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Defending Democracy: The Charles F. Kettering Foundation 2023 Annual Report

February 12, 2024

Throughout its history, the Charles F. Kettering Foundation's focus has always been on innovation. Our founder, Charles F. Kettering, believed that "our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future."In summer 2023, Kettering announced its new strategic plan, In Defense of Democracy, the result of the foundation's staff flexing their imagination to better meet the needs of democracy. It introduced our new vision, mission, guiding beliefs and values, and outlined five new strategic focus areas that are designed to utilize our resources effectively in the defense and advancement of democracy.Defending Democracy: The Charles F. Kettering Foundation 2023 Annual Report chronicles this journey of transformation, highlighting a year of reflection, dialogue, and action. It is our answer to the question, "What can the Charles F. Kettering Foundation uniquely offer the democracy field at this moment of crisis?" In 2023, we took the first step in our commitment to strengthening existing partnerships, forging new collaborations, broadening our reach and influence through innovative communication strategies, and exploring new lines of research.

2023 Indiana Civic Health Index

January 23, 2024

This sixth edition of the Indiana Bar Foundation's Indiana Civic Health Index (INCHI) begins a new chapter in the decade of past research undertaken to explore Indiana's overall civic health. This report examines some of Indiana's successes and shortcomings during the past few years and continues to use this data to examine future opportunities for improvement in our collective civic health. In this latest INCHI we look at new data from the 2022 election cycle as well as additional data demonstrating other areas of our state's civic health as we look forward to the national elections in 2024. The insights gained by examining Hoosiers' participation in civic life from 2010 to the present will inform and motivate citizens and leaders alike to build a culture of civic engagement that enhances our economic, social, and political wellbeing.Building on the recommendations outlined in past INCHIs, the report details progress in advancing the goals of enhancing civic education in schools and promoting citizen participation in the election process, goals that are profoundly intertwined. Studies show a consistent and robust relationship between school experiences with voting education and civic participation later in life. As cornerstones of representative democracy, civic education and participation are crucial to advancing our civic health.The report incorporates earlier analyses and current data, examining additional measures of Indiana's civic activity, identifying areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. The 2023 INCHI is meant to further stimulate discussion and inspire a renewed commitment to advancing Indiana's civic health. Strengthening Hoosiers' civic health vitality will require a concerted effort of all stakeholders interested in supporting citizen participation in its many forms; the result will be a more vibrant, successful, and engaged Indiana and nation.

Democracy is Indigenous: Five Year Impact Report

January 14, 2024

Over the past five years, the National Urban Indian Family Coalition has been building urban Native civic engagement infrastructure by investing in the capacity of our member organizations of American Indian-led, community-based nonprofit organizations located in the largest Native communities in the country. These investments have allowed these critically important organizations to foster local community capacity to engage in civic and electoral work and build a foundation for independent political and policy influence. The NUIFC and our member organizations recognize that in order to transform and improve the lives of our urban Native communities that we must become dedicated to increasing civic participation and work towards policies that level the playing field, provide equitable redistribution of resources and recognize that we all need a government that works for all citizens.In 2018, NUIFC and its members spearheaded a groundbreaking initiative to mobilize the American Indian and Alaska Native populations residing off-reservation. These populations represent over 70% of the total AI/AN population and are usually overlooked by conventional voter turnout campaigns. In the last five years, this initiative has empowered these Native communities to have a significant impact on multiple electoral outcomes.We are thrilled to share the five-year Democracy is Indigenous Native Vote Report, which celebrates the impact of NUIFC's Native civic and electoral work. The report showcases the results of our efforts in the last three major elections and Census, explains our ambitious plan behind the creation of our member cohort and its rapid growth, and highlights a few of the organizations that demonstrate the power of these investments.

