“Charity feeds a person who is hungry. Philanthropy is meant to go upstream and innovate.”  -Helen Davis Johnson  President, Michigan Municipal League Foundation This comment from Helen is resonating with me now more than ever. This year has turned...

With a social media following of more than 28 million people, hundreds of thousands of monthly hits on their website, and a New York Times best-selling book, Humans of New York has captivated the world by telling simple stories...

As economic fallout continues for nonprofit organizations across our communities, many social service, arts, and community development organizations are being challenged again to develop new ways to raise money in order to effectively deliver on their missions. The strategies...

What are they for? What should they be made of? How should they be hung? What makes a good design? Where should they be placed within the city? Here's our guide to everything anyone ever would ever need to...

The Netherlands is a country with a long history of building compact, carfree places. A famous example is the canal village of Geithorn, but most of the old town centers and villages across the country also qualify.  [caption id="attachment_84249"...

Every political stump speech, up and down the ballot and across the aisles, likely contains the refrains: “small business is the lifeblood of this nation” and “there’s nothing more important than supporting our small businesses.”  You can practically see...

We’re obsessed with attraction. Cities, regional governments, and states spend a lot of time and resources working to attract companies and developers to invest in the communities they represent. Economic developers fly off to trade shows and tell manufacturers...

Developing a Made-in brand for your community At CivicBrand we’re huge fans of made-in brands and have developed several for our clients. Developing a made-in brand for your community has numerous benefits and can provide a boost to both...