New America Foundation

Founded in 1999, New America Foundation (New America) has dedicated itself to renewing, reimagining, and realizing the promise of America in an era of rapid technological and social change. New America envisions a fully representative, responsive, creative and inclusive democracy that fosters thriving human potential, economic security, innovation, and sustainability around the globe. This vision focuses on five core clusters of human-centered policy work: Education from Birth through Workforce; Family Economic Security and Wellbeing; Political Reform and Civic Engagement; People- and Planet-Centered Global Politics; and Technology and Democracy. This award supports New America’s general operations, enabling the organization to strengthen and deepen its capacity to address existing and emerging challenges around aligning America with its commitments.

New America Foundation is dedicated to renewing the promise of America by continuing the quest to realize our nation’s highest ideals, honestly confronting the challenges caused by rapid technological and social change, and seizing the opportunity those changes create. The award provides flexible support to Ranking Digital Rights (RDR), a public interest research program housed at New America that works to promote freedom of expression, privacy, and non-discrimination on the internet by creating global standards and incentives for companies to respect and protect users’ rights. This is done by ranking the world’s most powerful digital platforms and telecommunications companies on relevant commitments to policies, based on international human rights standards. RDR publishes the Corporate Accountability Index that evaluates company commitments, policies, and practices affecting freedom of expression, privacy, non-discrimination, and other rights. In addition, RDR publishes other research and analysis focused on holding technology companies accountable for the way their policies and practices impact users’ human rights. RDR seeks to ensure that its research and data guide advocates, policymakers and regulators, investors and shareholders, and companies themselves in order to shape a rights-respecting digital environment. It also helps researchers and advocates around the world adapt its methods and use its data to conduct their own research and campaigns.

New America California is a locally-rooted national policy institute exploring how race, class, legal status, and other forms of marginalization inform how people experience the city – through education, housing, economic empowerment, criminal justice, etc.

Social scientist Mary Gray (2020), economists Raj Chetty (2012 Fellow) and Emmanuel Saez (2010 Fellow), and public policy advisor Cecilia Muñoz (2000 Fellow) bring their informed perspectives to a conversation covering economic and work-based policy, gig workers, and implications for worker agency moving forward. Topics include the employee vs contractor debate, what Prop 22 means for workers, and impacts we might see at state and national levels.

New America California has a robust network, reaching over 6000 people within the state.  Anticipated attendees include community-based organization leaders, public sector representatives and staff, and business and non-profit leaders. 

New America is a locally-rooted national policy institute exploring how race, class, legal status, and other forms of marginalization inform how we experience the city – and the city experiences us – through education, housing, economic empowerment, criminal justice, and more.

New America California has a robust network, reaching over 6000 people within the state.  This online session will also tap into the broader national network. 

The award supports travel and related activities for launching and promoting the 2019 Corporate Accountability Index published by Ranking Digital Rights.

Ranking Digital Rights is a project of New America that is setting global standards for how companies in the information and communication technology sector should respect human rights. The project produces the annual Corporate Accountability Index that ranks the world's most powerful internet, mobile, and telecommunications companies on their disclosed commitments and policies that affect users’ freedom of expression and privacy. The results inform the work of civil society, policymakers, and investors and can serve as a roadmap for companies to improve their practices. The grant provides flexible support to Ranking Digital Rights as it continues to publish the Index and carryout a range of related activities.  

New America is a locally-rooted national policy institute exploring how race, class, legal status, and other forms of marginalization inform how we experience the city – and the city experiences us – through education, housing, economic empowerment, criminal justice, and more.

Each of the participating MacArthur Fellows touches a unique element of social practice.
Through different disciplines, all ultimately generate work that impacts community-building
and civic life. While ​Nikole Hannah-Jones​ (2017) interrogates the role of race in education and society as a
journalist, ​Dawoud Bey​ (2017) documents and ascribes agency to many of the same communities
through photography and portraiture. ​José Quinoñez​ (2016) also connects to those communities as a direct services provider of financial access tools. ​Betsy Levy Paluck​ (2017)  is a behavioral psychologist reviewing the impacts of many of these topics at the large-scale, aggregate level. The systematic patterns she discovers mirrors the trends that ​Kate Orff​’s (2017) architectural design and urban planning expertise responds to. ​Cecilia Muñoz (2000) ​adds in the direct policy implications for these topics.  Altogether, this group’s uncommon pairing interrogates policy and connects it to authentic experience in a new, stark way that forces an examination of issues to which society has dulled.

