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Photo by Dalton Abraham, Unsplash They must not only worry about the official US government under Trusk. Listen to us, we are civilsociety. Both Wikimedia and the Internet Archive are well-established, cornerstone organizations of civilsociety. Worry about #KingMusk himself. And his minions. What about offense?
In this series, The Unexpected Value of Volunteers, Masaoka takes on the underappreciated topic of volunteerism, provides some unexpected ideas, and points the way toward a public policy agenda on volunteerism. Those volunteers generated labor valued at $167.2 Thats the equivalent of 2.5 million annual full-time employees.
Image credit: Getty Images on iStock The democratization of social care realigns the roles of state and civilsociety within a larger framework of social and political transformation. Once a research grant demonstrated the model’s effectiveness, the clinic’s value became more widely understood.
Though these violations continue, over the last 10 to 15 years, we have increasingly seen momentum among rightsholders, their allies, and civilsociety in advocating for rights-based and community-led conservation. Governments have returned ownership and management of millions of hectares of land in at least 39 countries.
But the sector needs a more compelling, ethical model for a brokerage that uses decentralized governance, transparency, and inclusivity. DAOs are commonly associated with blockchain and cryptocurrency communities, but the decentralized governance approach of a DAO can be applied in other contexts.
Autocratic governments, nihilistic oligarchs, escalating climate impacts, dynamic pandemics, menacing technologies, rampant misinformationall of these forces and more conspire to leave Americans and people around the world feeling less safe, more uncertain, and more frightened about the future.
Three developments, in particular, worry me: a drop in rates of giving to nonprofits; widespread staff burnout; and an increasing effort to target nonprofits based on their missions and values. First, I would suggest that we desperately need a campaign to help educate Americans about the value of the nonprofit sector. We can volunteer.
As government funding for social good is slashed, even if temporarily, it will have waterfall effects for years to come. Meanwhile, our freedoms to give, to invest, and to speak freely—freedoms that are foundational to our democratic society—are under assault. This is not a shortfall they can absorb or that we can accept.
Yet for civilsociety, this restraint feels indistinguishable from abandonment. During COVID, bold partnerships and government action fast-tracked changes that once took decades. Governments that once hesitated embraced professional CHWs. Because it leaves those working closest to the challenge bearing most of the risk.
Traditional state-centric security frameworks can actually generate insecurity through militarization that escalates the potential for conflict, through surveillance that undermines civil liberties, through resource diversion from human development, and by the exclusion of key voices from security decisions.
Three years into this effort, more than 50 schools have joined the movement, all aligned around a commitment to living the values of active citizenship, social justice, and good governance. The integration of these values has led to transformative changes in many nafda schools. This values integration was not left to chance.
Society’s narrative hierarchy, underpinned by institutional forces—government, economy, religion—and mediated through culture and digital spaces, assigns credibility in a way that often silences marginalized voices. This hierarchy dictates who gets to speak and whose stories are deemed legitimate.
Yet, compared to the business sector and government sector, nonprofits have been sitting silently on the sidelines [emphasis added]. The statement speaks to a learned helplessness, meekly concluding: Our democracy depends on a strong, vibrant and independent civilsociety. This may sound supportive, but lacks a call for action.
So, Beautiful Solutions was, right from the beginning, designed to be learning from anywhere in the world where people were growing democratic economies and governance. So, we launched the first iteration of this project in partnership with them and developed a first-round set of stories, principles, and values. We chose the latter.
Were in a period of polycrisis, yet the business world, government, and civilsociety persist in their siloed approaches to solving it. By resourcing, growing, and mainstreaming social innovation, we can sidestep the boundaries that limit us to create new and shared public value. Our vision?
Arts & Culture Cities Civic Engagement Economic Development Education Energy Environment Food Health Human Rights Security Social Services Water & Sanitation Sectors Government, Nonprofit, Business, etc. Business Foundations Government Nonprofits & NGOs Social Enterprise Solutions Advocacy, Funding, Leadership, etc. Simply asking “why?”
Democracy needs us to maintain relationships with people who think differently—not to abandon our values, but to keep our thinking grounded in a complex reality that none of us can fully see alone. Totalitarian governments want us to believe that there is only “one” truth: theirs.
Image Credit: photos by Mohammed Ibrahim on Unsplash, Anzhela Bets on Unsplash , Henry Wilkins via VOA, and Steve Sandford via VOA “Civilsociety is being tested like never before by a series of multiple and accelerating crises” (4). Threats to US CivilSociety These threats to civilsociety include the United States.
In this series, The Unexpected Value of Volunteers , author Jan Masaoka takes on the underappreciated topic of volunteerism, provides some unexpected ideas, and points the way toward a public policy agenda on volunteerism. Many AVOs stumble when they first hire someone to manage the organization. But this does not explain why AVOs exist.
We know the risk of standing up to a hostile government. We cannot walk away from our commitments to constitutionally supported core values of fair inclusion and justice or terminate our lawful support for communities who need us most. We are also presidents of foundations responsible for the care and health of our own teams and staff.
In February 2025, the US Federal Government terminated funding for distribution through IRC’s centers, much of which came through the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Since January 2025, the US government has cut between $54 and $70 billion in overall aid and announced an 83 percent cut to foreign aid.