Social Connectedness and Generosity: A Look at How Associational Life and Social Connections Influence Volunteering and Giving (and Vice Versa)

January 11, 2024

What effect does social interaction have on the decisions people make about making contributions of money or time? Generosity is fundamentally about doing work that helps other people, but volunteering and giving do not need to have a social component at all. However, interpersonal relationships are very important to the maintenance of the national donor pool and volunteer workforce: personal requests to volunteer or give are still the most persuasive appeals people receive.The Do Good Institute (DGI) has prepared two separate reports for the Generosity Commission about the determinants of generosity. The first, Understanding Generosity: A Look at What Influences Volunteering and Giving in the United States, which was published in November 2023, attempts to measure the individual-level and community-level influences on giving and volunteering in the United States. After estimating multilevel models of both behaviors, we find that individual-level (or micro-level) factors have much more influence than community-level (or macrolevel) factors.In this report, we investigate the degree to which social connectedness influences giving and volunteering. The literature on social capital – which can be described as the collective value of all the mutually beneficial relationships generated by participants in social networks – frequently argues or assumes that social connectedness leads to charitable behaviors: that general connection to the community, even controlling for socioeconomic status and demographic characteristics, can encourage residents to dedicate their time and energy to solving community problems.

Growing Voters in Rural Communities: Supporting Youth, Creating Opportunity, and Strengthening Democracy

January 9, 2024

Starting in the spring of 2023, CIRCLE and Rural Youth Catalyst kicked off a nonpartisan learning community with anchor organizations from a diversity of rural places that provide support to young people. The goals of the learning community were to learn from one another about experiences working with youth in rural communities, wrestle with the systemic challenges in rural communities and elections, and to co-create a vision for efforts to increase civic participation, including voting, across diverse rural communities in the United States.This brief, produced in partnership with the Rural Youth Catalyst Project, is informed largely by the Learning Community's insights and reflections. It outlines our collective findings and offers ideas for rural organizations to begin to center youth civic engagement as an integral part of their work.

Democracy Hypocrisy: Examining America’s Fragile Democratic Convictions

January 4, 2024

Will Americans stand up for democracy even when it works against their party?Seven years ago, two of the three authors of this report began a research study to understand American support for democracy and the potential appeal of authoritarian alternatives. Since then, we have surveyed thousands of Americans using multiple survey instruments. Over the course of this project, we have gone beyond an initial battery of questions and pursued multiple avenues to understand and explain what people really believe and why. To do so, we:re-interviewed the same individuals over time to check for consistency in responses to original questions,examined depth of support by asking respondents how strongly they felt about their answers and by testing alternative language to ensure that question wording is not being misunderstood,used focus groups and interviews to develop scenarios that are responsive to the reasons people give for supporting democratic alternatives, andcompared views about abstract principles with reactions to real-world circumstances.Our most recent survey in November 2022 offers us the chance to explore the most important uncertainty emerging from our earlier research. Namely, to what extent were responses to our previous questions an artifact of the Trump presidency? Are Republicans really more supportive of authoritarian actions than Democrats? Or, are Democrats just as willing to support abuses of power in a polarized environment when they control the executive branch?Following the 2020 election, we can understand how views shifted when control of the White House changed hands — even if we haven't yet emerged from an era in which Donald Trump is at the center of our politics. The results show that support for foundational principles of liberal democracy are discouragingly soft and inconsistent.

Why We Rhize: Aprendizajes de una década apoyando movimientos

December 19, 2023

Este reporte apunta a celebrar el legado de Rhize y documentar sus múltiples impactos, al mismo tiempo que resume los desafíos y aprendizajes sobre diversos temas relevantes para las organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG) que trabajan por el cambio social en todo el mundo. Como tal, este informe no ofrece descripciones exhaustivas del trabajo programático de una ONG, como lo haría un informe anual o un sitio web. En cambio, ofrece una historia organizacional a través de una narrativa de múltiples voces sobre las idas y vueltas de una ONG a partir de entrevistas con 15 actores involucrados en distintos periodos a lo largo de su trayectoria de una década.---This report aims to celebrate Rhize's legacy and document its many impacts, while also distilling challenges and learnings on diverse themes relevant to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working in social change worldwide. As such, this report does not offer exhaustive descriptions of an NGO's programmatic work, as an annual report or a website might. Instead, it offers an organizational history through a multi-voiced narrative of an NGO's twists and turns, drawing from interviews with 15 key stakeholders from various points throughout its decade-long journey.

