling of optimism reflected in the pussy hats, homemade signs, different issues that were represented, throngs of people, and general good will. That feeling […]
Written by Linda Campbell Detroit, Michigan, recently became the first city in the nation to pass an ordinance designed to give community members a voice in negotiations with big developers. Large-scale developers often receive financial support from taxpayers in the form of grants, tax abatements, and land transfers. In exchange, they sometimes promise community members […]
Written by Sean Thomas-Breitfeld with artwork by Sean Bieri, courtesy of www.metrotimes.com Detroit and many cities across the country that experienced disinvestment, white flight and redlining a generation ago, are now grappling with economic “redevelopment” efforts that notoriously and blatantly bypass communities of color. Since redevelopment so often means removing long-time residents to transform neighborhoods […]
Written by Frances Kunreuther Last week, the Supreme Court struck down abortion clinic restrictions in Texas. The Court’s ruling has given organizers, activists, movement builders, and supporters the opportunity to pause and celebrate. After so many battles at the national level and across so many states, it is a relief to have some positive news. […]
An Interview with Sean Thomas-Breitfeld This interview was conducted by Nell Edgington and reposted from Social Velocity. To read the full interview, click here. Nell: What is the role of leadership in movement and network building? How do you balance the need for organic and distributed power with the need for someone (or multiple someones) to provide […]
…Three for Effective Nonprofits, Way to Go! Written by Noelia Mann Last week, I wrote a blog post questioning some of the conclusions that were presented in the Stanford Social Innovation Review series of articles focused on increasing voter turnout. My central critique of these works is the lack of focus on (or even acknowledgement of) the 16 new restrictions, aimed at […]
Why SSIR Analysis of Low Voter Turnout Just Doesn’t Cut It Written by Noelia Mann With election season in full swing, things are getting pretty hairy: metaphorical (and not so metaphorical) punches have been thrown, a projected $10 billion will be spent and the circus has comfortably settled down in town. But are the players going “full out” for a meager […]
Written by Sean Thomas-Breitfeld Race is often a hard thing to talk about, especially in increasingly multicultural nonprofit organizations where there may not be an obvious numeric majority; and it can be especially difficult to figure out what interventions to make. So I was lucky to have a conversation recently with three other nonprofit directors […]
Written by Noelia Mann In mostly poor, mostly black areas of Flint and Detroit, children were poisoned with lead, parents were infected with (and killed by) Legionnaires’ disease and schools were closed rather than having their leaky roofs, rodents and toxic black mold attended to … all just to save money. Due to the city’s financial crisis, and […]
Written by Sean Thomas-Breitfeld A recent article in the Harvard Business Review by a trio of social psychologists raised fresh doubts about whether corporate diversity initiatives really work. To be sure, this isn’t a new concern. Various advocates for civil rights and greater workplace diversity have critiqued many diversity programs as really just “window dressing.” Moreover, legal […]