Dear Colleague,

• The Collaborative is delighted to welcome Marjorie Kelly to our staff as a Senior Fellow and Director of Advisory Services. Marjorie has authored several books and reports on ownership strategies and led projects on social enterprise development with both the Ford and Rockefeller foundations. Since June, Marjorie has partnered with The Democracy Collaborative as Project Director for the Learning/Action Lab for Community Wealth Building, working with six Native American organizations to implement community wealth building strategies. Join Marjorie on January 23 at 1 pm EST when she discusses her recent book, Owning Our Future, on a webinar sponsored by the Ford Foundation.
• In December we organized the first strategy workshop of the Next System Project, an initiative co-chaired by Democracy Collaborative co-founder Gar Alperovitz and prominent environmentalist Gus Speth. The purpose of the project is to promote bold new thinking about responses to the systemic challenges facing the United States. Held at the Ash Center at Harvard’s Kennedy School, this initial gathering brought together a select group of academics and activists to help set the terms of reference for the project launch.
• Last month the Federal Reserve featured the Anchor Dashboard in a nationally broadcasted event, which was also highlighted in a video and transcript on the Fed’s website (more info below). In this article in Governing magazine, I also describe how anchor institutions can use the Dashboard as a reference to transform neighborhoods and build wealth in low-income communities. In a recent piece in Rooflines: The Shelterforce Blog, Research Director Steve Dubb, responding to an article in The Atlantic  by Richard Florida, calls for these institutions to target their resources to communities most in need. 
• Democracy Collaborative co-founder Gar Alperovitz appeared on Russia Today’s Breaking the Set with Abby Martin to discuss his new book, What Then Must We Do?. The interview includes an overview of steps individuals can take to build community wealth, as outlined in his recent article What Then Can I Do?: Ten Ways to Democratize the Economy.