Joe Minicozzi, who runs the property-data firm Urban3 out of Asheville, stood in front of a ballroom in Galveston with a parcel map of Buncombe County, North Carolina, walking the room through what his own county’s tax assessor had quietly done to his neighbors. Four point four million dollars redirected away from public schools in a single year, enough to cover more than a hundred teachers’ salaries, and none of it required a vote or a scandal. It required a property tax for

When people talk about democracy failing, they mean it the way you’d talk about a roof failing. Something up above, something structural, something that’s supposed to keep the weather out and doesn’t anymore. Congress gridlocked. Courts politicized. Agencies gutted or captured. The conversation stays up there, at the level of the roof, because that’s where the cameras are. But nobody waits for the roof to get fixed before they figure out where to put a bucket. That’s what’s a

In 2019, MacArthur, Rockefeller and Omidyar launched the Catalytic Capital Consortium and gave our field a working definition. Catalytic capital is investment capital that is patient, risk-tolerant, concessionary, and flexible in ways that differ from conventional investment. Money that goes in early, stays in long, takes the first loss, and bends its terms to fit the deal. It was a gift to everyone doing economic justice work. We finally had language and the process for what

Much of my work has been on creating ways to build human connection, also called social capital, in the midst of traditionally patriarchal settings. The dominant context surrounding this work was made vivid in my first real job, working in human resources for an oil company. A kind, experienced manager, named Curly Jones (he was bald), saw the blank look constantly on my face and explained the essential nature of the culture we lived in. He said the essence of management and l