Advocacy organizations, think tanks, researchers and associations promoting civic engagement, community empowerment, economic mobility, philanthropy, social justice and environmental sustainability.
Americans for the Arts. ACA’s Institute for Community Development and the Arts provides research on how the arts are used to address social, educational, and economic development issues in communities across the country. www.americansforthearts.org
B Lab. The nonprofit arm of B Corp, which promotes corporate structures like benefit corporations and certifies corporations committed to social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability. www.bcorporation.net/what-are-b-corps/about-b-lab
Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE). Connected to Tufts University, CIRCLE focuses on the civic and political engagement of young America, especially marginalized or disadvantaged youth. CIRCLE’s scholarly research informs policy and practice for healthier youth development and a better democracy. http://circle.tufts.edu/
Center for Performance and Civic Practice. CPCP is a national resource for artists and communities working together for arts-based, community-led transformation. https://www.thecpcp.org/
Common Future. Formerly named Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), the membership organization promotes localism and focuses on identifying and spreading innovative solutions and business models that can create healthier, sustainable and prosperous communities. www.commonfuture.co
Complementary Currency Resource Center. An international, multi-lingual resource for those interested in local, community, complementary, electronic, commercial barter and alternative currency systems. www.complementarycurrency.org
Conscious Capitalism. Businesses working to create “financial, intellectual, social, cultural, emotional, spiritual, physical and ecological wealth for all their stakeholders.” www.consciouscapitalism.org
Data USA. A free platform that allows users to collect, analyze, and visualize shared U.S. government data. Launched in 2016, it is the product of a partnership between Deloitte, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Collective Learning Group, and Datawheel. https://datausa.io/
GIIRS. Global Impact Investment Rating System, a self-assessment survey to help companies assess their overall social and economic impact. http://thenewmediagroup.co/the-global-impact-investing-ratings-system/
Giving Pledge. Launched in 2010 by Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet, the Giving Pledge is a commitment by some of the world’s wealthiest individuals and couples to give the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes, either during their lifetimes or in their wills. https://givingpledge.org/
IIRS. Impact Reporting and Investment Standards, a taxonomy of key terms. https://iris.thegiin.org/
Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. Founded by Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter to encourage inner-city revitalization, ICIC performs research that promotes a combination of public and private investment to rebuild inner city economies. https://icic.org/
InterAction. An alliance for NGOs in the USA. www.interaction.org/about-interaction/
Living Economies Forum. Home of David Korten and his work on the New Economy and the Great Turning. https://davidkorten.org/
National Archive of Data on Arts and Culture. Repository of arts research funded by federal agencies and others. www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/pages/NADAC/index.html
Pledge 1%. An initiative for companies to donate at least 1% of their time, equity, or product annually to charity. Designed to promote early-stage corporate philanthropy, Pledge 1% offers an easy way for companies to leverage a portion of their future success to support nonprofits. http://pledge1percent.org
State Innovation Exchange (SIX), formerly American Legislative and Issue Campaign (ALICE), a nonprofit established in 2012 by the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS) at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. It provides an online database of model state-level legislation for politicians and activists to replicate and enact in state legislatures. In 2014, ALICE merged with the Progressive States Network (founded in 2005 by Joel Barkin as alternative to the corporate-backed ALEC) and the Center for State Innovation to become the State Innovation Exchange. https://stateinnovation.org/
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Also known as “Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” or Agenda 2030, SDGs are a collection of 17 interrelated global goals set by the United Nations. www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
Upside Foundation of Canada. Canadian version of Pledge 1%. http://upsidefoundation.ca
USAFacts. Nonprofit, nonpartisan civic initiative providing understandable government data. Founded by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. https://usafacts.org/