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Policy Innovators back to top ↑

World Future Council

World Future Council brings the interests of future generations to the center of policy making. The Council addresses challenges to our common future and provides decision-makers with effective policy solutions. In-depth research underpins advocacy work for international agreements, regional policy frameworks and national lawmaking and thus produces practical and tangible results.

Oakland Institute

Oakland Institute is a policy think tank whose mission is to increase public participation and promote fair debate on critical social, economic and environmental issues in both national and international forums. Its trademark is to work in coalitions and networks to strengthen social movements, especially as we forge multi-cultural, cross-border and cross-class alliances. As a policy think tank their work is unique (in that they are bringing new approaches to social change including the awareness of economic, social and cultural rights) as they work with grass roots constituency (faith-based, farm workers, immigrant rights groups, Black farmers, among others) and help bridge policy think tanks with activist networks and social movements.

Youth/Education back to top ↑

YouthBuild

YouthBuild is a youth and community development program that simultaneously addresses core issues facing low-income communities: housing, education, employment, crime prevention, and leadership development. In YouthBuild programs, low-income young people ages 16-24 work toward their GEDs or high school diplomas, learn job skills and serve their communities by building affordable housing, and transform their own lives and roles in society. view more

KIDS Consortium

KIDS Consortium is a nonprofit organization that serves schools and community organizations in Maine, throughout New England and beyond. KIDS staff train and assist teachers, administrators and community partners as they work with K-12 students to identify, research and address real community challenges (an approach known as service-learning).

School Mediation Associates

School Mediation Associates transforms schools into safer, more caring, and more effective institutions. Through: encouraging young people to become leaders in their schools, and disseminating an approach to problem solving that values diversity and respects differences of opinion.

Education for Sustainable Living Program

Education for Sustainable Living Program is a collaborative interdisciplinary effort to realize sustainable community throughout the University of California. Students participate in a weekly speaker series and form Action Research Teams (ARTs) in partnership with guest lecturers, faculty, administration, and community members to implement tangible change. Such experiential learning inspires participants to internalize the concept of sustainability, and carry it in practice beyond academia into greater society.

Environmental Action back to top ↑

Natural Resources Council of Maine

Natural Resources Council of Maine is a nonprofit membership organization protecting, restoring, and conserving Maine's environment, now and for future generations. They work to improve the quality of Maine's rivers; to reduce toxic chemicals threatening the health of Maine families and wildlife; to decrease air and global warming pollution, and to conserve Maine lands. NRCM harnesses the power of the law, science, and the voices of more than 12,000 supporters statewide and beyond.

Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund

Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund was formed to provide free and affordable legal services to community based groups and local governments working to protect their quality of life and the natural environment through building sustainable communities. Increasingly, that means teaming up with people and their municipal representatives to mount campaigns that challenge the legal clout of corporations to overrule decisions made by citizens for their communities.

Rainforest Action Network

Rainforest Action Network campaigns for the forests, their inhabitants and the natural systems that sustain life by transforming the global marketplace through education, grassroots organizing, and non-violent direct action. They believe that a sustainable world can be created in our lifetime, and that aggressive action must be taken immediately to leave a safe and secure world for our children.  

Applegate Partnership

Applegate Partnership is a community-based non-profit organization involving industry, conservation groups, natural resource agencies, and residents cooperating to encourage and facilitate the use of natural resource principles that promote ecosystem health and diversity. Through community involvement and education, this partnership supports management of all land within the watershed in a matter that sustains natural resources and that will, in turn, contribute to economic and community well-being and resilience

Sustainable Connections

Sustainable Connections works with local, independently owned businesses that have the autonomy to make any transformational change in their business that they can imagine… reexamining where we buy goods and services, how we consume energy, grow and distribute our food, build homes, and even, how we define success in business.

Reclaiming Politics back to top ↑

change-congress.org

change-congress.org is a a non-partisan advocacy organization whose sole purpose is to protect the independence of Congress by fighting the influence of money in politics. They hope to do this by passing a hybrid of small-dollar donations and public financing of elections.

FairVote

FairVote is a catalyst for reforming American elections to respect every vote and every voice through bold approaches to increase voter turnout, meaningful ballot choices and fair representation. As the national organization most focused on fundamental structural reform of American elections, they act as a traditional think tank through careful research, innovative analysis, effective educational resources and timely conferences, but also creatively engage with leading reformers, thought leaders and the media to turn new ideas into widely accepted policy options.

Common Cause

Common Cause is a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization founded as a vehicle for citizens to make their voices heard in the political process and to hold their elected leaders accountable to the public interest. Today, Common Cause strives to strengthen our democracy by empowering our members, supporters and the general public to take action on critical policy issues.

