The Newest Insights From the Field
Conference Recaps
PACE staff travel to dozens of conferences each year within and beyond the field of civic engagement, including city-focused, regional, and national philanthropy convenings. On this page, staff will catalogue major takeaways from each event and recommendations for how our members can apply these learnings in their work.
Featured Conference Recap
Exploring the intersection of journalism and philanthropy
Conference: Knight Media Forum 2024
PACE Attendee: Kristen Cambell, CEO
Takeaway #1: There is a reckoning about the basic role and relevance of news/media/journalism to people in their everyday lives
Some suggested the most fundamental challenges the media industry is experiencing are not business model sustainability or trust. While those are issues, they are symptoms of a deeper underlying reckoning which is fundamentally about purpose. Operational challenges in the media industry cannot be meaningfully addressed until the “reinvention” of the industry for today’s climate and environment (social, political, economic, technological, and otherwise) is tackled.
Takeaway #2: Keep your eyes on Press Forward, which is making a massive investment in local news.
Some exciting announcements were made about Press Forward, the recently announced $500 million national investment in local news. In particular, 11 new chapters were announced, bringing the nationwide total to 17 and the number of committed funding partners to 40. Press Forward is intended to complement and bolster other innovating fundraising models, including NewsMatch and the Racial Equity in Journalism Fund.
The importance of diversified funding was continually reinforced. As Knight’s new CEO Maribel Perez Wadsworth said, “Philanthropy is not a business model, it’s a revenue stream.” I was also happy to hear it explictly states that Press Forward was designed on the premise that local news increases civic engagement, contributes to community cohesion, and increases government accountability.
Takeaways for PACE Members: Knight announced a 5-year initiative with Pew to understand not only how people receive information, but how they absorb and process it to make decisions and inform their actions, and if/how their beliefs evolve as a result of new information. I will be keeping my eyes on this and imagine it will be relevant for PACE members and other partners.
Links: Conference Landing // Highlights from Day 1 // Highlights from Day 2
More Recaps
We are not going to solve the challenge that is democratic discourse
Conference: Promoting Freedom and Democracy at Home and Abroad: President Reagan’s 113th Birthday Celebration
PACE Attendee: Joy Turner, Head of Member Engagement
Takeaway #1: The “wild problems” are insoluble, and that’s OK
There are problems that we can label as “wild problems.” They will never be solved. Identifying wild problems allows us to rest in the fact that it is not our responsibility to solve them. We can then think about what is our work to do related to those problems. Where is our area to focus on? What is our next right step to take?
Takeaway #2: It’s about who you are, not just what you do
Rather than thinking about civic engagement and civic actions people can/should take to uplift democracy, the conversation can center on civic dispositions. Folks with particular civic dispositions will engage. What civic dispositions are necessary for preserving democracy? What opportunities/locations foster the civic dispositions identified?
Takeaways for PACE Members: The U.S. is not alone
The United States is not the first country to encounter a threat to democracy. There are examples of countries fighting to preserve democracy or having fought to preserve democracy that we can look to for blueprints. How do we learn from those examples? Every step forward is a step in the right direction. What positive narratives about sustaining democracy can we share? What stories of success can we point to in our work? What moments of hope can we uplift with and for one another?
Links: Conference Landing // Video
"Rise of the nones" Explores the consequences of declining religiOSity on civil society
Conference: “The Rise of the Nones” hosted by the Center for Civil Society at AmPhil, November 2023
PACE Attendee: Kristen Cambell, CEO
Takeaway #1: The Social Dimension of Religion is Underappreciated
Several speakers shared a perspective that while religiosity is decreasing, loneliness and deaths of despair (ie. suicide, overdoses) are increasing. One speaker said loneliness is about the demise of a sense of community, and the social dimension of religion is often underappreciated and underutilized.
Another hypothesis shared was that faith communities are able to affirm the inherent goodness and dignity of each individual for their own sake (as a child of God), and this is harder and/or less natural for secular institutions, because they may focus less on an individual’s worth, and more on the value that individual can or should be contributing to a collective or community.
This gave me some insight into why some religious communities struggle with some types of social policy– it can be perceived to imply that something is wrong about humans and the human condition that needs to be regulated or corrected by government or societal intervention. Social policy can be perceived as “the rise of the modern self” in which people are encouraged to make decisions that may be considered contrary to God’s will.
Takeaway #2: “Traditional Religion” may be declining, but religion as an idea is not.
One panel theme was that people may be shifting away from religious observance in the “traditional” sense of attending service or organized congregations, but they are likely not moving away from religion as an idea or value– it may be that we are in a period in which the definitions and categories of “religion” are evolving and being rebuilt in a more modern context. The panel asserted that people are still very hungry for the values and ideas of transcendence, ultimate truth, and larger purpose, but are struggling with how to talk about those things, and what constructs allow them to make them tangible. This is in part because existing/historical constructs are unfamiliar (partly because of declining religious adherence), and people don’t have language for them in current societal or cultural contexts. Another way to ask the question would be: “are we witnessing a rejection of religion, or a lack of introduction to religion?”– many people report not having been inside a church except for a wedding or funeral. This tracks closely with things PACE has learned and observed through our Faith In/And Democracy initiative.
