Working to deliver American prosperity from the ground up
Get involvedThere are local leaders in every American place that know what outcomes their communities need
Abundant America works with local elected leaders and civic organizations to build an abundant America from the ground up. We believe there are local leaders in every American place who know what outcomes their communities need most. We work with those leaders through our Playbook for Local Abundance: a simple framework that starts with the outcomes a community wants and measures decisions against them.
What We Believe
For our families, our neighbors, our future
We believe America's potential depends on:
Economic Abundance:
Affordability, technology and growth to win the future
Build more of what people need
Regulatory and zoning reform to unlock housing, energy, healthcare, and infrastructure, so America can produce at scale and prices fall through real supply.
Foster innovation, technology, healthy competition
Make it easier to start and grow businesses, and enforce antitrust so gatekeepers can't manufacture scarcity or block prosperity through predatory tactics.
Civic Abundance:
Spend more of our public money at the local level
Local self-government that people can feel and trust
Participatory budgeting, decentralized programs, civic engagement pathways, and standing citizen assemblies/town halls to set priorities, deliberate tradeoffs, and legitimize public action.
Limited but effective government
Push resources, authority, and capacity down to states, counties, and towns so decisions match the scale of life. Maintain a short list of essential federal priorities—and execute them well.
Social Abundance:
Strong communities, strong families, rooted in place
Strong communities as the foundation of human flourishing
Lower cost, more productive opportunity so people have a stable foundation for families and associations—not just survival in isolation.
Build meaningful relationships
Invest in public commons, service pathways, and “third places,” strengthen the associations that cultivate connection—schools, unions/guilds, faith congregations, service corps, neighborhood groups.
The Playbook for Local Abundance
An Abundant America starts with local leadership
Across the country, trust in the institutions that make decisions for our communities has worn thin. Too often residents hear about decisions after they've been made, and local leaders are left reacting to proposals once positions have hardened.
By starting with the outcomes a community wants, and committing to measure proposals and decisions against how well they deliver them, local leaders can restore trust in our shared institutions and make sure communities feel seen, heard and reflected in the decisions that shape their place.
How it works
Start with outcomes
Start by asking what outcomes people want to see to make their community better, commit to measure decisions and proposals against how well they deliver those desired outcomes, while being clear about the tradeoffs.
Read the Playbook1/ Listen first
Start with what works in your community — listening sessions, town halls, in-person events, local Facebook groups and community boards — to hear what your community actually wants.
2/ Set outcomes together
Translate residents' input into achievable goals for your community, and make those outcomes visible to the public through a public forum, dashboard or other mechanism.
3/ Screen proposals
Commit to evaluate every new proposal and decision against how well they deliver on those community goals, while being transparent and public about the trade-offs.
4/ Set a direction
Use the results to guide decisions and spending, and build a transparent narrative that anchors decisions and investment in community objectives and the agreed-upon trade-offs required to achieve them.
For local leaders
Bring the Playbook for Local Abundance to your community
If your community is facing consequential decisions about its future, or you feel constantly reactive to proposals without a clear way to weigh them against what your constituents want, Abundant America can help you bring the Playbook to your town, district, or county.