Here at New America we are many different things... Think Tank Civic Enterprise Research Institute Technology Lab Public Forum Media Platform Venture Capital Fund for Ideas ...and we bring together many different people... Thinkers Dreamers Doers But all our work is inspired by a common purpose: renewing American politics, properity, and purpose in the Digital Age. We’d like to invite you to... Join the Effort Inform the Work Follow the Best Minds Share the Ideas In the following pages, we hope you’ll read about our work and be inspired by the great staff, dynamic board, thought-provoking fellows, and passionate supporters who are at the forefront of solving our nation’s most challenging policy and practical issues. And then... get involved. Letter from the President Dear Friends and Supporters, inspiring details throughout. The space is amazing; it embodies who we are and We’re on the move! In so many ways. where we want to go and inspires us to New America is committed to renewing get there. The feel combines D.C. think America in the digital age and in 2015 tank with California tech start-up; one we lived that mission. We moved colleague described it as “scholarly physically; we moved towards bigger but hip!” The sense of possibility is and more innovative ideas; and we enormous; we now have room to grow, moved forward with our initiative to to convene, to meet and collaborate, to reinvent the think tank. become much more of a community. Our head office in Washington, D.C. We’ve moved in New York as well, from physically moved to the top four floors our space in SoHo to a set of offices of the old American Bar Association at 5th Avenue and 21st Street, right in building at 740 15th Street NW. We’re the heart of the Flatiron district and a block from the White House, with around the corner from Civic Hall, a a wrap-around terrace, a roof deck civic technology hub and wonderful with a view of the Mall, and fun and event space. As a Civic Hall founding 2 Annual Report 2015 member, we hold our events there and • Our Education Policy program participate in the energy of Silicon Alley. published two books charting how Beyond technology, Suzanne DiMaggio the full span of education—from is also building a unique foreign policy birth to adulthood—can better program in New York. The U.S.-Iran harness technological innovation Initiative, which she leads, helped pave to teach the skills of the future. the way for the landmark Iran nuclear Lisa Guernsey’s Tap, Click, Read agreement. Indeed, our April 2015 event shows how digital technology can with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad boost children’s literacy, andKevin Zarif was a major milestone in public Carey’s The End of College presents diplomacy. a bold model of higher education that uses new technologies to be We continue to do what we think we do more inclusive. best: collecting data; analyzing and critiquing present laws, regulations, and • The London-based Prospect policies; and proposing new ones. You magazine awarded us its 2015 U.S. will see some of our most important Think Tank of the Year award in the achievements throughout this report, social policy category. but let me preview a few here. Our fabulous fellows also continue to • The Open Technology Institute write compulsively readable books. The (OTI) played a crucial role in 2015 crop includes Levi Tillemann’s helping to keep the Internet free The Great Race on building the car of and open for millions of Americans the future; The Powerhouse, by Steve by ensuring the passage, in LeVine on the evolution of battery February 2015, of the strongest net technology; Julian Zelizer’s account neutrality rules in U.S. history. We of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, led a broad coalition of industry The Fierce Urgency of Now; and Anya and civil society groups in favor Kamenetz’s The Test, exploring the of net neutrality and were cited fascination with standardized testing in extensively in the FCC’s Open public schools. Earlier books by fellows Internet Order. also garnered impressive honors: Anand Gopal’s No Good Men Among the Living • Our International Security was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize program continues to provide in nonfiction andSheri Fink’s Five Days must-read analysis on the key at Memorial won the 2015 PEN/John security issues of our time. Our ISIS Kenneth Galbraith Award. My own book, in the West report, released after Unfinished Business: Women Men Work the Paris terror attacks, provided Family, was a finalist for the FT-McKinsey groundbreaking analysis of the Best Business Book of the Year award. thousands of Westerners drawn to And Future of War Fellow David Kilcullen join ISIS and other Jihadist groups. won the Walkley Award—Australia’s Pulitzer Prize—for his essay “Blood Year.” Letter from the President 3 On the program side, we moved in many Chicago, as well as deepening our work new