December 7, 2016 | Read Time: 5 minutes
At a hip office and art gallery in Cincinnati, a man pores over design plans for affordable tiny houses. Another puzzles over a program that encourages people to explore neighborhoods through photography. This gathering space for grantees and community members is the centerpiece of People’s Liberty, an experiment in local leadership development supported by the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation.
Created in 2014, People’s Liberty is designed to foster what its chief executive, Eric Avner, calls a “civic succession plan,” a “luxury” that most municipalities don’t have. The goal, he says, is to “train people to do something that they’ve been passionate about, give them credibility, space, and support,” then “unleash” them on Cincinnati, ready to lead.
Haile, a $230 million family foundation, was inspired to launch the program by one question: “What would happen if we could find and empower and expose and connect a community of people who haven’t been out in this civic world?” To find out, People’s Liberty sought to “harness the power of individuals” by giving grants of $10,000, $15,000, and $100,000 directly to those with big ideas for improving the city.
Two years into the five-year experiment, leaders at the Haile Foundation are thrilled with the enthusiastic response from Cincinnatians. And observers at other foundations are paying attention to the work being done in the quirky office decked in glass and neon signs.
“I think it is very special that a place-based foundation such as Haile recognized not just the need to make grants and fund good ideas but also recognized the value of getting people together who are doing good things,” says Carol Coletta, senior fellow with the Kresge Foundation’s American Cities Practice.
Civic Incubator
Preparing people for public leadership roles is a challenge for resource-strapped charities and local governments. Several years ago, the Haile Foundation set out to address that hurdle in Cincinnati by creating a space for residents to experiment with social-good endeavors.
The first step was sending a consultant to research 30 civic-innovation labs in cities across the country. The journey resulted in a report and a realization that “philanthropy was not at the center of any of them,” Mr. Avner says. “All these labs were always hunting for money. It was encouraging to think about what would happen if we put philanthropy at the center of this civic-innovation discussion.”
So the foundation decided to start a “civic incubator.” It called the project People’s Liberty after the bank of the same name that was the source of the Haile fortune. The name is also fitting because it imparts a “power to the people” flavor, Mr. Avner says. It also intentionally gives the project “some distance from the mother ship,” he adds. “If it works, great, and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t harm the parent brand as much.”
To create a headquarters for the creative thinkers the foundation hoped to attract, it leased a vacant building from a local nonprofit. Despite its cool décor, Mr. Avner says it’s not intended to be merely “a clubhouse for hipsters.” The space, opened in March 2015, is meant to foster collaboration and deep thinking.
“I think it’s smart. I love it. I’d move in if I could,” says Ms. Coletta, who has visited the facility. “Having that place that people can identify as a hub of social enterprise, problem solving, and opportunities is really important.”
Moving the City Ahead
Working inside the office are recipients of the three grant types the program offers, awarded by panels of local volunteers who represent the arts, business, and civil society. One $15,000 grant supports artists who take over the building’s storefront for several weeks at a time to create interactive installations open to the public. In the past, those have included a microcinema and a “play library,” which lent toys and games to children and adults.
A $10,000 grant is available for projects that help fellow Cincinnatians — such as surveying the wheelchair accessibility of local stores and restaurants or creating digital signs at bus stops with real-time updates about public-transportation times.
The third grant is a yearlong, $100,000 fellowship for individuals willing to quit their jobs and pursue ideas that advance the quality of life in the city. People’s Liberty has supported four fellows so far. One started a program to match new homeowners with older adults skilled in house-repair work. Another made a platform that licenses music by local bands for use by marketing agencies.
Brad Cooper, an architect, spent his 2015 fellowship year designing a tiny house model that could provide affordable homeownership for low-income families. Although it’s been difficult at times to reconcile his vision with the realities of the housing market, he says he’s been grateful for the opportunity “to take on something I wouldn’t have been able to without monetary and personal, staff-level support of People’s Liberty.”
Doing Something More
Reaching more big dreamers like Mr. Cooper is People’s Liberty’s current challenge. The program wants to “find the people who have great ideas, who give a damn about the place they call home and want to do something more,” Mr. Avner says, — noting some may have future careers as elected officials or nonprofit founders.
To help with outreach, the program hires local artists, designers, and writers to document the work grantees do through a residency program called the Society of Mad Philanthropists.
So far, People’s Liberty has received proposals from 62 neighborhoods in the region and from people of all ages, although the applicant pool has skewed on the younger side.
It’s been rewarding to “see buy-in so quickly” from average citizens and city-council leaders alike, Mr. Avner says. Although he believes Cincinnati has long “focused on big initiatives, big companies, big nonprofits,” thanks to People’s Liberty, individuals are realizing that they, too, can make a difference.
“You don’t have to be a big organization to do that,” he says. “You as a person can do that.”
