Local Economy

Community: the Missing Ingredient to Happiness I first learned of Gift Economy in a geodesic dome in the gorgeous middle of nowhere, Utah at a Reality Sandwich retreat in 2009. Charles Eisenstein was there speaking, and the sparkle in his eye was...

Millions of people are celebrating Kwanzaa this week. Founded by Maulana Karenga in 1966, the holiday started out as a cultural celebration for African-Americans and a replacement for what were thought to be non-African affirming holidays such as Christmas....

  This selection from the Common Good Collective Reader invites an alternative way of viewing wealth: Over the next 20 years, between $35 trillion and &70 trillion will change hands from baby boomers to millennials globally. This will be the largest intergenerational...

In this week's article, Amelia Kirby treats us to a glimpse into a robust lifetime blending community building and activism from a personal friend of the great organizer, Helen Lewis.   Helen Lewis has many honorifics, including Doctors of Divinity and...

This article, originally published in Nonprofit Quarterly, offers a peek into the tensions and hopes that leaders of national community development organizations grapple with daily, as well as the historical roots of thinking that have shaped their work.   Earlier this...

"In your book, every famous name in Black America speaks out about co-ops. Why isn't this history better known?" asks Laura Flanders in her 2014 interview with researcher and author Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard. "Well that was my question, right?...

The article below concludes Nonprofit Quarterly's series—Narratives to Build Collective Economic Power—which NPQ is publishing in partnership with the national racial and economic justice nonprofit, Common Future. In this series, the authors write about their economic justice work and how, in their work, they...

In this conversation, Craig Mattson and The Learning Tree co-founder De'Amon Harges explore the ways in which problem of theft looms on the edge of partnerships between various sectors and neighborhood organizations. Craig and De'Amon discuss ways to avoid this...

Modern culture has instilled in most of us an unchecked reverence for the idea of independence. It is a celebrated sign of maturity and accomplishment. A promised path to freedom, and a signal that we have arrived. Soulful teachers,...

From 2018 to 2021, I had the great joy of working with my colleague Joe Erpenbeck and a team of colleagues from the ABCD Institute in walking alongside an immensely creative, caring group of community members and project staff...