Open Rivers Fund: Progress in the removal of two obsolete dams

Nearly a year after the launch of Open Rivers Fund, a Resources Legacy Fund program that received $50 million seed funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, communities in Oregon and Alaska are celebrating major progress toward the removal of two obsolete dams. In Oregon, workers removed in October the Beeson-Robison Dam on Wagner 

Celebrating Hewlett Foundation’s 50th anniversary

In 2016, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation marked its 50th anniversary by reflecting on the past so as to inform the future. We invited former staff and leaders to share their memories of Bill Hewlett and the early days of the organization. We commissioned two reports – one that comprehensively examines the history of…

Video: 50 years and beyond

In 2016, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation marked its 50th anniversary. In this video, Hewlett family members on the board and foundation “alumni” share their hopes for the future.

Assessing nonprofit capacity: A guide to tools

Nonprofits come in all different shapes and sizes. They have different program and geographic areas, staff and budget sizes, and approaches to their work. They also have something important in common: the need to be a healthy organization to effectively provide services, conduct research, and adapt to emerging needs.  But what is the best way…

What will it take to make Congress more effective?

Launched in 2014, the Hewlett Foundation’s Madison Initiative focuses on strengthening democracy and its institutions – Congress, in particular – to be more effective in a polarized age. The initiative is nonpartisan in approach and supports grantees across the ideological spectrum – think tanks, advocacy groups, academic researchers and civic leadership organizations  – who seek…

How to fund think tanks flexibly even when you can’t

Leave it to Duncan Green, development expert at Oxfam Great Britain and author of “How Change Happens,” to spur me to action. Recently he put a challenge to funders in an essay, “Local think tanks are natural allies in ‘Doing Development Differently’ so why not support them better?” Yes! That is just what I was 

Q&A with Ryan Alexander: How much is the U.S. government spending on cybersecurity?

Ryan Alexander joined Taxpayers for Common Sense as president in 2006, after serving on its board for more than seven years. Founded in 1995, the organization acts as a nonpartisan budget watchdog that serves as an independent voice for American taxpayers. With a grant from our Cyber Initiative, Taxpayers for Common Sense recently produced a Cyber Spending Database 

The promise of OER – more equitable education for all

“We really appreciate that the whole world is here, and that we are all supporting OER development,” Dr. Maja Makovec Brenčič, Slovenia’s minister of education, science and sport, said to me recently at the 2nd World OER Congress. It was the second morning of a three-day convening held in Ljubljana, Slovenia, which drew over 550 

On the Trump administration’s repeal of the Clean Power Plan

Today the Trump administration proposed to repeal the Clean Power Plan, the nation’s first carbon regulations for power plants. It’s the wrong direction for our country, for our economy, and for the public’s health and welfare. It’s also out of step with what the public wants. The problem of climate change is real and urgent. 

What is creative youth development?

When you invite young people to the table, be prepared for some serious truth-telling. This is what happened when I attended the creative youth development national stakeholder meeting in Boston this summer. Shoulder to shoulder with teachers of art, the humanities and science, we gathered to craft a policy agenda for a newly-defined field —