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 Brinda Ganguly & Brian R. Nagendra on Mar 13, 2019

Living Cities’ Catalyst Impact Funds Named to ImpactAssets 50 for Eighth Consec…

For the eighth year in a row, Living Cities’ Catalyst Family of Funds have been selected for the ImpactAssets 50, an impact investing showcase featuring fund managers with demonstrated financial capa…

Blog Post Kien Lee on Mar 12, 2019

Getting Ready for Racial Equity Work: Community Engagement

Community engagement is central to cities’ racial equity strategies. It's also where cities need a lot of support.

Resource on Mar 5, 2019

Getting Ready for Racial Equity Work: The Racial Equity Here Evaluation

This evaluation of our Racial Equity Here initiative offers recommendations for other cities interested in applying a racial equity lens to their policies and operations.

Blog Post Joanna Carrasco on Mar 5, 2019

Holding Staff Through Our Racial Equity Journey

Blog Post Alyssa Smaldino on Feb 21, 2019

What Does Racial Equity & Inclusion Look Like for You?

Through our Racial Equity Here initiative, we learned that there are "spark plugs" everywhere, at every level, who are working to normalize, organize and operationalize racial equity in institutions.…

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation