Letter from Our President: A Major Announcement

Opening the door to your first home.

Putting your business’s first dollar on the wall.

It’s a wonderful day when you reach a milestone, and enter into a new and important phase in your life.

But when my late husband, Leonard Salle, and I founded the Commonweal Institute almost ten years ago, we hardly recognized that we were making a monumental personal transition. We had successful careers as an engineer and a physician, but we saw what was happening to our country’s political landscape, and we were scared.

We couldn’t just sit by and watch while our government, our media, and our political debate were taken over by a well-organized, well-financed juggernaut that put the interests of the powerful few ahead of the rest of us. So, with the help of many good friends and allies like you, we founded the Commonweal Institute, and dedicated ourselves to building a powerful, unified progressive movement that would fight back, as our name says, for the common good. We saw this as a milestone for our country.

Since that day back in 2001, the Commonweal Institute has been part of many of the decade’s progressive successes. We exposed the machinations of the Right Wing and their coordinated attacks on citizens’ access to the courts and right to organize. We did groundbreaking research on the psychology and sociology of changing our political culture, and articulated the shared values around which a durable progressive majority could come together. And we created a unique set of programs for building our movement:

• The Progressive Ideas Network, a consortium and collaboration platform for nearly three dozen of the country’s leading think tanks;
• The Progressive Roundtable convenings, bringing policy wonks and grassroots activists together to plot shared strategies for power and victory;
• The Talking Politics training series, helping grassroots activists and ordinary citizens communicate their views more persuasively;
• Our Fellows program, lifting up the ideas of some of the leading thinkers in progressive politics today;
• And more, including major research projects, conference workshops and panels, and public speaking and media appearances.

Today, I’m writing to tell you about another major milestone that the Commonweal Institute has reached, and to invite you to join me in celebrating it.

I am proud to announce that the Commonweal Institute has joined forces with Demos, a leading research and advocacy organization based in New York and one of our peers in the Progressive Ideas Network. As part of this strategic affiliation, the Progressive Ideas Network (PIN) and its related programs will officially be housed at Demos, where they will be run by Barry Kendall, Commonweal’s executive director for the past three years.

Barry has been the key person in the formation of PIN and its rapid growth—he has really put the Commonweal Institute and its work on the national map.  This new relationship with Demos is a result of his efforts.  I am excited that I will be able to continue to work with Barry and provide guidance for these programs as a member of the PIN Steering Committee, the network’s governing body.

This alliance will take our movement-building work to the next level. Demos is a strong organization, with an East Coast presence that is essential for operating at the federal level. Demos’ capacity as an exemplary producer of ideas and policy solutions will be the perfect complement and support to our efforts to bring more connection and cooperation to the progressive policy community.

Also, we hope our affiliation will help Demos address the critical challenges of government and governance in California. Our state government is broken, and it’s very clear that our leaders need the kind of resources on revitalizing the role of the public sector that Demos has to offer. I’m looking forward to using Commonweal’s California connections and resources to help Demos have a great impact with this work.

The Commonweal Institute and our sister lobbying arm, Commonweal America, are not going away, although the bulk of our work will continue under the PIN banner. I will continue to use Commonweal as a platform for advancing ideas and opinions about progressive politics and cultural change, but our more costly endeavors – major research projects, convenings, collaborations – will be run by PIN, and that’s where resources will be needed. After nearly ten years of doing this work, I believe that a connected, cooperative, and effective progressive movement is more needed now than ever before, and PIN represents a unique opportunity to make that happen. 

If you have been a supporter of the Commonweal Institute in the past, or just an interested friend, I ask that you join me in supporting the Progressive Ideas Network. Click here to donate now.

Of course, no milestone would be complete without a celebration – and we’re having two! First, please mark your calendars for a special event welcoming Demos to California on Tuesday, June 22 at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco. Second, please plan to join me at my home in Portola Valley on Sunday afternoon, June 27, for a celebration of 10 years of the Commonweal Institute and our new partnership for progressive success. Both events are free, and you are welcome to attend one or both – formal invitations will follow.

On a personal note, let me take this opportunity to say thank you to our current and past Board members, our donors, and all the friends and allies who have supported the work of the Commonweal Institute over the past decade. Leonard and I always knew that this would be a long fight, and obviously we were right – there is so much work still to be done. But when I look back on where we were as a country ten years ago, and where we are today, it’s clear that a lot of progress has been made – and we couldn’t have done it without you, the passionate citizen standing up for the best that our country can be. Thank you for helping us to reach this milestone, and I look forward to many more years of working together for the common good.

Onwards and upwards,

Dr. Katherine Forrest

President, Commonweal Institute