Category: Case Studies

  • Civic Nonprofit: 2016 Case Study

    The Civic Nonprofit Demonstration (CNP) of the Minnesota Active Citizenship Initiative (MACI) was launched in 2003 when Sean Kershaw became executive director of the Citizens League. In August 2015, Citizens League membership in CNP was formally sunset after many attempts to advance a civic organizing approach within the institution. The experience provided essential information for developing a civic organizing model. (See details in the 2015 CNP Case Study Update.)

    In 2015-2016, Sean Kershaw and Peg Michels (Civic Organizing Inc. Board members) with support from MACI, restructured the Civic Nonprofit Demonstration. The intent was to start fresh using what is now a civic organizing model produced from the 20 years of experimentation. This decision provided an opportunity to establish the Civic Nonprofit Demonstration as an autonomous MACI structure whose sole purpose was to expand the civic organizing model and make necessary adjustments. At the same time, we established a collaborative relationship with the Citizens League that allowed Sean Kershaw to use the Civic Organizing Framework to support the development of the CNP Demonstration in his role as Citizens League executive director. In return the Citizens League could use findings from MACI Case Studies to support their policy initiatives.

    Our current focus for organizing is to complete Stage 1 with a base of 2 to 5 nonprofits and sustain CNP as a governing demonstration of the Minnesota Active Citizenship Initiative. (Deadline: June 2017.) If that deadline is achieved we will move forward to test our ability to expand in Stage 2.

    Dan Holub, Minnesota Association of Professional Employees (MAPE), received approval from his Board for piloting a civic organizing approach within MAPE.

    Read the case study documents:

    Civic Nonprofit Framing Document (pdf)
    Civic Nonprofit Policy Agenda (pdf)
    Civic Nonprofit 2016 Update (pdf)

  • Civic Governance: 2016 Case Study

    Ensuring water quality is one of the greatest public policy issues we face today. All of the decisions made in all places impact water quality, however, in our current system, the problem of water pollution is seen as government’s to solve, with little obligation for other sectors to play a role, and little incentive to organize a base of partnerships within and across all sectors to impact the scale of the challenge.

    Government agencies, by providing a variety of expert-based services, have developed specialized areas of technical expertise as well as complex management systems to accomplish this work. As this expert-based system has developed, we have put much less emphasis on developing the social and political innovation needed to engage and sustain individuals as active citizens who take on their role in solving environmental problems.

    The extent to which communities are involved in this work, their role is largely focused on stewardship activities on private properties. Education campaigns, led by non-profit organizations and government agencies, are seen as the key strategy for engaging the public in water quality issues. A meaningful role for citizens and citizenship in policymaking carried out in the places where they have the authority to act has not yet been imagined.

    The Civic Governance case study details how a new model for water quality governance is being developed to address the need.

    Read the case study documents:

    Civic Governance Framing Document
    Civic Governance Policy Agenda
    Civic Governance 2016 Update

  • Civic Business: 2016 Case Study

    Kowalski’s Companies has successfully produced a civic business model and is moving forward to ensure sustainability in the next generation. Over the 15 years that they have been a member of MACI, they have grown tremendously. They have identified these keys to their success as a sustainable civic institution:  having a strong and focused internal organizing agency and key leaders that will not waiver on the core foundation of what it means to be a civic business.

    According to Kowalski’s:

    “Besides creating active citizens, who are policy makers that help to renew democracy in the state of Minnesota alongside the other MACI demonstrations and members, the civic organizing approach has helped us achieve our company goals and solve systemic business issues within our company. It has given us a process to approach issues that arise in our industry and our community that puts the governing role on all stakeholders. We reach many stakeholders on a daily basis with the civic organizing approach: employees, vendors, customers and the community. It has helped to strengthen our internal base as well as reaching an external base. Keeping the integrity of the civic organizing process is critical to us as well as the other MACI members doing this work in their institutions.”

    “Part of our role every day is to be educators to our civic leaders and active citizens, creating and sustaining the climate and infrastructure to govern and set policy for the common good using a civic organizing process. As active citizens may come and go, having them be able to be part of this process and experience that governance is so important, and our hope is that they will carry the experience with them wherever they spend their time and fulfill their role as an active citizen.

    “As we were all reflecting back on the years that have gotten us to this point, we know this is who we are and how we do our work, and we cannot see ourselves doing it differently. This is the mindset we have as lead organizers, and our role is to carry this into the next generation of active citizens.”

    Read the case study documents:

    Civic Business Framing Document and 2016 Update
    Civic Business Policy Agenda

  • Civic Nonprofit Case Study 2015

    We are focusing on specific policy changes without focusing on the capacity for current systems to implement them. The authors are proposing that institutional governance is a primary public policy issue and applying that argument to the governing structure and capacity of non profits.

    The argument is grounded in the:

    • The need for change based upon indicators of an in ability to provide sustainable progress towards addressing challenging public problems.
    • Civic Organizing as a proposed solution strategy
    • Evidence from lessons learned in a Citizens League application.