directions. OurCybersecurity at New America NYC. Initiative, jointly directed by OTI and the International Security program, held its We’re also expanding our reach through first annual conference in February 2015. new and expanded editorial products. February also saw our first Future of War We launched two major new channels: conference, in partnership with Arizona Polyarchy, run by our Political Reform State University, which attracted wide program, on Vox.com, and Context on participation from the military services Medium.com. The Weekly Wonk became as well as academic and policy thinkers. the New America Weekly and celebrated Several months later we welcomed its 100th edition. We held 182 public Byron Auguste and Tyra Mariani as they events, ranging from book launches founded Opportunity@Work, aimed at and policy summits to technology “rewiring the American labor market” by expos and hackathons. We doubled providing Americans with the skills they our NewAmerica.org web traffic to 4.5 need to land well-paying jobs in 35 cities million page views. And our Twitter and and communities across the country. Our Facebook followings grew by 36 and 24 Breadwinning and Caregiving program, percent respectively. now under the baton of Brigid Schulte, renamed itself the Better Life Lab and Finally, we have added several new reinvented its mission through a series board members: National Review editor of exciting new projects. We launched Reihan Salam, Fresno Mayor Ashley the Women in Cybersecurity project and Swearengin, and New York Times watched Bretton Woods II—Tomicah columnistDavid Brooks. Our founding Tillemann’s effort to create a vast pool commitment to political heterodoxy—an of capital for global impact investing and institution in which it is not possible to development finance—take off! predict our positions from our politics— is stronger than ever. At a deeper level, we are committed to advancing our mission of renewal In sum, New America is growing, with innovative policies and practices. moving, and shaking. But our core is the Last November OTI senior advisorBen same: a fabulous and fascinating group Scott and I published a Washington of people committed to a new America. Monthly article entitled “Reinventing Thank you for your friendship and the Think Tank.” We compared the support; may it continue and expand! Progressive movement’s vision of technocratic, top-down policy research With pride and gratitude, with a more dynamic and iterative twenty-first century model of bottom- up public problem solving. To make this vision a reality, 2015 saw us laying the groundwork for the opening of Anne-Marie Slaughter New America CA and New America President and CEO 4 Annual Report 2015 Top: New America's staff and fellows at our 2015 holiday party. Photo: Mark Finkenstaedt/New America Middle: The entrance to New America's new D.C. office. Photo: John Cole Bottom: Anne-Marie Slaughter in conversation with Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations Sheba Crocker. Photo: New America Letter from the President 5 Reinventing the Think Tank Many Americans believe the political system is broken and, when it does work, it does not work for them. A hundred years ago, government getting outside the Beltway, engaging was in a similar crisis. To address with the problems of communities in it, reformers enacted a sweeping those communities, and looking for the platform of legislative changes. They same kind of innovation, iteration, and also created the nation’s first policy entrepreneurship in the civic sector that research organizations. Soon known we see in the private sector. as think tanks, these organizations offered nonpartisan, independent In 2015, New America proposed a analysis to policymakers and delivered new model of civic enterprise: “civic” expert counsel and innovative ideas. because it engages and empowers That approach remains important; citizen efficacy, and “enterprise” indeed, many other countries are because of the energy and innovation now copying the American think tank involved in actually making change and public policy school model. Over on the ground. While think tanks time, however, many U.S. think tanks connect government to ideas and have come to reflect the partisanship, solutions through policy proposals, compartmentalization, and money a civic enterprise experiments with that have distorted and paralyzed our ideas and solutions to public problems politics in the twenty-first century. on the ground through direct action, collaborative policy processes, or artistic expression. It also seeks to engage citizens directly, publishing In 2015, New America proposed ideas and stories in the forms most a new model of civic enterprise likely to spark debate and encourage readers to keep reading, clicking, and ultimately responding. One hundred years later, we need a new process of public problem- Civic enterprises will come in many solving that recognizes the value forms.