Turn Concern Into Effective Action

You care deeply. You may have experience, relationships, skills, or resources that could matter. The difficult question is knowing where to begin and what might be effective.

Action This Day brings concerned citizens together with experienced change-makers to explore practical strategies, identify real opportunities, and take wiser next steps.

Free on Zoom · Open to everyone · No expertise required

Upcoming Conversations

July 22, 1:00–2:30 p.m. ET — What Can University Communities Do When Federal Power Goes Too Far?, with Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. Examine practical ways communities can deter unlawful action and strengthen democratic guardrails.

August 6, 1:00–3:00 p.m. ET — Build a Strategy Chart for a University Community, with Josh Tulkin. Learn how organizers identify leverage, allies, decision-makers, and actions that can build real power.

⁠Thursday, September noon-1:30 pm Eastern — How Do Serious Change-Makers Build a Theory of Change?, with Andrew Behar. Explore how experienced advocates choose targets, move institutions, and connect actions to meaningful results.

You Do Not Need a Finished Plan

You only need to be ready to look for a useful next step.

Many people understand that the country faces a serious crisis. Far fewer know how their own time, experience, relationships, professional knowledge, or financial resources could make a meaningful difference.

These conversations are designed to help close that gap.

How It Works

1. Choose a conversation

Begin with the subject, speaker, or problem that interests you.

2. Learn how change actually happens

Hear from people who have organized campaigns, moved institutions, enforced the law, built coalitions, and confronted powerful opposition.

3. Leave with a clearer next step

Identify an idea, relationship, resource, project, or opportunity worth pursuing.

More Than Another Panel

Many public events explain why people should be worried. That is important—but concern alone is not enough.

Our conversations focus on practical questions:

• Where is the leverage?
• Who has the power to act?
• What resources are already available?
• What could people in our networks build, support, fund, or accelerate?
• What is one realistic next step after the conversation?

The goal is not to offer a single grand solution. It is to help people develop better judgment, meet serious collaborators, and discover useful work they might otherwise never have found.

Who Should Attend?

These conversations are for people who:

• understand that democracy, freedom, and the rule of law face serious threats;
• do not want to remain worried spectators;
• want practical ideas rather than commentary alone;
• are willing to learn from people with real experience;
• and are looking for ways to contribute that fit their circumstances.

Students, alumni, faculty, professionals, organizers, lawyers, donors, public servants, and community members are welcome.

You do not need a university affiliation to participate.

You also do not need to be wealthy, prominent, politically connected, or already active in an organization.

What You May Leave With

Every conversation is designed to help you leave with at least one clearer idea about where your time, skills, relationships, or resources could matter.

That might include:

• a more realistic understanding of how change happens;
• a practical strategy or framework;
• a person or organization worth contacting;
• a project you could support;
• a skill or relationship you had not realized was valuable;
• or a next step that fits the time you actually have.

One conversation. One clearer opportunity to act.

Why University Communities?

University communities contain extraordinary concentrations of knowledge, credibility, institutional access, professional relationships, communications capacity, and financial resources.

Yet those resources are often fragmented. People who could accomplish important things may not know one another, may not recognize their collective power, or may not know where their help is most needed.

These conversations are intended to help turn scattered concern into informed cooperation.

Concern Without a Path Becomes Exhaustion

People can spend hours following alarming news without becoming any more capable of changing what happens next.

A better path is possible:

• understand the problem;
• find the leverage;
• meet people who can help;
• choose a practical role;
• and take one meaningful step.

No single conversation will solve the democratic crisis. But it may help you find the people, ideas, or opportunities that change what you do next.

Begin With One Conversation

You do not need to join an organization or make a major commitment.

Choose an upcoming conversation. Listen. Ask questions. Meet people. Decide whether the experience helps you become more useful.

Ready to Consider a Larger Role?

After attending a conversation, you may decide that you want to contribute more directly.

A free 25-minute Mission Fit Conversation can help you think through:

• what problems most concern you;
• what experience and relationships you already have;
• how much time you realistically want to contribute;
• and what forms of involvement might be both useful and meaningful.

This is not a pressure-filled recruitment call. It is a practical conversation about where you might fit.

Schedule a Mission Fit Conversation

The Invitation

This is a dangerous moment—but it may also be a moment when ordinary people discover that they are capable of more than they imagined.

You may be closer than you think to a person, institution, skill, or opportunity that could make a real difference.

Start with one conversation.