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Who We Are

We are a nonprofit who partners with civic organizations to create enduring shared solutions to help address issues of common interest. We are business professionals who have retired from the private sector and who are committed to "giving back" for civic and social good. Our expertise includes change management, consulting, project management, and technology solutions/platforms. While our initial focus is on supporting the challenge of Food Insecurity, we hope to later explore needs in other areas like housing, health, and employment.

We believe that there is a fundamental structural problem in the civic space. Essentially, many civic problems tend to be tackled locally through a mix of many loosely affiliated volunteer organizations, non-profits, and various levels of government entities. Even though these organizations have shared needs, they do not have the resources, domain skills, or a charter to develop robust collective solutions - even when such solutions would have enormous benefits. Unfortunately, the nature of the civic space means there is not enough "money to be made" to attract private investment. Public (government) solutions have proved inadequate in the past and are unlikely to emerge in the future. Our mission is to help address this gap.

Furthermore, as a result of the current political climate, some believe that there is a need for new kinds of non-governmental "public" entities to take the lead on certain civic problems in the future. These entities would be independent, shielded from political whims, focused on constituent privacy, and data driven. We are intrigued by this broader possibility.

For questions or to join us, please reach out at info@sustainablecivicsolutions.org.

What's in a Name?

The name, Sustainable Civic Solutions, reflects our focus:

Sustainable This word means that we are focused on solutions that endure. Such solutions have a design that inherently and naturally allows for increased adoption, data integrity, scale, and evolution, resulting in increased civic value over time.
Civic This word emphasizes our focus on civic problems that relate to individuals' lives in their neighborhoods, and which would benefit from shared municipal solutions. We believe this space is currently underserved.
Solutions This word emphasizes our focus on holistic and systemic solutions. There is no presumption that the answer will be purely technological. We understand that the best solutions will need to consider "soft" factors, like people, organizations, and politics, and "hard" factors, like processes and technology.

The Principles that Guide Us

Our work is guided by a set of important principles:

Technology is Only a Lever All too often, it is said that the "solution" to a problem is to "build an app for that". We believe that technology is never the end goal. It must be implemented only where it meaningfully improves things, sustainably, with a deep understanding of the "soft" aspects of the problem. This said, we believe that technology, used properly, is a powerful lever that can encourage consistency and other important benefits.
Create Shared Solutions that Scale Our intention is to create and support solutions that are designed from the ground up to meet the needs of all constituents who share the same problem. Designing such solutions requires deep expertise, since all current and future individual needs must be understood, anticipated, and generalized in order to create a truly sustainable "future proof" collective solution. This kind of rigorous approach is essential for efficiently leveraging the scarce resources available in the civic space.
Be the Platform Only We aspire to provide solutions that are "platforms" upon which constituents can operate and collaborate more effectively. We will facilitate and empower civic organizations while still allowing them to maintain their uniqueness. For example, we might provide shared tools to enable organizations to better manage their client relationships without limiting each organization's way of working. Put another way, we intend to be the platform, not the "content".
Design Feedback In All too often, solutions grow in complexity and scope without any real idea of how they are actually used, and by whom. We believe it is therefore essential to thoughtfully design in "instrumentation" and feedback loops from the very beginning.
Start Small, Partner, and Iterate Our initial focus will be on the most promising opportunities, working with non-profit partners, starting with limited scope. The goal will be to quickly verify the purported benefits and gain feedback to feed future iterations. This approach is about speed and efficiency. Great attention is needed in order to get the agility benefits of starting small while still accommodating all eventual collective needs.
Be Diverse, Inclusive, and Nonpartisan It is imperative that civics embrace absolutely everybody, without bias. We believe fundamentally that diversity results in better outcomes. We work with partners who espouse these principles to create solutions that promote them.
Remain Independent Our loyalty is to society at large, and our "profit" is the net positive impact achieved. We are therefore organized as a non-profit, and we set our priorities accordingly.
Engage Government Strategically By developing collective solutions, we recognize that we may gain the participation and data to eventually engage government entities in beneficial fact-based policy changes, partnerships, and funding. These are important future opportunities and responsibilities. But, government engagement is complicated. Therefore we will always begin by solving immediate problems collectively with civic partners "at the ground level".

Current Work

Our initial focus is on the Food Insecurity space.