They are taking on debt, cutting back on personal medical care, delaying rent payments and skipping meals so their kids can eat. Federal cuts are poised to make things worse.
A Forgotten 1787 Society Reveals the True Beginnings of US Democracy
The history of the Free African Society highlights US democracy’s origins in Black-led mutual aid and community infrastructure.
Strong Enough to Change: White Oak Pastures and Farming for Future Generations
From industrial cattle production to regenerative agriculture, White Oak Pastures presents a model for a different farming future.
The Yeses that Surprise You: Organizing Across the Lines of Cis and Trans
Sometimes, the things you say yes to surprise you. The flicker of something that feels like hope and desire that dances from your stomach to your throat, as you gaze into the mirror and weave earrings through your earlobes.
Before the State Showed Up: Black Mutual Aid as the Infrastructure of Our Democracy
For many Black communities, democratic life has been built through mutual aid traditions that transformed collective survival into a form of political practice—and these traditions deserve a central place in the story of US democracy.
Could States Lead Climate Justice Funding?
The next phase of climate justice may depend less on who writes the rules and more on who controls and protects the money that turns those rules into reality.
Georgia’s Judicial Industry Is Built on the Backs of the Incarcerated Poor
The arc of Georgia prison labor bends not toward justice or rehabilitation, but towards profit for the elite—accumulated through the inhumane treatment and systematic exploitation of the state’s poor, and disproportionately Black, population.
On the Heels of ICE Raids, Minnesota Also Fights to Save a Wilderness
Nonprofits from across Minnesota and beyond are racing to save the beloved Boundary Waters from mining and exploitation.
When Institutions Win and Justice Loses: The Creek Freedmen Case and What Civil Society Can Learn
The Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s refusal to implement its own courts’ rulings on Creek Freedmen citizenship is a live test of whether legal and moral covenants survive political pressure—and every nonprofit, CDFI, and philanthropic leader has a stake in the outcome.
Custodians
My family’s custodianship of David’s tomb suggests that civic life begins before citizenship and survives beyond sovereignty. The United States at its 250th anniversary must grapple with the fact that it has spent decades breaking with the principles of its own founding documents.
If Solidarity Is Possible, So Is a Pro-Trans Majority
If a pro-trans majority is on the table, how might we cultivate it? By building majorities, practicing solidarity, contesting for governing power, and offering a vision.
How America’s Independence from England Revolutionized US Philanthropy
John Hancock did something revolutionary 250 years ago when the Massachusetts merchant signed the Declaration of Independence, announcing to the world that 13 English colonies were freeing themselves from Great Britain and from monarchy.