How do we pay for the civic life we need?
How do we pay for the civic life we need?
How do we pay for the civic life we need?
The good news is that we know how to rebuild it. From Wigan to Grimsby to Camden, a decade of practice has shown what thriving civic life can look like and how it can be built. The models have been tested. The playbook exists. There is growing appetite, across government, philanthropy, and business, for a civic renewal that uses public institutions to support communities rather than substitute for them.
Civilc decline
Community life has been hollowed out over decades across Britain
UNDERSTAND THE CONTEXT
The good news is that we know how to rebuild it. From Wigan to Grimsby to Camden, a decade of practice has shown what thriving civic life can look like and how it can be built. The models have been tested. The playbook exists. There is growing appetite, across government, philanthropy, and business, for a civic renewal that uses public institutions to support communities rather than substitute for them.
Civilc decline
Community life has been hollowed out over decades across Britain
UNDERSTAND THE CONTEXT
The good news is that we know how to rebuild it. From Wigan to Grimsby to Camden, a decade of practice has shown what thriving civic life can look like and how it can be built. The models have been tested. The playbook exists. There is growing appetite, across government, philanthropy, and business, for a civic renewal that uses public institutions to support communities rather than substitute for them.
Rebuilding already begins
Communities across the uk are already rebuilding civic life locally
The good news is that we know how to rebuild it. From Wigan to Grimsby to Camden, a decade of practice has shown what thriving civic life can look like and how it can be built. The models have been tested. The playbook exists. There is growing appetite, across government, philanthropy, and business, for a civic renewal that uses public institutions to support communities rather than substitute for them.
Rebuilding already begins
Communities across the uk are already rebuilding civic life locally
But one question has gone unanswered. Reversing decades of depletion requires sustained, multi-billion pound investment over a decade and more — not another cycle of short-term project grants. Not a government programme the next administration can dismantle. Something durable, distributed, and designed to build civic life that can sustain itself. Nobody has yet answered how to pay for that — properly, at scale, in a way that strengthens rather than distorts what it funds.
The funding gap
We know what works, but lack national-scale funding solutions
Explore the research
But one question has gone unanswered. Reversing decades of depletion requires sustained, multi-billion pound investment over a decade and more — not another cycle of short-term project grants. Not a government programme the next administration can dismantle. Something durable, distributed, and designed to build civic life that can sustain itself. Nobody has yet answered how to pay for that — properly, at scale, in a way that strengthens rather than distorts what it funds.
The funding gap
We know what works, but lack national-scale funding solutions
Explore the research
The original Marshall Plan offers a starting point. When the United States sought to rebuild Western Europe after the war, it did so at a massive scale. But it did not simply transfer money. It designed a transition: structured to build lasting institutions, a recovery that could become self-sustaining. After decades of hollowing out, we now need the same logic applied to civic life: a concentrated, catalytic investment designed to transform the capacity and asset base of community life, building the conditions in which community organisations and networks can thrive for the long term.
A new investment logic
Civil renewal needs long-term investment building lasting community capacity
The good news is that we know how to rebuild it. From Wigan to Grimsby to Camden, a decade of practice has shown what thriving civic life can look like and how it can be built. The models have been tested. The playbook exists. There is growing appetite, across government, philanthropy, and business, for a civic renewal that uses public institutions to support communities rather than substitute for them.
A new investment logic
Civil renewal needs long-term investment building lasting community capacity
That is what this programme sets out to provide.
THE MARSHALL PLAN FOR CIVIC LIFE is a programme of research and deliberation, led by Kinship Works and Demos, to develop the intellectual architecture the field currently lacks: a rigorous account of what sustainable civic funding looks like, and a credible theory of how to get there.
You can read more about our work here.
The Marshall Plan
for Civic Life
LEARN ABOUT THE PROGRAMME
That is what this programme sets out to provide.
THE MARSHALL PLAN FOR CIVIC LIFE is a programme of research and deliberation, led by Kinship Works and Demos, to develop the intellectual architecture the field currently lacks: a rigorous account of what sustainable civic funding looks like, and a credible theory of how to get there.
You can read more about our work here.
The Marshall Plan
for Civic Life
LEARN ABOUT THE PROGRAMME
The good news is that we know how to rebuild it. From Wigan to Grimsby to Camden, a decade of practice has shown what thriving civic life can look like and how it can be built. The models have been tested. The playbook exists. There is growing appetite, across government, philanthropy, and business, for a civic renewal that uses public institutions to support communities rather than substitute for them.
Civilc decline
Community life has been hollowed out over decades across Britain
UNDERSTAND THE CONTEXT
The good news is that we know how to rebuild it. From Wigan to Grimsby to Camden, a decade of practice has shown what thriving civic life can look like and how it can be built. The models have been tested. The playbook exists. There is growing appetite, across government, philanthropy, and business, for a civic renewal that uses public institutions to support communities rather than substitute for them.
Rebuilding already begins
Communities across the uk are already rebuilding civic life locally
But one question has gone unanswered. Reversing decades of depletion requires sustained, multi-billion pound investment over a decade and more — not another cycle of short-term project grants. Not a government programme the next administration can dismantle. Something durable, distributed, and designed to build civic life that can sustain itself. Nobody has yet answered how to pay for that — properly, at scale, in a way that strengthens rather than distorts what it funds.
The funding gap
We know what works, but lack national-scale funding solutions
Explore the research
But one question has gone unanswered. Reversing decades of depletion requires sustained, multi-billion pound investment over a decade and more — not another cycle of short-term project grants. Not a government programme the next administration can dismantle. Something durable, distributed, and designed to build civic life that can sustain itself. Nobody has yet answered how to pay for that — properly, at scale, in a way that strengthens rather than distorts what it funds.
A new investment logic
Civil renewal needs long-term investment building lasting community capacity
But one question has gone unanswered. Reversing decades of depletion requires sustained, multi-billion pound investment over a decade and more — not another cycle of short-term project grants. Not a government programme the next administration can dismantle. Something durable, distributed, and designed to build civic life that can sustain itself. Nobody has yet answered how to pay for that — properly, at scale, in a way that strengthens rather than distorts what it funds.
The Marshall Plan
for Civic Life
LEARN ABOUT THE PROGRAMME
