We act as the nerve center for the field, playing five roles to accelerate the flywheel. Each is described below, with examples of the work it covers. Like the field itself, this is a living portfolio; we’ll add examples as the work grows.
This is the core field-catalyst role: the coordination that holds the field together and lets every other role add up to more. It starts with diagnosis — mapping who is already working on a reform area, what’s been proposed, and where the gaps are. From there it can mean convening organizations that should be collaborating, linking change agents inside government with outside expertise, or assembling coalitions that wouldn’t form on their own, especially across ideological lines where alignment exists but the relationships don’t. The focus is on getting things done, not manufacturing consensus.
We capitalize the field three ways: making the case to philanthropy that state capacity is high-leverage, deploying strategic grants through our pooled fund, and connecting funders to high-impact opportunities even when our fund isn’t the right fit. The aim is to move capital to where it does the most good and to draw more of it into a chronically under-resourced space.
Sometimes the field needs something no existing organization can produce alone. We co-build with partners to fill those gaps — from shared tools to connective infrastructure — then hand the work to the field to carry forward.
We work to make reform more tractable: shaping the narrative around state capacity, educating policymakers, lobbying where appropriate through our 501(c)(4) Recoding America Action, and building the political infrastructure that durable change requires. We engage across the aisle so that good ideas have the best chance of adoption regardless of who holds power.
We generate, synthesize, and codify the shared knowledge base the field needs to aim higher and learn faster: the evidence and benchmarks reformers, researchers, and leaders can build on, and that our own advocacy can point to.
Having several levers to pull on the same problem is part of what makes a field catalyst effective. On many efforts we use multiple at once. See how they come together in our work to reform the Paperwork Reduction Act:
Understood where several organizations stood and brokered agreement on a shared landing zone for a reform proposal.
Grant funding we’ve provided to organizations means they have the bandwidth to engage.
Worked with partners to design the reform proposal, including drafting bill text.
Educated lawmakers and will leverage our 501(c)(4) at the right moment.
In the future, if reform passes, understand how it improves agencies’ ability to deliver.