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Essential reading for the field

Evaluation Report

Bridging the Divide on Firearms Policy: Project Report

Essential Partners
·
2026
Key Finding
A year-long, university-led dialogue between gun owners and non-gun owners produced eight consensus policy proposals, showing sustained cross-partisan dialogue can reach concrete agreement on a maximally polarized issue.
Effectiveness Evidence

Data Brief

Key Political Violence and Resilience Trends From 2024

Bridging Divides Initiative, Princeton
·
2025
Key Finding
Threats against local officials rose 10% in 2024, with women and officials of color targeted disproportionately.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

White Paper

Growing Pluralism in America: Understanding the Health & Vibrancy of the Pluralism Ecosystem

New Pluralists
·
2024
Key Finding
The bridging/pluralism field is large and diverse — nearly 800 organizations — but every dimension, including its shared infrastructure and common evidence base, remains in an early “emerging” stage of development.
Field Landscape & Capacity

All Research

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0 research pieces

Evaluation Report

Bridging the Divide on Firearms Policy: Project Report

Essential Partners
·
2026
Key Finding
A year-long, university-led dialogue between gun owners and non-gun owners produced eight consensus policy proposals, showing sustained cross-partisan dialogue can reach concrete agreement on a maximally polarized issue.
Effectiveness Evidence

Data Brief

Key Political Violence and Resilience Trends From 2024

Bridging Divides Initiative, Princeton
·
2025
Key Finding
Threats against local officials rose 10% in 2024, with women and officials of color targeted disproportionately.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

White Paper

Growing Pluralism in America: Understanding the Health & Vibrancy of the Pluralism Ecosystem

New Pluralists
·
2024
Key Finding
The bridging/pluralism field is large and diverse — nearly 800 organizations — but every dimension, including its shared infrastructure and common evidence base, remains in an early “emerging” stage of development.
Field Landscape & Capacity

Study

Faculty Attitudes Toward Diversity in their Disciplines: A National Survey

Heterodox Academy
·
2026
Key Finding
All 8 dimensions of diversity tested won majority faculty support, with methodological/theoretical diversity valued most (84%) — but nearly 30% of faculty lack regular engagement with people who substantively disagree with them.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

How Politically Diverse Are University Faculty?

Heterodox Academy
·
2026
Key Finding
National data on the political composition of university faculty — a baseline practitioners can cite when making the case for viewpoint-diversity interventions on campus.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

White Paper

Building a Culture of Dignity: Insights from the 2026 Dignity Barometer, Related Research, and Practice

UNITE / Dignity.Us
·
2026
Key Finding
Synthesizes UNITE’s own 2026 Dignity Barometer data and practice experience into a field-level overview for bridging and dialogue practitioners.
Field Landscape & Capacity

Data Brief

2026 Dignity Barometer

UNITE / Dignity.Us
·
2026
Key Finding
First national survey measuring where Americans experience dignity versus contempt across family, school, politics, media, and work — a baseline practitioners can use to target interventions.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

Civil Dialogue in Higher Education: Exploring How Students and Faculty Think

More in Common
·
2026
Key Finding
Most students are willing to engage across political difference, but distrust institutional dialogue programs — a messaging and program-design signal for campus-based bridging practitioners.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

Beyond MAGA: A Profile of the Trump Coalition

More in Common
·
2026
Key Finding
Segments the 2024 Trump coalition into four value-based types via 18,000+ interviews — context for practitioners designing bridging work who need an accurate, non-caricatured picture of a major political coalition.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

The Local Advantage: How Community-Based Efforts Build the Trust & Agency America Needs

Trust for Civic Life
·
2026
Key Finding
A 1,029-respondent survey across 24 rural communities finds national institutional trust fell 46% year-over-year while local trust held steady, with nearly half of respondents informally bridging political difference locally.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

Online for Offline: What Communities Are Telling Us About Digital Tools

Trust for Civic Life
·
2026
Key Finding
A six-month field scan (11,000+ civic tech projects reviewed, 16 org interviews) concludes basic, community-controlled tools outperform novel tech, and that digital tools work best as bridges to in-person connection.
Field Landscape & Capacity

White Paper

Community Foundations for Civic Health: Learning & Action in 2025 and Directions for 2026

CFLeads
·
2026
Key Finding
Synthesizes how 168 community foundations across 45 states are operationalizing “civic health” as a strategy — useful for practitioners looking to partner with or seek funding through community foundations.
Field Landscape & Capacity

Data Brief

Research Brief: Primary Voters Elect Most of Congress. They’re Not Like Most Americans.

