Categories for Opinion

Lessons Learned from a Year of Four-Day Work Weeks

This is the third in our series regarding our 4-day workweek, as we plan to share our insights and learnings in the hopes that others in the sector consider this experiment and perhaps long-term strategy as a means of prioritizing people.To read on, please check out Reimagining Work: A Four Day Workweek, and Why We’re…

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Lending On Character, Not Credit Scores

by Chris Winters, YES! Magazine Traditionally, support for small businesses comes from organizations like Community Development Financial Institutions, or CDFIs, which have long been seen as a way to invest in historically excluded communities. But CDFIs, many of which are federally chartered, are still part of the mainstream banking economy, which means they need to meet…

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How To Build An Inclusive Economy

The U.S. has long operated without being an inclusive economy. It’s a fact of American life that’s most apparent in data on racial wealth gaps. In 2019, the median net worth of a white family in the U.S. was about $188,200 compared to $24,100 for Black families, according to the Survey of Consumer Finances. Two broad…

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Unrestricted Funding Means Power

I am excited to share that Common Future has received an unrestricted, seven figure gift from trailblazing philanthropists MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett, the largest such donation in our organization’s history. Their remarkable investment further enables Common Future to incubate, co-create, and fund equitable and impactful community wealth building opportunities. More than the monetary value of this gift,…

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Can We Correct For Past Traumas If the Data is Missing?

Reflecting on what data we have 100 years after the Tulsa Massacre. he night of May 31 marks the 100 year anniversary of the Tulsa race riot (also known as the Greenwood Massacre or the Black Wall Street Massacre), when a mob of white residents descended on the Greenwood District of Tulsa, burning, looting, and…

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The COVID-19 Recession Has Been the Most Unequal Recession in Modern U.S. History. The Jobs Plan Can Help.

Economists didn’t talk about a K-shaped recovery until 2020. After previous recessions, where the economy would “dip,” we could expect a united recovery for a significant portion of Americans — sometimes this manifested in a “U-shape,” a “V-shape,” or even in a “W-shape” in the case of a second “dip.” Today, after decades of exercising economic dogmas…

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