The award supports activities related to launching and sharing the results of the 2018 Corporate Accountability Index published by Ranking Digital Rights, a project of New America.

New America Foundation is a think tank and civic enterprise committed to renewing American politics, prosperity, and purpose in the Digital Age. The award supports the activities of New America’s Open Technology Institute and Ranking Digital Rights project. The Open Technology Institute operates at the intersection of technology and policy to ensure that every community has equitable access to digital technology and benefits. Core to its work is seeking to advance civil liberties and civil rights protections in the digital environment. Ranking Digital Rights produces the Corporate Accountability Index that evaluates leading technology and telecommunication companies according to indicators focused on corporate disclosure policies and practices that affect users’ freedom of expression and privacy.

The award supports a day-long policy discussion convening technical and policy experts to discuss encryption as an important defensive cybersecurity tool.

New America Foundation is a think tank and civic enterprise committed to renewing American politics, prosperity, and purpose in the digital era. It develops and promotes new ideas, bridges
the gap between technology and policy, and sparks broad public conversations. Its current projects address a wide array of issues, including cybersecurity, drones, income inequality, and early childhood education. This grant contributes to New America's "Reinventing the Think Tank Initiative," which is designed to create a national network with hubs in different parts of the U.S., potentially including Chicago, to advance the way public problems are addressed throughout the country. The objective is to bring New America's ideas, expertise, experience, and other resources to several cities across the country. It will link successful approaches to public problems developed in those cities with other cities and regions and to national policy conversations in Washington. Specifically, this grant helps support the staff time to develop extensive knowledge of Chicago's existing infrastructure of civic innovation, and to assess how that work could be advanced by New America's particular skills and resources. The grant period
will conclude with a decision about whether to establish a New America office in Chicago and, if the decision is made to do so, a plan for the work in Chicago.

Housed within New America's Open Technology Institute, the Ranking Digital Rights project is creating a first-of-its-kind public ranking system that evaluates the world's major Information Communication Technology companies on polices and practices related to free expression and privacy in the context of international human rights law. The project increases company transparency while improving their policies and practices as they relate to freedom of expression

The grant will support the Open Technology Institutes efforts to advance transparency, accountability, and security on the Internet and related technologies through evidence-based research and policy analysis focused on the U.S. government and private sector actors.

The grant supports two pilot annual reports of the Ranking Digital Rights project, which will assess the world’s largest information and communication technology companies on free expression and privacy criteria in the context of international human rights law. The reports will also shed light on how specific elements of legal and political regimes prevent companies from protecting basic human rights in the digital world.

This one-year planning grant to New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute will support the development of a new annual ranking of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) companies on free expression and privacy criteria. While ICT companies – ranging from Internet service providers to social media platforms – exercise growing influence over the political and civil lives of people all over the world, little is often known about their commitment to core human rights issues. The rankings would aim to increase transparency and public knowledge about influential ICT company policies and practices that impact free expression and privacy on the Internet.

Founded in 1999, the New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute that invests in new thinkers and new ideas to address the next generation of challenges facing the United States. This grant supports a project, Transition: U.S. National Security in 2012 and Beyond, which seeks to provide policymakers and the public with the results of fact-based, non-partisan research and analysis on the most critical foreign policy issues facing the United States. The requested grant would support a series of high-level bipartisan public discussions, during and immediately following the U.S. presidential election. The project is a tripartite collaboration among three Washington-based think tanks; the New America Foundation, the Center for a New American Security, and the American Enterprise Institute. MacArthur and the Carnegie Corporation plan to jointly support the project.

Housed at the New American Foundation, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is a bipartisan, non-profit organization that educates the public about issues that have significant fiscal policy impact. It will use this grant to build support for a comprehensive debt reduction plan. Building upon its previous efforts to advance a bipartisan approach, the Committee will continue to provide policy ideas and support to lawmakers, and to build a network of public supporters - business leaders, experts, local leaders and citizens - that seeks to achieve a comprehensive solution to stabilize the debt in the medium term and reduce it in the longer term.

To support the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget for The Moment of Truth Project, which seeks a bi-partisan solution to the country's long-term fiscal challenges.

To produce a paper on the implications for ordinary Americans of a failure to address the Federal fiscal crisis.

In support of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget to advance a national dialogue aimed at generating solutions to ensure the nation's long-term fiscal future (over two years).

In support of general operations (over three years).