Power Station

So much is at stake in America in the year ahead. The 2020 presidential election and decennial census will be markers in history, a time for communities to stand up and be counted or a perilous step backward. For low-income, immigrant and communities of color, in particular, the stakes are tremendously high and civic engagement is an imperative. Latinos have suffered because of the President's hat...

Jon Pratt builds community, influence and power every day. He leads the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, a trade association for nonprofit organizations that provide services in the arts, education, affordable housing, health and the environment. Just as chambers of commerce represent the interests of the business community, MCN amplifies the voices of the nonprofit community. It is where members...

Diane Yentel leads the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, the nation's most influential champion for ending housing poverty and homelessness in America. It is a respected presence on Capitol Hill and in state houses where legislators know that their reports and testimony are evidence-based and accurate. In recent years, NLIHC has stopped every effort rolled out by the Trump Administration and...

This nation values higher education but make it hard to access, particularly for low-income and people of color. Students may not have counselors to guide their search and the cost of applications can be prohibitive. It takes motivated adults to connect young people to opportunities and Sean Lanier is deeply dedicated and driven in this mission. Although he has retired from the military, he contin...

When Eddy Morales first moved back to Gresham, Oregon from Washington, DC, he did not plan to run for elected office. He expected to continue his business as a political campaign adviser and reconnect with family and community. Years in DC working with Voto Latino and Democracy Alliance had sharpened his considerable talents as a national policy advocate, and he wanted to engage civically at the l...

Gun violence continues to devastate families and communities. When 20 first graders and six adults were murdered by a gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012, the nation's shock and grief were palpable. President Obama spoke passionately  about the urgency of passing background checks and stronger gun control laws. But pushback by the NRA and members of Congress prevailed. When...

We all want to be heard and understood, a fair expectation. But being heard takes more than engaging an attentive listener. It requires purpose, knowing what we want to say and how to express ourselves. We must know how to adapt communication styles, from a private conversation to a conference room to social media. It can be humbling, frustrating and even costly when we fail. Tia Blount brings her...

Since 1991, Latino Economic Development Center, a DC based nonprofit, has worked side by side with Latino families to make their American Dreams possible. These families, both citizens and undocumented immigrants, have aspirations of safe and affordable rental housing, home ownership and the launching and expansion of small businesses. But they are under-resourced in the federal budget and underse...

America has a conflicted relationship to science. Presidents and Congress love science until data is at odds with their beliefs, political and economic interests. Public confidence in science is growing as evidence of the impacts of climate change on rising sea levels, displacement and migration in coastal communities is now widely accepted. Jacob Carter, biologist and research scientist from the...

It's hard to describe how energy shifts when Patrick Gaspard is in the room. He is positive, ready to engage, and most importantly, completely present. As president of the Open Society Foundations, whose philanthropy supports democratic practice, human rights and equal access to justice in 120 countries, Patrick is a powerful presence in many rooms. His ability to listen to and act on what communi...

How do we know that the nonprofit programs we believe in are effective? Without evaluating them against pre-determined measures we cannot make a case for their efficacy, replication or scaling. It starts with a process that ensures that stakeholders are engaged in developing them, measurable goals are identified and the vision for success is shared. And, for these measures to be impactful, they mu...

Ilda Martinez was 3 years old when she arrived at a migrant Head Start center in Plant City, Florida. Her first language was Mixtec, an indigenous dialogue of Oaxaca, Mexico. She learned Spanish and then English in Head Start programs. These migrant and seasonal programs are critical resources for families like Ilda's that move several times a year to harvest crops, from blueberries in North Carol...

Head Start is known for making early childhood development and education a reality for all families. Developed as part of the 1960's War on Poverty, Head Start is an example of public policy that serve the educational needs of underserved children. But the Head Start model was organized around the school calendar, an approach that works for most but not all of our nation's families. It does not me...

Have you been to the 14th street corridor of Washington DC lately? It is a destination spot for upscale restaurants, furniture stores, galleries and newly constructed apartment buildings. If you venture to a leafy side street you will find a courtyard that leads to N Street Village, a local nonprofit whose programs and advocacy serve 2000 homeless and low-income women annually year. Many of these...

In 1980, James Abourezk, US Senator from South Dakota and the first Arab-American elected to Congress, founded the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. It is now the nation's largest grassroots nonprofit advocating for the civil and human rights of Arab Americans. With a small staff of lawyers, and community-based supporters in 50 states, ADC, under the leadership of Samer Khalef, represen...

An innovative nonprofit is requiring us to rethink our assumptions about who works in the digital economy. Byte Back, a DC based training organization led by the dynamic Elizabeth Lindsey, is shaking up the workforce and technology sectors by bringing non-traditional workers into the sectors. In many cases, these students have never used a computer or even had broadband access. So it follows that...

When Ali Noorani visited Honduras, he met migrants desperate to escape poverty and violence for presumed safety and opportunity in the United States. As Ali sees it, this administration's hateful rhetoric and treatment of immigrants is robbing our entire nation of its dignity. The Forum was launched in 1982 to coalesce civil rights organizations in advocating for a just immigration system. After P...

Do you envision think tanks to be old-school institutions far-removed from real life community experiences? Solomon Greene, Senior Fellow at The Urban Institute, will make you reconsider those assumptions. The Urban Institute was founded in 1968 by President Johnson to generate evidence-based strategies for ending urban poverty. It has evolved into an organization that partners with diverse stakeh...

As Sookyung Oh explains, Annandale, Virginia is much more than a destination spot for Korean BBQ and Pho. It is home to Korean and Vietnamese Americans and a new wave of Caribbean and African immigrants. Sookyung leads NAKASEC (National Korean American Service and Education Consortium) a grassroots organization with affiliate offices in Los Angeles, Orange County and Chicago. Its power building mi...

Eshauna Smith knows first-hand what it takes to break through barriers and achieve success. The eldest child in a family struggling with poverty, she forged a different future. This experience informs her leadership of Urban Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to helping young people from challenging backgrounds attain economic success. As Eshauna learned, having adults stand up for her was transforma...

The numbers are staggering: 70% of American college graduates carry student debt and our outstanding national student debt level now exceeds $1.5 trillion. A new report, Quicksand: Borrowers of Color and the Student Debt Crisis, authored by Center for Responsible Lending CRL) and the NAACP describes the scope of the problem, identifies which communities are most impacted and recommends systemic re...

Have you ever wished that a public agency official understood the problem you are trying to solve as a nonprofit leader? Tameka Montgomery, appointed by President Obama as Associate Administrator to the Small Business Administration's Office of Entrepreneurial Development, understands. She came to the position after creating a business incubator in Denver and leading its award-winning Small Busine...

Domestic violence, as Karma Cottman explains, is motivated by a drive to maintain power and control within an intimate partner relationship. It is abuse of power that is conveyed in many forms: physical, psychological, economic and coercion. Domestic upends families and traumatizes victims, including children who witness violence within their own households. And It is pervasive across boundaries o...

What does it take to eliminate housing discrimination and ensure equal housing opportunity? According to Lisa Rice, President of the National Fair Housing Alliance, (NHFA) it starts with recognizing that discrimination and inequity are rooted in federal policies, most fundamentally, residential segregation. The legacy of racist policies, from redlining to unequal access to credit, persists in comm...

Sunrise Movement is changing the conversation about this nation's climate crisis and what can be done to turn it around. It builds on the work of scientists and advocates who have long warned about the consequences of our reliance on fossil fuels, the inevitability of environmental degradation, and the influence of industry lobbyists on our elected representatives. And a surge of devastating wildf...