You Street

You Street is an initiative of Americans for Campaign Reform, a non-profit, non-partisan whose mission is to mobilize support for public funding of all federal elections.

Public Campaign

Public Campaign is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to sweeping campaign reform that aims to dramatically reduce the role of big special interest money in American politics. Public Campaign is laying the foundation for reform by working with a broad range of organizations, including local community groups, around the country that are fighting for change and national organizations whose members are not fairly represented under the current campaign finance system.

Community Builders back to top ↑

Business Alliance for Local Living Economies

Business Alliance for Local Living Economies mission is to catalyze, strengthen and connect networks of locally owned independent businesses dedicated to building strong Local Living Economies. BALLE believes in the power of local businesses to transform communities for the better by working cooperatively toward a shared vision.

Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy

Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy is a leading advocacy organization dedicated to building a new economy for all. Combining dynamic research, innovative public policy and the organizing of broad alliances, LAANE promotes a new economic approach based on good jobs, thriving communities and a healthy environment.

Citizens on Patrol

Citizens on Patrol, an outgrowth of the community oriented policing strategy adopted by the Cincinnati Police Department. Civilian volunteers have been incorporated in the departments operations since 1990. Volunteers patrol their neighborhoods, acting as the eyes and ears of the police. Patrols concentrate around problem areas aiding the police by increasing visibility. COPP units deter crime by their mere presence and visibility to the general public.

Kentuckians for the Commonwealth – KFTC

Kentuckians for the Commonwealth – KFTC is a statewide citizens organization working for  a new balance of power and a just society.  As we work together we build our strength, individually and as a group, and we find solutions to real life problems.  We use direct action to challenge—and change—unfair political, economic and social systems.  Their membership is open to all people who are committed to equality, democracy and non-violent change.

Lawrence Community Works- Poder Institute

Lawrence Community Works- Poder Institute is a leadership building experience for Lawrence residents who are part of the Community Works Network. The Institute provides an intensive semester of training for emerging leaders who want to become more effective in the effort to revitalize the City. Throughout the course, members develop their skills as facilitative, participatory and transformational leaders.

Save Our Local Economy

Save Our Local Economy is a community group out of Ukiah California that successfully battled against the development of a 800,000-square-foot big-box store. The Ohio developer’s spent a record-breaking $1.2 million—or about $133 dollars for every vote it got, outspending the citizens’ group almost twelve dollars to one.

Metro Alliance

Metro Alliance is a coalition of congregations, schools, and unions coming together so that we can effectively act on behalf of families. C.O.P.S. and the Metro Alliance work within each of these institutions to identify a diverse, broad-based leadership that can connect to each other in new ways in order to act effectively on behalf of children, families, and neighborhoods. By learning to work together for the public good, C.O.P.S. and Metro Alliance leaders are able to work with the business community and elected officials to make San Antonio a better place for families.

Merrimack Valley Project

Merrimack Valley Project was started to unite people across the region’s widening racial, ethnic, and economic rifts in common action to strengthen the communities. They have worked together to save over 1,600 manufacturing jobs in the Valley, protect over 600 units of affordable housing, improve the job prospects of the region’s growing temporary worker population, and bring over $10 million to the Valley for housing, job training, and community development.

National People’s Action

National People’s Action is a national organizing, policy, research, and training center for grassroots community organizations dedicated to building power to reclaim our democracy and advance racial and economic justice. For more than 36 years, NPA has worked nationally to build and strengthen people's organizations, to develop indigenous leadership, and to advance campaigns for a more just, equitable, and sustainable society.

Time Banks

With Time Banking, you will be working with a small group of committed individuals who are joined together for a common good. At its most basic level, Time banking is simply about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community. That hour goes into the Time Bank as a Time Dollar. Then you have a Time dollar to spend on having someone doing something for you. It's a simple idea, but it has powerful ripple effects in building community connections.

Industrial Areas Foundation

Industrial Areas Foundation is non-ideological and strictly non-partisan, but proudly, publicly, and persistently political. The IAF builds a political base within society's rich and complex third sector - the sector of voluntary institutions that includes religious congregations, labor locals, homeowner groups, recovery groups, parents associations, settlement houses, immigrant societies, schools, seminaries, orders of men and women religious, and others. And then the leaders use that base to compete at times, to confront at times, and to cooperate at times with leaders in the public and private sectors.

ACORN

ACORN is the nation’s largest grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income people with over 400,000 member families organized into more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in about 75 cities across the country.  Since 1970, ACORN has been building community organizations that are committed to social and economic justice, and won victories on thousands of issues of concern to our members, through direct action, negotiation, legislative advocacy and voter participation.  ACORN helps those who have historically been locked out become powerful players in our democratic system.