Unite America
·
2026
Key Finding
Voter-file analysis shows a small, unrepresentative slice of primary electorates — older, more partisan, less independent — effectively selects most of Congress.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Data Brief

Special Report: Key Political Violence and Resilience Trends From 2025

Bridging Divides Initiative, Princeton
·
2026
Key Finding
Identifies 5 key political-violence and protest trends from 2025 — including high-profile assassinations, aggressive federal operations, and a surge in threats/harassment — plus the de-escalation strategies that worked.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

White Paper

The Year in Deliberation 2025

Democracy R&D
·
2026
Key Finding
A data-grounded read on where citizens’-assembly and deliberative-democracy practice is heading (AI use, funding sustainability, representation), based on 171 practitioner votes across the field.
Field Landscape & Capacity

Data Brief

Under Pressure & Evolving: A 2025 Snapshot of Engagement Practice in Canada

IAP2 Canada
·
2026
Key Finding
A national practitioner survey giving dialogue and engagement organizations a current read on the pressures, trends, and opportunities reshaping the field in Canada.
Field Landscape & Capacity

White Paper

The New Landscape of “Civics Centers” in Higher Education

Heterodox Academy
·
2025
Key Finding
Maps the fast-growing landscape of university civics and dialogue centers — useful for practitioners scanning the field for peer institutions or partnership models.
Field Landscape & Capacity

Study

Listening Across Difference

More in Common
·
2025
Key Finding
A third of Gen Z respondents avoid one-on-one listening with people who differ from them politically — directly actionable for designing generational outreach in dialogue programming.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

Early Insights into Strengthening and Scaling Pluralism Work in America

New Pluralists
·
2025
Key Finding
Identifies common patterns and gaps in how national “Field Builder” organizations define and scale pluralism-building work — practical for organizations weighing how to scale their own bridging programs.
Field Landscape & Capacity

Study

Which Unity? Whose Diversity? Cultural Mindsets around Pluralism in the United States

FrameWorks Institute
·
2025
Key Finding
Interviews plus a nationally representative survey mapping how Americans actually think about unity versus diversity — a framing and message-testing resource for practitioners communicating about bridging work.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Data Brief

Analysis in Brief: National Citizens Panel

UNITE / Dignity.Us
·
2025
Key Finding
Reports 36 weeks of interrater-reliability data from roughly 80 panelists scoring political language — relevant for practitioners assessing the measurement rigor behind the Dignity Index.
Field Landscape & Capacity

Study

Action Over Dialogue: The Case for Prioritizing Local Civic Engagement

Trust for Civic Life
·
2025
Key Finding
A 500+-respondent survey across eight rural communities found that joint local action, not dialogue alone, is what actually builds social trust and belonging — a useful evidence check for dialogue-centered practitioners.
Effectiveness Evidence

Study

Coming Together, Not Apart: Inside the Work of Turning Conflict Into Collaboration (Part 2)

Council on Foundations
·
2025
Key Finding
Case-study analysis of five real philanthropic bridging initiatives — their theories of change, implementation, and how they measure impact — useful for practitioners benchmarking their own program design.
Field Landscape & Capacity

White Paper

New Report Explores How Infrastructure Support Can Transform Journalism

Democracy Fund
·
2025
Key Finding
Argues that funding journalism-support infrastructure, not just individual newsrooms, is what sustains healthy local information ecosystems — background for practitioners whose bridging work depends on a functioning local press.
Field Landscape & Capacity

White Paper

Experiential Civic Learning for American Democracy: A Portrait of the Field

Council on Civic Strength Task Force
·
2025
Key Finding
A field survey of 31 experiential civic-learning programs names polarization as a top implementation barrier and argues well-designed programs can build pluralism and bridge-building skills.
Field Landscape & Capacity

White Paper

Discussion Paper: Understanding How the Community Safety and De-Escalation Ecosystem Is Responding to Political Violence Risk

Bridging Divides Initiative, Princeton
·
2025
Key Finding
Maps how the community safety and de-escalation field is organizing to respond to rising political-violence risk.
Field Landscape & Capacity

Study

Mitigating Threats Against School Board Officials: Mixed Methods Research to Understand and Respond to Rising Hostility

Bridging Divides Initiative, Princeton
·
2025
Key Finding
Mixed-methods research on rising hostility directed at school board officials, informing strategies to understand and respond to the threat.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Data Brief

2025 Nebraska Civic Health Index

National Conference on Citizenship
·
2025
Key Finding
State-level civic health data — volunteering, civic trust, political discourse trends — drawn from Census Bureau supplements, giving practitioners a concrete state benchmark.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Data Brief

2025 Annual Survey on Democracy in the United States

PolicyLink
·
2025
Key Finding
Shows growing partisan gaps in Americans’ perceived ability to effect change — lets bridging practitioners calibrate messaging against where cross-partisan agreement and divergence actually sit right now.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

The Values We Share: What People Want From Government

PolicyLink
·
2025
Key Finding
Identifies four values — accountability, compassion, dignity, opportunity — that hold across the ideological spectrum, giving bridging practitioners evidence-based common-ground language.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Data Brief

What Students Fear vs. What Happens When Students Discuss Controversial Topics

Heterodox Academy
·
2024
Key Finding
Annual national survey data on which topics students self-censor on and why — a key diagnostic for anyone designing campus dialogue or bridging programming.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

