• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Newsletter>

Becoming the (healthy) fungus among us & Facebookopoly

The Fulcrum
February 08, 2023

Welcome to The Fulcrum’s daily weekday e-newsletter where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives.


Becoming the (healthy) fungus among us

As I was speaking to a colleague, Rev. F. Willis Johnson, recently about something that feels “off” in our collective approach to fundraising, specifically for the civic engagement/bridging community, I had an epiphany.

As humans, we love the predictability offered by the “assembly line” or the latest “app” which gathers data for performance and allows us to feel accomplished when performance improves. What is “off” for me is how many funders try to apply this to human interactions. The funding community asks for predictability and accountability (which is good and reasonable!) and the nonprofit community responds by setting up a process where we can recruit unskilled humans, run them through an assembly line of training or experience and at the end of the process we have a cohort of individuals with bridging skills. While on the surface this seems reasonable, it is a gross oversimplification.

Read more.

Facebookopoly

The recent news is that Facebook’s parent, Meta, had record earnings that have driven the stock up over 20% in trading. In the world of social media, Facebook is ubiquitous. Coming from humble beginnings as a Harvard student’s pet project, it’s now expanded to 2.89 billion users worldwide, making it the largest social network by 600 million users.

While Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg began the site as a way for college students to connect with each other, it quickly ballooned to a place where people not only get information about what their friends are doing, but also what’s going on in the world. A recent Pew Research study found that 36 percent of American adults regularly use Facebook to get their news. In comparison, about 23 percent reported they use YouTube for news; 15 percent use Twitter.

Read more.

Podcast: God squad: Let friendship redeem the republic

In their year-long celebration of the superpower of healthy friendships across differences, you’ll meet God Squad’s friends who they don’t quite agree with.

Learn how to tackle difficult topics within the relationships that matter to us the most… and how to keep friendships healthy even when conflict arises. Joining the God Squad are Pastor Betsy Ouelette Zierden of the United Methodist Church, Father Tim Holeda of St. Thomas More Co-Cathedral, Pastor Latricia Scriven of Saint Paul’s United Methodist Church, and Retired Rabbi Jack Romberg.

Listen here.

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

Demanding corporate responsibility for food system challenges

C.Anne Long

Our two political parties: A resemblance to WrestleMania

Leland R. Beaumont

The danger of “small town” thinking

Paul Swearengin

Public opinion and U.S. policy on the Ukraine-Russia war

Steven Kull
Evan Charles Lewitus

An effective scorecard for political accountability

Bruce Bond
Erik Olsen

White Christian nationalism threatens US democracy

Steve Corbin
latest News

Grease and glue

James C. Nelson
23h

Rainy days aren’t just for the winter

Kevin Frazier
23h

Podcast: Defending the founding principles of our government

Our Staff
07 September

Conservatism: Past and present

William Natbony
06 September

What if the United States is not ripped apart?

Dave Anderson
06 September

United States border control complications: A symptom of global human rights failures

Leland R. Beaumont
05 September
Videos
Video: The history of Labor Day

Video: The history of Labor Day

Our Staff
Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Our Staff
Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Our Staff
Video: Pearce Godwin of Listen First Project discusses Listen First on CSPAN

Video: Pearce Godwin of Listen First Project discusses Listen First on CSPAN

Our Staff
Video: Does race affect our relationships & success in America today?

Video: Does race affect our relationships & success in America today?

Our Staff
Video: We live in a political storyland

Video: We live in a political storyland

Debilyn Molineaux
David Riordan
Podcasts

Podcast: Defending the founding principles of our government

Our Staff
07 September

Podcast: The continuing effects of summer heat and student loan repayments

Our Staff
05 September

Podcast: How did Trump threaten American self-government when he was president?

Our Staff
01 September

Podcast: Broken media? Restoring trust in news coverage

Our Staff
29 August
Recommended
Grease and glue

Grease and glue

Big Picture
Rainy days aren’t just for the winter

Rainy days aren’t just for the winter

Policies
Podcast: Defending the founding principles of our government

Podcast: Defending the founding principles of our government

Podcasts
Conservatism: Past and present

Conservatism: Past and present

Big Picture
What if the United States is not ripped apart?

What if the United States is not ripped apart?

Big Picture
Demanding corporate responsibility for food system challenges

Demanding corporate responsibility for food system challenges

Big Picture