Power to Improve

When the transformer that supplied an entire community’s power collapsed, and the government and power companies weren’t acting to solve the problem, local residents joined forces to crowdfund for a new transformer, helping to ensure the lights stay on and community members can continue to work and carry out their daily activities.

One Minneapolis resident launched a grassroots education campaign to help her neighborhood reduce carbon emissions from home heating by upgrading her home insulation and using electric appliances. She then shared information about the energy-efficiency improvements and available rebates to fund them. Between 2019 and 2024, area residents using these strategies reduced natural gas use by 29%, and is now being replicated in other neighborhoods throughout the city.

In an effort to lower electric rates and move toward more renewable energy, Kauai residents raised funds to acquire and turn the area’s for-profit utility company into a locally owned cooperative, the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC). When it was formed in 2008, KIUC pledged to reach 50% renewable electricity by 2023, and last year it was already generating 60% of its energy from renewables like solar power.

In order to have more say and control of their utilities, the city rallied together to create a campaign to take over their local electricity distribution. This take-over has created city jobs for local residents that are more secure than those in the private sector and residents have also seen lower electricity rates.

Los Angeles is partnering with two nonprofits, the Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative (LANI) and the Los Angeles Conservation Corps (LACC), to accelerate sidewalk repairs ahead of the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. LANI has spent over two decades helping council districts fix broken sidewalks more cheaply and flexibly than the city's official process, and LACC pairs the repair work with paid job training for youth ages 18–26, with 30 participants already completing the program.

Honor the Earth is an anti-data center coalition monitoring the construction of hyperscale data centers in or near indigenous land. Through their efforts, town halls, doorknocking, attending tribal council meetings and more, they’ve formed a community with people in agriculture and beyond, working to push back against data center construction and enact protections for communities. As a result of their efforts, the Tulsa City Council signed a 9-month moratorium on data centers, and the Seminole Nation also unanimously passed its own moratorium.

Kaua'i County Housing Agency uses a community engagement model for its master-planned affordable housing developments, involving community advisory committees, multiple public meetings, surveys, and online tools that allow residents to shape key housing and community decisions. The agency has applied this model for over a decade, with great results, including Lima Ola, a 550-unit workforce housing community.

Tulip Violet Society, a gated community in Gurugram, established a systematic dry waste segregation and collection program in partnership with the NGO OneStepGreener. Over 200 households now segregate dry waste like plastic bottles, glass and cardboard throughout the week. The NGO collects the materials and processes it at a facility where it's sorted into 50 categories for recycling.

In an area long-known for poverty and poor health outcomes, residents in Mumbai are joining forces to lead a community-building initiative that works to create shared community spaces, such as libraries, workshops and designated areas for rest and play, specifically with women and children in mind, as city planning historically overlooks these needs and groups.

The Haitian nonprofit Life of Hope had faced chronic rental instability for years before developing a financing strategy using federal funds, bridge loans, and private donations to finally secure permanent ownership of a facility. Since purchasing a warehouse to house the organization in June 2024, the organization has solidified itself as a permanent pillar in the local Haitian community, providing English classes, cultural programming, and other community services to more than 60,000 people, serving as a model for other Haitian nonprofits.