For nonprofitsespecially those working in civil rights, education, journalism, or public healththis should raise serious concern s. The suppression of academic freedom isnt just campus politicsits a warning signal for civilsociety and for our democracy. Our democracy depends on a strong, vibrant and independent civilsociety.
We saw a need for the sector to steel itself against threats from political polarization that were dividing and destroying other institutions in society. This principle is foundational to protecting the role philanthropy plays in contributing to progress in society. Not so much for civilsociety. Great for headlines.
Focusing on turnout is limiting; you are not building deep bonds of connection based on shared values. Instead, you are hoping that the people you mobilize already share your values. Even if youre right and participants do have some degree of shared values, you havent reinforced those values for the long term.
The work supported by community foundations and others around the country will likely become even more vital given the deep cuts to social programs championed by the Trump administration and spearheaded by the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE.
A City Rises: The Value of Street Vendors in Los Angeles If you’re not from Los Angeles, you may think of us as atomized drivers negotiating a forest of highways. Frankly, I’m tired of trying to prove that street vendors add meaningful value to everyone in our city.
In the face of a relentless effort to dismantle the federal government from within, a new movement is taking shape—led not by politicians or pundits but by federal workers themselves. And we will work together to create the conditions necessary to build a government that serves the public good. If we’re under attack, so are they.
Credit: Photo by Jay Soundo on Unsplash Nonprofits are reeling, with many reporting fear of government reprisal and/or public or private backlash for addressing politically sensitive issues. Nonprofits are reeling, with many reporting fear of government reprisal and/or public or private backlash for addressing politically sensitive issues.
Nonprofits frequently want to know how to navigate these complex and challenging scenarios while maintaining their core values. Understanding how to meet this moment with vision and courage requires understanding your values and how they map onto risks your organization is facing. Of course, theres no universal solution.
Whether it is students being arrested or institutions cowering when faced with the withholding of federal funds, the threats to civilsociety are obviouseven as many institutions, such as the National Council of Nonprofits, have been vigilant in resistance. Thats called solidarityand it will be an essential value in the struggle ahead.
That means that questions surrounding the legitimacy of philanthropy—what value it provides to the public, how responsive it is to the public’s needs, and how it aligns with democratic norms and institutions—must sit at the center of its response to the moment. It is not only an external respondent to the assaults, but a target of them.
Nonprofits frequently want to know how to navigate these complex and challenging scenarios while maintaining their core values. Understanding how to meet this moment with vision and courage requires understanding your values and how they map onto risks your organization is facing. Of course, theres no universal solution.
Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, has openly praised Orbns governance as the model for conservative statecraft. Orbns Systematic Attack on LGBTQ+ Rights Since returning to power in 2010, Viktor Orbns government has systematically targeted LGBTQ+ rights as part of its broader nationalist agenda.
Could you talk a little bit about the network, your vision, and your values? For that reason radicalism has continued to be one of RadComms’s main values, alongside liberation, principled struggle, mutual aid, and interdependence. Because if we want our movements to win, we have to bring that level of rigor to the reflection process.
The nonprofit plaintiffs allege that the Trump administration is, in effect, launching a full-scale assault on nonprofits that embrace DEI and accessibility by punishing or threatening to punish any organization that upholds those values, values protected by the Constitution.
Schools were closed and so was the city government, out of an abundance of caution. For more on this topic: We All Have Value: Changing Relationships Through Radical Empathy The Appalachian Nonprofits Helping in Helene I guess well have to wait and see.
The best stories you can tell are those that lead from your collective community’s values. In fact, your organization exists because of stories—stories of problems you’re working to solve, plus stories of donors helping you solve them. Why is this important? 88% of nonprofits have budgets under $500,000.
Last year, campus organizing drew national attention to bombing and military attacks by Israel in Gaza that have to date taken the lives of an estimated 55,000 Palestinians —and the role of the United States in sustaining those attacks by providing military hardware to the Israeli government. Institutions that connect groups can help.
Transform Finances recent SSIR article Investing in Enterprises That Work for Everyone and accompanying report threw a much-needed spotlight on how Alternative Ownership Enterprise (AOE) models can help redistribute economic value, looking at the landscape in the United States. million dairy farmers who own the business.
Image Credit: Josiah S on istock.com Founded in March 2009, the Oath Keepers are an anti-government far-right militia group comprising former law enforcement, first responders, and former military who pledge to defend the United States against government tyranny at all costs.
Though its size is not based on endowed assets but rather speculative stock value, the organization, which is still as of this writing a nonprofit , is valued at $86 Billion. I want to think about what it means - if anything - for civilsociety. First, it seems that no one in civilsociety or the U.S.
From Experimentation to Diffusion of Urban Innovations The innovative role of dynamic cities has been referred to as government by experiment. Experimentation is particularly important for climate governance, where cities have developed new ideas at an impressive rate.
Perhaps more than any other time in recent history, civilsociety, including governments, nonprofits and the philanthropic sector, is revisiting the fundamental premises that structure its institutions, determine its value and, literally, justify its existence.
Donors and governments may shift their dollars…to focusing on necessities like food, water, energy, and healthcare. Unless we act aggressively to curb emissions, climate change will continue to put pressure on our insurance system and society at large. Pressures on CivilSociety Financial experts warn of cascading impacts.
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