Links: Conference Landing // OpEd
Obama Forum Exudes “Cautious Optimism” Toward New Democracy Challenges
Conference: Obama Foundation Democracy Forum, November 2023
PACE Attendee: Kevin Singer, Communications Support Lead
Takeaway #1: Don’t Seize Society’s Advances But Open Them to Public Debate.
President Obama and others weren’t afraid to admit that institutions have broken things, but that we shouldn’t write them off completely. In his presentation on inclusivism capitalism, a major emphasis from the President was that capitalism has redemptive qualities, but should be open to scrutiny about welfare concerns and ensuring the benefits of capitalism are accessible to everyone. The President suggested that institutions are capable of being run well, operating transparently, and building trust with the public. Though a critical lens is necessary, we should nonetheless acknowledge the growth that free markets and competition incentivize, even as these systems are facilitated by institutions. “Bonds of trust are important to an inclusive economy,” President Obama said.
Takeaway #2: Cooperation is Critical to Build a Society Where Everyone Benefits.
Forum speakers, including the President, emphasized the need for unlikely allies to come together toward tackling challenges – some old, some new. We need to learn to “disagree, even bitterly, without losing sight of the ties that bind us together,” President Obama said. The President also emphasized the need to have a “cautious optimism” about the good of other people. If we write people off because they haven’t had the same experiences we have, we will never choose to cooperate and our most profound challenges will fester and metastasize. A major point of emphasis during the Summit was the possibilities and challenges brought on by AI. Everyone has a stake in ensuring this new technology works for the good of democracy, not to its harm.
Takeaway #3: Depoliticize Politics.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore, during a panel conversation, pressed on the polarized nature of politics in America today. He continually thinks about how his office and team can “depoliticize politics,” or, work toward establishing a more healthy and constructive culture in politics. Foundations can aspire to do this through their giving as well.
For democracy to keep up with new and complex challenges to our democracy and civic infrastructure, we need all hands on deck – even those with whom we struggle to embrace. President Obama emphasized that without meaningful and productive cohesion efforts, we might be able to come up with solutions to challenges in small communities where everyone already agrees with each other, but not solutions that will change nations. Foundations can direct investments to organizations and outlets promoting cohesion.
Links: Forum Home // Full Summit Video // Obama Talk
Three years after January 6, this event examined the threat of political violence to American democracy
Conference: Kettering Conversations with Democracy Innovators: “Political Violence in the US: Are We Ready?”
PACE Attendee: Kristen Cambell, CEO of PACE
Takeaway #1: Threats of violence to public officials (and others) have become more normalized and more socially acceptable in the public.
The first panel, featuring former Congresswoman Donna Edwards, Alan Jenkins from Harvard Law, and Alex Theodoridis of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, discussed the consequences of political violence becoming more normalized. For example, threats of violence influence who can (and will) run for office and serve in volunteer positions (poll workers and election officials, for example).
I was also intrigued by this note: Partisan polarization (aka affective polarization) is becoming more dominant and provides an incentive to undermine democracy as a process and system — the “ends” of defeating the “evil” other side justify the “means” of violence and that inherently whittles away the power and mitigating influence of social norms and public institutions.
Takeaway #2: There is a critical distinction between the “Threat” of political violence and “threats” of political violence.
Former FBI Director James Comey made an interesting distinction between the “Threat” of political violence and “threats” of political violence. Capital-T Threat being the existential and societal level, and lowercase-t threats being individual acts focused at specific people. He suggested “the Threat” is something the FBI and other law enforcement agencies are largely equipped to handle and is able to be deterred (he cited the lack of riots at the arraignments of Donald Trump as evidence). He talked about “threats” being more cultural in nature (reflective of a deterioration of norms, and the implicit permission structures that allow them to happen), therein, they are somewhat harder to deter at scale. Comey said that’s why he believes two things are needed to address political violence: the foundation of rule of law and the “control rods” of culture– both are under stress test and are important, but neither is enough on its own.
Takeaway #3: It is important to recognize and celebrate progress while still acknowledging the unfinished project of democracy and the work ahead.
Kelley Robinson of the Human Rights Campaign brought the house down when she spoke powerfully about the importance of recognizing and celebrating progress while still acknowledging the unfinished project of democracy and the work ahead. These things are not “either/or” they are “both/and.” She talked about how violence is often a response to progress because “freedom is becoming more visible for more people” and that can fuel backlash when some people view freedom for others as a loss of power for themselves. She reinforced a point made by Alan Jenkins in the first panel that “acknowledging the humanity of others makes violence nearly inconceivable” which it is so important to find moments of human connection that transcend politics and identity.
Links:
General Info on the Event (Video Forthcoming)
Political Violence & US Democracy (ProtectDemocracy and SNF Agora Institute, November 2023)
Polarization, Democracy, and Political Violence in the United States: What the Research Says (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, September 2023)
Five Strategies for Funders Interested in Political Violence Prevention | by Carly Straus (Democracy Funders Network for PACE, 2022)
We need to take political violence seriously (Brookings Institution, August 2022)
Political Violence in 2021: How did we get here? How do we move forward? (OverZero for PACE, 2021)