    Read the full case study (pdf).

  • Renewing the Public Congregation Case Study 2014

    This Renewing the Public Congregation case study is presented by the Islamic Civic Society of America.

    Islamic Civic Society of America (ICSA) demonstrates the compatibility between Islamic and Civic principles in a democratic society. Members of ICSA are dedicated to governing for the common good while addressing the specific needs of the Muslim community. The Islamic Civic Society of America Institutional Governing Document guides members in their commitment to advance ICSA identity while achieving goals.

    Minnesota has the largest Somali and East African immRPCMACICaseStudyImageigrant community in the United States though there is no clear and effective way to quantify the number. OPR, through discussion with the state’s leading demographers have determined that the safest estimates identify the Somali population to be near 72,000. Approximately 95,000 East Africans immigrants in total live in Minnesota.

    ICSA is a long established and respected faith and civic institution within the Muslim and interfaith communities of Minnesota. It was the first Mosque opened in MN by the Somali community. ICSA/OPR are seen as politically moderate organizations that bridges understanding between the mainstream and the Somali/Muslim community.

    Civic organizing is a proposed solution strategy to address the need to build “a mediating infrastructure” between community and public systems. The purpose for civic organizing is to produce the “civic capacity and infrastructure” for motivated leaders to be the engine for addressing complex and related public challenges in a sustainable way.

    Why “civic”? Because the term applies to governing capacity and decision-making or governing processes within each of our institutions is at the core of rewarding and sustaining practices. If there is evidence that existing practice does not solve problems, the source is governance. Civic relates to the shared democratic obligation to govern for the common good and is a starting point for leaders to restructure the governing processes within their settings that are a barrier to achieving that end and constructing those that produce what we say is good.

    The RPC Case Study contains two parts. First, a discussion of the over-all need for a new approach to policy making applied to immigrant experience. The second part of the case study, applies the civic organizing approach to a specific public policy issue—Successful Youth Development for Somali Youth. Read the case study.

  • Civic Governance Case Study 2014

    Executive Summary

    The Public Policy Issue

    Minnesota’s greatest water quality challenge – “non-point source” pollution – is not getting solved at the watershed scale, which is needed to impact the problem for the long-term. To date, roughly 40 percent of Minnesota’s assessed waters have been found to be impaired (not meeting state water quality standards). The majority of those impairments come from “non point sources” of pollution – diffuse pollution created by the diverse land uses taking place across Minnesota’s landscapes.

    The Need a New Approach to Water Governance

    In Minnesota we have a significant amount of infrastructure in place that impacts the issue of water quality – households, farmsteads, businesses, congregations, non-profits, academia, and government.  All of these institutions have a role to play in managing the health of our state’s waters.  Yet these institutions do not see themselves as accountable for clean water goals, nor do they have the governance capacity or cross-sector, cross-regional infrastructure needed to work across and between watersheds on clean water goals.  Instead, government agencies bear the lion’s share of responsibility for governing our state’s water resources.  As a result, we are not making sufficient progress in meeting our state’s clean water goals.  There are an increasing number of leaders within government and within these diverse institutions who agree we need a new approach to water governance and policymaking, one that can be integrated into our existing systems.

    Proposed Solution Strategy

    The Civic Governance policy pilot, which includes citizen leaders from government agencies, community-based organizations, and academia, is a response to this need. We are developing and testing a new approach to water governance in Minnesota – a “Civic Governance” model that demonstrates how to develop and practice the governance capacity needed in all institutions to achieve our state’s water quality goals.  And we are expanding this solution strategy to a larger, statewide scale.

    What’s Working                                           
    • We have developed a model for Civic Governance that, if sustained, can be expanded to produce water quality impact.  Our “network” map illustrates working relationships we are building across sectors, regions, and watershed scales.
    • We have developed specific guidelines for members of Civic Governance Organizing Agencies (OAs) to adapt and integrate a civic organizing approach into strategic planning, education and outreach, and existing boards to ensure a focus on governing for the common good and the organizing capacity needed to increase ownership, accountability, and scale of impact in the process of advancing best water quality practices.
    • We have developed an integrated educational track that links practice to civic policymaking and advances a Civic Policy Agenda.
    • We have developed and are now advancing a Civic Governance Policy Agenda from our practice, which includes the following recommendations for any water quality program or project:
    1. Water quality restoration and protection work must be linked to active citizenship and a higher purpose (i.e., all citizens in communities and institutions have a central role in and obligation in a democracy to solve the challenge of water pollution and to work toward the common goal of clean water).
    2. In order to ensure there are effective and sustainable local efforts to control water pollution within watersheds across Minnesota, we must develop the civic capacity of local leaders willing to engage in all aspects of the policy making process (including strategic planning, civic engagement, and transparent, accountable decision-making)
    3. In order for active citizens and civic leaders to emerge and thrive within watersheds, all institutions collaborating toward the goal of clean water must establish internal policies that develop the identity of active citizenship, civic capacity and the civic infrastructure needed to have a meaningful governing role in the process. This requires a dedication of resources to civic development across time, sectors, and generations.
    4. Advance recommendations 1-3 as a Civic Policy
    What Is The Gap (Challenge)
    • The power dynamic that sustains current practices in water resource management is difficult to impact.
    • Lead organizers work to build a bridge between the higher principles that define Civic Governance and the principles of their sector, but in doing so they must go against the current culture within their systems.
    • Current understanding of policy is still interpreted as being developed by the “boss” and “the government” with citizenship being a response separate from more immediate roles of value.
    • Closing the gap takes focus by individuals in a civic organizing agency to restructure their time, to learn from practice, sustain governing membership in a civic organizing agency until there is some evidence of the value of change.
    Next Steps
    1. Stay focused on developing the identity of lead organizers and their capacity to sustain and strengthen current Civic Governance civic infrastructure.
    2. Goal is “good enough” lead organizing capacity by December 2015 to meet criteria for Stage 1 and move forward as a Demonstration in Civic Governance.
    3. Advance policy recommendations (See attached Civic Governance Policy Agenda

