Jul 21, 2021

From The Hill: It’s Time the Federal Government Adopt an Open Access Community Dashboard

Since Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society anti-poverty campaigns of the 1960s, the federal government has spent trillions of dollars in a bid to foster an America “where the […]
Oct 13, 2020

We Must Find Common Purpose

More than a year ago, I launched this blog with three questions about the work of nonprofits, philanthropy, and government: 1.Are we making enough of a […]
Jul 13, 2020

You Have to Pick a Side

As part of my continuing journey of allyship, I am reading Ibram X. Kendi's book How To Be An Antiracist. While Kendi's premise is so simple, what he asks us to do is, admittedly, difficult—because a "racist" is defined as "supporting a racist policy through actions or inaction or expressing a racist idea." That means an antiracist is "one who is supporting an antiracist policy through actions or expressing an antiracist idea."
Jun 29, 2020

Allyship: Listening, Supporting, Acting

In my last blog post, I wrote that those of us who are White have an obligation to go on an intentional journey of allyship—no matter […]
Jun 8, 2020

You Cannot Lead If You Don’t Understand Your White Privilege

About a week ago, I started listening to the Seeing White podcast and heard comedian D.L. Hughly say these words, "Trump is who we are." If […]
May 26, 2020

Is This Our Guaranteed Income Moment?

What do Pope Francis, Richard Nixon, Martin Luther King, Jr., Charles Murray, and Andrew Yang all have in common? They have all advocated for some form […]
May 4, 2020

5 Disruptive Innovations for the Social Sector

I've been giving a lot of thought lately to something Rahm Emanuel, former Obama chief of staff, said about the 2008/09 financial meltdown: "Never allow a […]
Apr 20, 2020

Respond→Recover→Reframe

The New York Times began a series last week titled The America We Need. It began with “The coronavirus pandemic may have reminded Americans that they’re […]
Apr 6, 2020

In this Time of Crisis, Our Sector Shows It’s Essential

A little over a year ago, I wrote, "I cannot help but believe that nonprofits, philanthropy, and government can harness all our good work as a major force to help bridge this divisiveness and advance the country through the twenty-first century." The outbreak of COVID-19 is beginning to show just how true a statement that is.
Mar 20, 2020

We Must Replace Job with Basic Income as Our Sector’s Primary Measure

Crises reveal vulnerabilities in societies more than anything else. The outbreak of COVID-19 is already uncovering just how wrongheaded the United States has been about what […]
Mar 9, 2020

Outcomes, Indicators, and Targets, Oh My!

In 2002, 30 percent of fourth-grade students in the United States were reading at or above proficiency levels. Seventeen years later, in 2019, that number had […]
Feb 17, 2020

A Confederacy of Dysfunctions

A system rife with dysfunctions that prevent us from making the kind of population-level change and reduction in disparities we desperately want to achieve ...
May 13, 2019

Not Doing For, But Doing With

Recently, I had a discussion with Susannah Morgan, the CEO at Oregon Food Bank. Susannah's in her twenty-third year in and around food banking, twenty of which have been in leadership roles.
Mar 25, 2019

To What End? Part 1

For the past year, Ive been asking people from all walks of life what success looks like. Ive done this because, from my vantage point, it seems reaching just a basic level of success is becoming more