Living Cities

Building a new urban practice.

Living Cities works with cross-sector leaders in cities to build a new type of urban practice aimed at dramatically improving the economic well-being of low-income people. We believe that these four core elements of our work are key to these ends:

Open-Sourcing Social Change.

We work at the intersections of information, people, story, and technology to accelerate the uptake of promising solutions to social problems.

Collective Impact.

We support ambitious data-driven, results-oriented cross-sector tables who work together differently to achieve large-scale results and enduring change.

Capital Innovation.

We blend public, private and philanthropic financial resources in new ways to better meet the needs of cities and their residents.

Public Sector Innovation.

We work with public sector leaders to foster more nimble, collaborative, and data-driven local governments.

Explore the topics we address

Where We Work

See all of the cities where we work. This map also features cities participating in our Integration Initiative, including highlighting our other work in those places.

Select a city to read about

What We’re Thinking

Blog Post H. Kay Howard & Christine Kang on Sep 16, 2019

Impact vs. Intent: Initial Lessons from Third Sector’s Equity Journey

Blog Post Lethy Liriano on Sep 5, 2019

Decolonizing Lunch Part II: Putting Our Values into Action

In the first piece of this two-part series, we explored the relationship between our racial equity practice and our procurement practices, and some of the questions we continue to grapple with in our…

Resource on Jun 21, 2019

Through the Eyes of Wakanda: On Screen Lessons for Off Screen Impact

The seeds of a dynamic black future already exist within the minds of those among us—as long as, together, we are willing to step forward and author it.

Blog Post Hafizah Omar on Sep 5, 2019

Decolonizing Lunch Part I: Interrogating our Org Culture Around Food

This two-part series explores how we are living our value of racial equity and inclusion by interrogating and shifting the ways we approach food and catering as an organization. In this piece, read o…

Blog Post JaNay Queen Nazaire & Demetric Duckett on Aug 14, 2019