Co-op Movements back to top ↑

Green America (formerly known as Co-op America)

Green America (formerly known as Co-op America) works to harness economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society. It operates as a collaborative and participatory workplace, where staff members reach consensus through democratic decision-making processes on key strategic issues for the organization.

International Co-operative Alliance

International Co-operative Alliance is an independent, non-governmental association which unites, represents and serves co-operatives worldwide. Founded in 1895, ICA has 238 member organizations from 90 countries active in all sectors of the economy. Together these co-operatives represent more than 800 million individuals worldwide.

Organic Valley

Organic Valley is a cooperative of family farmer-owners. Its mission is to create and operate a marketing cooperative that promotes regional farm diversity and economic stability by the means of organic agricultural methods and the sale of certified organic products.

Dialogue Initiators back to top ↑

National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation

National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation is a loose-knit community of practitioners, researchers, activists, artists, students, and others who are committed to giving people a voice and making sure that voice counts. NCDD’s mission is to bring together and support people, organizations, and resources in ways that expand the power of discussion to benefit society. They envision a society in which systems and structures support and advance inclusive, constructive dialogue and deliberation.

Conversation Cafes

Conversation Cafes are sponsored by Youth For a New World, a non-profit educational and charitable organization that seeks to promote awareness, caring and action. They strengthen connection and compassion by linking youth through schools and other organizations in joint study and projects.

Meetup, Inc.

Meetup, Inc. is the world's largest network of local groups. Meetup makes it easy for anyone to organize a local group or find one of the thousands already meeting up face-to-face. More than 2,000 groups get together in local communities each day, each one with the goal of improving themselves or their communities. Its mission is to revitalize local community and help people around the world self-organize. Meetup believes that people can change their personal world, or the whole world, by organizing themselves into groups that are powerful enough to make a difference.

Rural Southern Voice for Peace (RSVP)

Rural Southern Voice for Peace (RSVP) which serves as the Listening Project Training and Resource Center provides training, consultation, trainer referral and many LP resources including a manual for LP organizers and trainers . The Listening Project is an organizing tool for nonviolent social change, especially useful in communities where conflict and disempowerment weakens efforts toward community development, justice, peace or protecting the environment. Listening Projects use trained volunteers to conduct one-on-one interview that address local and sometimes national or international issues.

Everyday Democracy

Everyday Democracy helps people of different backgrounds and views talk and work together to solve problems and create communities that work for everyone. They place particular emphasis on the connection between complex public issues and structural racism. Issues addressed include: poverty and economic development; education reform; racial equity; early childhood development; police-community relations; youth and neighborhood concerns.

AmericaSpeaks

AmericaSpeaks gives citizens an authentic voice in local, regional and national decision-making on the most challenging public issues of the day. Their vision is that the public's business will be conducted differently - that by developing a rich national infrastructure for democratic deliberation through our projects, innovation and collaboration, we can access the collective wisdom of the American people.

Fair Economics back to top ↑

TransFair

TransFair is one of twenty members of Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO), and the only third-party certifier of Fair Trade products in the United States. They audit transactions between US companies offering Fair Trade Certified™ products and the international suppliers from whom they source, in order to guarantee that the farmers and farm workers behind Fair Trade Certified goods were paid a fair, above-market price. In addition, annual inspections conducted by FLO ensure that strict socioeconomic development criteria are being met using increased Fair Trade revenues.

United Students for Fair Trade

United Students for Fair Trade is a collaboration of students and youth working in solidarity with cooperative communities to promote fair trade principles, products and policies. Consciousness raising, leadership development and capacity building stand at the core of their grassroots organizing. They have three main functions: To consolidate and coordinate the power of the over 150 active student Fair Trade organizations in the U.S.; To engage in leadership development and capacity building; To serve as a resource to student affiliates looking for anything from strategic campaigning advice to internship opportunities.

Real Food Challenge

Real Food Challenge serves as both a campaign and a network. The campaign is to increase the procurement of real food on college and university campuses, with the national goal of 20% real food by 2020. By leveraging their purchasing power we can catalyze the transformation of the larger food system. Then network offers a chance for students and their allies (those working on the campaign along with those who've yet to sign on) to make connections, learn from one another, and grow the movement.

GoodGuide

GoodGuide provides the world's largest and most reliable source of information on the health, environmental, and social impacts of the products in your home. They make information available and easy to use so each of us can express our own values and concerns in the marketplace. They now have a "GoodGuide Mobile App" available for iPhones and a text messaging system for all cell phones.

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If your organization is helping to empower citizen engagement and community problem-solving, contact us here to link our web sites or tell us about it in our discussion forum under Taking Action.