A new community-based framework assessing the impact of participatory grantmaking on philanthropyInstitutional foundations are influential, yet it can be difficult to understand how they operate. How do their staff members make decisions? What impact do these decisions have on nonprofits, civil society, and democracy more broadly? One practice that holds promise for demystifying this relationship is participatory grantmaking, whereby stakeholders and grantees parti...

There is a growing anxiety about the basic health of society. Everywhere we see the fraying of the social fabric, the decline of families, the absence of consensus on unifying moral principles, and the disappearance of community and voluntary associations. Around the world, politicians and intellectuals of all political persuasions seek to restore civil society by cultivating stronger public ethics and social institutions. In The Essential Civil Society Reader Don Eberly, one of t...