    Download the full case study as pdf

    Download the Civic Governance Policy Agenda

  • Civic Governance Case Study 2013

    Executive Summary

    The Public Policy Issue

    Minnesota’s greatest water quality challenge, nonpoint source pollution, is not getting solved at the watershed scale, which is needed to impact the problem for the long-term. To date, roughly 40 percent of Minnesota waters have been found to be impaired (not meeting state water quality standards). The majority of those impairments come from nonpoint source pollution – diffuse pollution created by the diverse land uses taking place across Minnesota’s landscapes.

    We Need a New Approach to Policymaking in Watershed Governance

    Decisions that are made by citizen leaders inside our many diverse institutions, organizations, communities and government agencies have an impact on the common good. These are, because of their public effect, governing decisions. In light of this, we must transition from a traditional policymaking approach focused on institutional or individual self-interest to a civic policymaking approach focused on the interest of the common good. We do this by developing Civic Leaders who:

    • Connect with their identity as citizens in a democracy,
    • Develop their civic leadership capacity to govern according to civic principles and standards,
    • Build a civic infrastructure through which this capacity can grow and that connects us across sectors and regions,
    • Create civic policies that allow us to meet our own interests by advancing the interests of the common good.
    Questions We Are Asking
    • What is the role of citizenship in the broader picture of managing water quality?
    • Where does this role need to be developed?
    • How can existing institutions support this role?
    Civic Governance Solution Strategy

    We are testing a framework and approach, called Civic Governance (also called Civic Policymaking), as a strategy for transitioning our current approach to watershed governance to a civic approach. We are intentionally moving away from an expert-based, government-agency-driven system, toward one that is partnership-based and made up of citizens across our watersheds so that governing our waters is within the role and responsibility of all citizen leaders, from public and private sectors, throughout Minnesota. We have established three pilot projects to test this approach: two in the mostly rural St. Croix River Basin and one in the mostly urban Como Lake watershed.

    Evidence to Date This Strategy Is Working

    In the St. Croix River Basin pilot staff from local and federal government agencies housed in two counties – Kanabec and Mille Lacs, are working together across their agencies and in partnership with local landowners to test this new approach to shared watershed governance. To date, they have had success in reframing internal operating procedures that can be a barrier to citizen engagement and are testing partnership-based approaches for working with local landowners interested in improving water quality and land management practices.

    Another rural St. Croix River Basin project has recently been initiated called the Interstate Civic Organizing Agency, made up of citizens from Minnesota and Wisconsin who represent state and county government agencies and lake associations. Working across state boundaries, this organization seeks to link citizenship and local leadership to water quality improvement efforts in the river basin. A special emphasis for this group is on creating the right kind of systems and processes within government organizations that can enable this to happen on a day-to-day and ongoing basis.

    In the St. Paul Como Lake pilot, community residents are working in partnership with local government agency and local organization leaders to increase local leadership and local collaboration capacity to tackle the water quality impairment of Como Lake as a community. Key to this goal is transitioning from project-based organizing to citizenship-based organizing.

    Recommendations We Are Advancing
    1. Water quality restoration and protection work must be linked to active citizenship and a higher purpose (i.e., all citizens in communities and institutions have a central role in and obligation in a democracy to solve the challenge of water pollution and working toward the common goal of clean water).
    2. In order to ensure there are effective and sustainable local efforts to control water pollution within watersheds across Minnesota, we must develop the civic capacity of local leaders willing to engage in all aspects of the policy making process (including strategic planning, civic engagement, and transparent, accountable decision-making).
    3. In order for active citizens and civic leaders to emerge and thrive within watersheds, all institutions collaborating toward the goal of clean water must develop the civic mindset that enables all citizens to have a meaningful governing role in the process. This requires a dedication of resources to sustaining citizen efforts across time and generations.
    4. Advance recommendations 1-3 as a Civic Policy Agenda.

    [Download the full case study as pdf]