Dear Colleague, 

2017 was a challenging year for this nation. It was a year of natural disasters and white supremacy on the march, a year in which much of our federal infrastructure for the common good was targeted, rolled back, or destroyed outright, a year in which our most vulnerable communities saw their suffering deepened and their fears multiplied.
 
In the face of such systemic failures our mission here at The Democracy Collaborative has never been more clear. We must work for the kind of systemic change that addresses the root causes behind the catastrophes making the headlines—and the demand for these kind of solutions is growing by leaps and bounds. Earlier this month, for instance, at the second official convening of our Healthcare Anchor Network in Chicago, I witnessed how our work around hospitals building community wealth, which was once just a good idea in the pages of our reports, is now the driving frame for a national collaboration of over 30 hospitals and health systems, collectively employing well over a million people. The month before, I visited the UK, where our work alongside the worker-owners of the Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland ignited the imagination of key policymakers and stakeholders in the city of Preston—leading to the development of a new model for local economic prosperity that is breaking through into both the national press and the policy platform of what is likely to be the next Labour Party-led government.
 
Meanwhile, our team at the Next System Project has been working to kickstart a new international network on the role banking could play in the face of the climate crisis, outlining new strategies for energy democracy, and exploring system-level interventions to wind down the fossil fuel industry with key players in the climate movement, among many other initiatives. Also in 2017, our Fifty by Fifty team continued to assemble a national movement to dramatically accelerate and scale the transition to employee ownership. Our advisory team worked with local stakeholders in Rochester, Miami, Houston, Tacoma, and elsewhere to advance community wealth building. Simultaneously, our higher education work grew from a pathbreaking cohort of 6 universities piloting key metrics on community impact to a growing national-level collaboration with the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. Our co-founder Gar Alperovitz released a new handbook on systemic change and we distributed 4,000 copies to reading groups around the country. We also continued to facilitate collaborative networks of community wealth builders, including with the Native-led organizations in our Learning/Action Lab and a national circle of engaged community foundations. On top of all this, we published numerous reports from key system change thought leaders and engaged practitioners, established our first European outpost, launched a new website and podcast, and grew our team of committed and talented staff and board members.

This acceleration and deepening impact of our work in 2017 testifies to the urgency of our mission: if anything gives me hope in these difficult times, it is the degree to which system-changing visions and alternatives grounded in a democratic economy are moving from the margins to the vital center of a growing national and international conversation. With your support we will be able to continue to play a key role in this growing movement.

Sincerely,
Ted Howard
President and Co-Founder,
The Democracy Collaborative