It’s Time for (Civic) Action

Announcing a New Way to Keep in Touch with Civic Ventures

Since we founded Civic Ventures in 2015, lots of people have enjoyed our writings and podcasts. We’ve attracted a loyal audience that’s interested in furthering a progressive, policy-focused agenda. Many of you have gotten in touch over the last two years and asked us how you can help, what you can do with all this newfound knowledge. Sometimes we’d ask you to publicly support secure scheduling, say, or to help debunk some trickle-downers’ bullshit excuse for why the minimum wage should be eliminated. But we were largely happy to spend our time thinking deeply about policy and working behind the scenes to enact change.

Obviously, the election of Donald Trump has changed everything. We can’t just organize and obsess over the future of policy anymore. You know it as well as we do; this isn’t a time to just sit back and read, or to listen to a podcast. The age of passivity ended on November 8th, 2016. People still want to inform themselves, but they also want to take action. You can’t choose one; you have to do both.

That’s why we’re proud to announce the debut of Civic Action, a new results-oriented partner organization of Civic Ventures. Civic Action is outward-facing and, as the name indicates, action-oriented. If you’re looking for public officials to call, or causes to take up, or information about where to best focus your energy, you’ll want to sign up for our email blasts, or follow us on Facebook and/or Twitter.

For the first few months, we’re going to be figuring out how to make Civic Action the most effective, efficient organizing tool that it can be, but we know what we want it to do. We want to direct people to causes where they can make a substantial difference. We hope to make a big difference in elections by highlighting good work and supporting stellar candidates. We want to continue our efforts to educate people on how the economy really works.

And we want to continue the discussion about what America can be. Resistance is not enough; you also need to rebuild. We have to provide an alternative vision, spotlight the people who are doing positive work, and plan how to recommit to the American Dream for generations to come.

These are confusing times. A person could spend all day every day calling representatives and signing petitions and sharing links. We expect Civic Action to be a signal in the midst of all this noise, a way to direct your energy and make a difference in the world. I hope you’ll follow Civic Action (email, Twitter, Facebook) and let me know what you think.