Why We Rhize: Enseignements tirés d’une décennie de soutien aux mouvements

December 19, 2023

Ce rapport vise à rendre hommage à l'héritage de Rhize et à documenter ses nombreux impacts, tout en distillant les défis et les enseignements sur divers thèmes pertinents pour les organisations non gouvernementales (ONG) qui travaillent sur le changement social dans le monde entier. En tant que tel, ce rapport n'offre pas de descriptions exhaustives du travail programmatique d'une ONG, comme le ferait un rapport annuel ou un site Web. Au lieu de cela, il offre une histoire organisationnelle à travers un récit, à plusieurs voix, des rebondissements d'une ONG, en s'appuyant sur des entretiens avec 15 parties prenantes clés de divers points tout au long de son parcours sur dix ans.---This report aims to celebrate Rhize's legacy and document its many impacts, while also distilling challenges and learnings on diverse themes relevant to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working in social change worldwide. As such, this report does not offer exhaustive descriptions of an NGO's programmatic work, as an annual report or a website might. Instead, it offers an organizational history through a multi-voiced narrative of an NGO's twists and turns, drawing from interviews with 15 key stakeholders from various points throughout its decade-long journey.

Why We Rhize: Learnings from a Decade of Supporting Movements

December 19, 2023

This report aims to celebrate Rhize's legacy and document its many impacts, while also distilling challenges and learnings on diverse themes relevant to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working in social change worldwide. As such, this report does not offer exhaustive descriptions of an NGO's programmatic work, as an annual report or a website might. Instead, it offers an organizational history through a multi-voiced narrative of an NGO's twists and turns, drawing from interviews with 15 key stakeholders from various points throughout its decade-long journey.

The Money, Politics, and Transparency Campaign Finance Indicators: Assessing Regulation and Practice in 54 Countries across the World in 2014. Key Findings.

December 16, 2023

The role of money in politics is of increasing relevance all across the world. Campaigns are an integral part of the political arena. At the global level, elections occur more frequently today than ever before. More elections mean that more money is needed for campaigning. Consequently, money's role in the electoral space is increasingly prominent. Recent elections in countries as diverse as the United States, Malawi, Bangladesh, and Venezuela have been affected by inflows of money of uncertain provenance. Who is funding campaigns? Is campaign financial information available to the public? Are state resources illegally deployed for electoral benefit? What role do third party actors play? Are oversight bodies legally and practically capable of monitoring political finance and enforcing relevant legislation?The Money, Politics, and Transparency Campaign Finance Indicators (MPT) provide locally sourced, evidence-based answers to these questions. Researched between July and December 2014, MPT deployed a team of local experts to systematically investigate and review political finance issues in 54 countries across the world. MPT examines the existence and enforcement of campaign finance legislation at the country level.

Concern for Climate Change Directly Informs Youth Civic Engagement

December 14, 2023

In December 2023, nations from around the world gathered at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28). The climate issue has been a central concern of young activists and voters in recent years, and ranked among the top 5 issues for youth in the months leading up to COP28.Youth concern about climate presents an important opportunity to engage a diverse group of youth and support their leadership. However, we need to better understand the relationships different youth have to the issue and how their distinct attitudes and experiences, as well as differences in their backgrounds and access to resources, shape what it takes to involve them in meaningful action.This report, based on new data from CIRCLE's nationally representative survey of young people (ages 18-34) ahead of the 2024 election, examined patterns in young people's relationship to climate change in order to inform how organizations communicate with and reach youth with an understanding of how different youth approach this critical global issue. Our analysis identified four groups of youth whose connection—or lack thereof—to the climate issue can influence future efforts to engage them.

2023 Georgia Civic Health Index

December 14, 2023

In 2013, Georgia Family Connection Partnership (GaFCP)—along with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government, GeorgiaForward, and the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC)—published the first Georgia Civic Health Index. A second edition was published in 2019 in partnership with GaFCP, NCoC, and the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA), launching conversations and action across our state.This third edition of the Georgia Civic Health Index examines the way Georgians interact with each other, with their communities, and in political life. It allows us to see the ways Georgia's civic health has changed since 2013 and explores the ways civic participation varies across demographic variables, including income, educational attainment, age, race and ethnicity, and geography. This report also compares Georgia's rates of civic participation to other states and to national averages, so that—together—we can support and broaden existing conversations, initiate new dialogues, explore and implement evidence-based practices, and implement strategies at all levels to strengthen civic health and communities.