​​The Kettering Foundation is deepening its work to strengthen democracy amid rising authoritarianism and declining public trust by expanding its leadership, elevating diverse perspectives, and investing in robust public-facing content. With the appointment of senior fellows Stacey Abrams and David French, Kettering signals a commitment to cross-ideological dialogue grounded in shared democratic values, using blogs, podcasts, videos, and public conversations to explore democracy’s challenges and possibilities. Through platforms like From Many, We, Resilience & Resistance, The Context podcast, and its support of PBS’s America at a Crossroads, the Foundation documents both the threats facing democratic systems and the local and global efforts working to renew them. Together, this multi-platform approach offers practitioners timely analysis, practical insights, and hopeful examples of civic resilience, reinforcing Kettering’s role as a key hub for democratic learning and renewal.

Democracy Notes will release its 2025 Trends report on January 15, 2026, offering a comprehensive overview of developments in the U.S. democracy space over the past year, sponsored by the Democracy Funders Network and Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement to help practitioners, funders, and advocates understand emerging patterns, significant developments, and key shifts in democratic institutions and civic participation. Democracy Notes serves a crucial infrastructure role through its newsletter, communities of practice, and convening events, which create spaces for practitioners to identify broader patterns and connections across the field. These events analyze developments, ranging from dialogue and deliberation initiatives to voter engagement, civic education, and advocacy campaigns. For NCDD practitioners, this report provides valuable context for understanding how dialogue and deliberation fit within the broader ecosystem of democracy strengthening, supports strategic decision-making, helps identify potential partners and complementary efforts, and enables the field to collectively assess what's working and where opportunities for collaboration and innovation exist.

The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) released December 2025 research demonstrating that classrooms function as civic institutions where positive classroom climate supports civic development as much as curriculum content, with findings showing that when teachers connected content to students' lived experiences, significantly more students participated in discussions compared to solely historical questions. CIRCLE's evaluation of Massachusetts' Investigating History curriculum found that positive climate empowers deeper peer engagement, socio-emotional learning strengthens civic learning when paired with civics instruction, and inquiry-based instruction with culturally sustaining practices helps students see themselves in history and make real-world connections. For dialogue and deliberation practitioners, this research demonstrates that positive classroom climate, culturally responsive instruction, and adequate teacher support all contribute to civic development, requiring intentional classroom design modeling democratic principles.

Project Liberty Institute and Georgetown University's Tech and Public Policy program held a two-day Workshop on Deliberation, Governance and Decentralized Social Networks in November, exploring how AI-assisted deliberation can help online communities govern themselves democratically by enabling meaningful deliberative decision-making entirely online in hours or minutes at modest cost. McCourt Public Policy students tested three online deliberative tools—deliberation.io, Online Deliberation Platform, and Frankly—through mock content moderation deliberation, with survey results showing the process encouraged listening and understanding, followed by sessions examining legitimacy criteria for digital deliberation and self-governance needs of decentralized networks. Three key insights emerged: a robust ecosystem of deliberative tools already exists with the challenge being tailoring them for specific communities; deliberation must be inclusive, transparent, and yield binding decisions regardless of format; and deliberative tooling design must remain human-centered even when incorporating AI assistance, representing important progress for practitioners navigating how digital tools can extend rather than replace traditional deliberative values.

The Kettering Foundation stands out as a leader in advancing democratic resilience through a powerful blend of research, civic education, and community engagement. From local initiatives like book clubs and arts collaborations to global partnerships that address systemic threats, the Foundation shows how dialogue, scholarship, and coalition-building can strengthen inclusive governance. By fostering informed conversations, supporting grassroots partnerships, and addressing structural challenges, the Kettering Foundation provides both the insight and the tools needed for democratic renewal. Read more in the blog post below.

NCDD friends, The National Civic League, recently published the Winter Edition of the National Civic Review which explores civic engagement and democracy’s role in community well-being, spotlighting citizen-led innovations in public safety and homelessness. It delves into participatory governance and creativity’s vital contribution to human flourishing. Available open-access online, it’s a key read on civic progress. Read more in the blog post below.

We are sharing an invitation to participate in a research study on hybrid public deliberation and dialogue processes, which combine in-person and online participants. The study seeks individuals who have organized, facilitated, or provided technology for at least four hybrid dialogues. Participants will be interviewed about their practices, technology, challenges, and the future of hybrid processes. Each interview will take around 45 minutes, and participants will receive a $50 Visa gift card. Participation is voluntary, confidential, and can be withdrawn at any time. For more details, visit the consent form link provided. Read more in the blog post below!

The National Issues Forum Institute (NIFI) has launched the Deliberative Democracy Fellowship in 2024 to support the development of new Issue Guides for public deliberation and decision-making. The fellowship is open to individuals with experience in deliberative practices, offering a $5,000 stipend and additional support funds. NIFI is also hiring a Deliberative Fellowship Coordinator to oversee the program, assist fellows, and ensure the quality and relevance of the Issue Guides. The Coordinator role is a 12-month contract with a stipend of $13,500. Applications are due by August 28, 2024. Read more in the blog post below and find additional information here.

Noemi Vega Quiñones, PhD, has been awarded the prestigious Louisville Institute Dissertation Fellowship for her project on migrant women's agencies in predominantly Spanish-speaking communities of California's Central Coast. Her dissertation, based on the lived stories of fifty Spanish-speaking migrant women, explores their ethical choices amid violent and exploitative systems through interviews and Reflective Structured Dialogue. Quiñones aims to create safe spaces for vulnerable sharing, contributing to more ethical migration policies and theologies of migration. Read the blog post below and learn more here.