Publications

A new movement is afoot that promises to save the world by bringing the magic of the market to philanthropy. Nonprofits should be run like businesses, its adherents say, and businesses can find new sources of revenue by marketing goods and services that benefit society. Dubbed "philanthrocapitalism," its supporters believe that business principles can and should be the primary drivers of social transformation. What could be wrong with that?

Plenty, argues, Demos Distinguished Senior Fellow Michael Edwards. In this hard-hitting, controversial expose he marshals a wealth of evidence to show just how far short the promise of philnthrocapitalism has fallen, and why the whole concept is fundamentally flawed.

Advocates, educators and students often make the assumption that more education is always better, that a bachelors or graduate degree is always superior in terms of providing additional economic opportunity. As the following report show, this is not always the case.

The major credit rating agencies, Moody's, Standard & Poors, and Fitch, bear a heavy burden of responsibility for the financial meltdown. It was their seal of approval that enabled Wall Street to develop a multi-trillion-dollar market for bonds resting on a foundation of tricky loans and bubbly housing prices. Institutional investors around the world were seduced into buying these high-risk securities by credit ratings that made them out to be as safe as the most conventional corporate and municipal bonds.

Immediately after the Beijing Conference, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an organization of national elected officials like our members of Congress, adopted the one-third marker as the goal for national legislatures.

The U.S. government under President Bush promoted change by adopting hard targets for women in office--but only outside U.S. borders. The government required the new constitutions of Afghanistan and Iraq to have quotas for women in their national parliaments. Afghanistan is now 28th in the world in women's legislative representation, Iraq is 35th.

In stark contrast, the United States has greeted the 30% solution with silence and inaction. It is barely halfway home to reach the one-third mark for women in Congress, and ranks 74th in the world.

The benefits of EDR are clear, and Demos' research has shown that implementation is relatively simple and cost-effective. The consensus among officials in EDR states is that Election Day Registration actually makes the election process easier to administer, as it reduces or eliminates the need for provisional ballots and mitigates pre-deadline surges in registrations.

Based on interviews with town, city or county clerks and full-time election administrators, Demos has put together a "how-to guide" on EDR implementation and administration for election officials and policymakers in states and localities where it is being considered.

Demos, in collaboration with a variety of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, helped prepare the following testimony presented at the House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the operation, impact, and future of U.S. trade preference programs, arguing for inclusion of environmental criteria.

Demos President Miles Rapoport issues a letter opposing an amendment to H.R. 2847, the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies appropriations bill for FY 2010, that would add a question on citizenship to the 2010 census.