Promising Revelations: Undoing the False Impressions of America’s Faithful

More in Common
·
2024
Key Finding
Identifies “perception gaps” between what Americans assume about religious Americans’ politics and values and reality, showing correcting these misperceptions could reduce a form of “collateral contempt.”
Effectiveness Evidence

Data Brief

Pushed and Pulled: How Attitudes About Race and Immigration are Settling and Shifting After Trump

Democracy Fund
·
2024
Key Finding
Longitudinal panel data (2011–2024) shows attitudes on race and immigration shift “thermostatically” against the sitting president’s policies rather than trending linearly — a solid public-opinion baseline.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

The Power of Parks to Strengthen Community: A Special Report

Trust for Public Land
·
2024
Key Finding
Correlates park quality with cross-income social connection — 26% more ties between low- and high-income residents in top-ranked park cities — genuine social-capital data bridging practitioners can cite.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Evaluation Report

Braver Angels Evaluation Report, 2024. Part 1: Key Findings from Surveys of People Who Attended Workshops and Events Between 2020–2023

Braver Angels
·
2024
Key Finding
Statistical analysis of participant surveys shows measurable increases in warmth toward political outgroups after Braver Angels workshops — direct outcome evidence practitioners can cite for program design.
Effectiveness Evidence

Evaluation Report

Braver Angels Evaluation Report, 2024. Part 2: Overview of Events, Participants, and Feedback, 2020–2023

Braver Angels
·
2024
Key Finding
Organizational-level data on who Braver Angels reaches and how — useful for practitioners benchmarking their own program’s participant demographics and scale.
Field Landscape & Capacity

Data Brief

Tracking Attitudes About Elections and Political Violence Over Time

States United Democracy Center
·
2024
Key Finding
Five-wave longitudinal survey (7,659 respondents, June 2023–June 2024) tracking Americans’ views on election integrity and political violence — solid trend data showing pro-democracy sentiment is more stable than headlines suggest.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

2025 College Free Speech Rankings

FIRE
·
2024
Key Finding
Large-scale survey (58,807 undergraduates, 257 institutions) ranking campus free-expression climates — baseline data for practitioners running campus dialogue or bridging programs.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

Silence in the Classroom: The 2024 FIRE Faculty Survey Report

FIRE
·
2024
Key Finding
IRB-approved survey of 6,269 faculty across 55 four-year institutions finds self-censorship four times higher than during the McCarthy era — relevant baseline for anyone designing faculty-facing dialogue work.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

White Paper

Convergence Collaborative on Trust in Elections — Final Report

Convergence Center for Policy Resolution
·
2024
Key Finding
Synthesizes a year-long dialogue among 13 cross-ideological election-administration experts into practical messaging and trust-building tools for election officials — a model of applied bridging methodology.
Effectiveness Evidence

Study

Reducing Islamophobia: An Assessment of Psychological Mechanisms That Underlie Anti-Islamophobia Media Interventions

Beyond Conflict
·
2023
Key Finding
An intervention tournament testing 11 practitioner-developed videos found that interventions prompting recognition of media bias against Muslims reduced anti-Muslim hostility, both immediately and one month later.
Effectiveness Evidence

White Paper

What Promotes Pluralism in America’s Diversifying Democracy? (literature review)

New Pluralists
·
2023
Key Finding
A cross-disciplinary synthesis concluding that everyday cross-group interaction is the most scalable lever for shifting attitudes toward pluralism — a useful evidence anchor for bridging-program design.
Field Landscape & Capacity

Evaluation Report

The Dignity Index Pilot Project Technical Summary

UNITE / Dignity.Us
·
2023
Key Finding
Documents a controlled pilot (Sept 2022) testing whether the 8-point Dignity Index scale can be reliably taught and applied by university students across the political spectrum.
Effectiveness Evidence

Study

The Civic Outlook of Young Adults in America

Institute for Citizens & Scholars
·
2023
Key Finding
National survey data (n=4,008, ages 18–24) on how young adults think about civic knowledge, democratic commitment, and engagement — baseline evidence for practitioners designing youth-facing bridging or civic-education work.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

White Paper

A Democracy Crisis in the Making (Year-End Update)

Protect Democracy
·
2023
Key Finding
Systematic tracking and categorization of 600+ state bills (62 enacted) that increase the risk of election subversion — a sourcebook practitioners can use to ground programming in concrete legislative trends.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

White Paper

Searching for a New Paradigm: Collective Settings

More in Common
·
2023
Key Finding
Community “collective settings” built on participatory governance, accountability, and openness to difference and experimentation build democratic capacity more effectively than top-down reform alone, three in-depth case studies find.
Effectiveness Evidence

Evaluation Report

Bridging the Divide on Firearms Policy: Project Report

Essential Partners
·
2026
Key Finding
A year-long, university-led dialogue between gun owners and non-gun owners produced eight consensus policy proposals, showing sustained cross-partisan dialogue can reach concrete agreement on a maximally polarized issue.
Effectiveness Evidence

Study

Action Over Dialogue: The Case for Prioritizing Local Civic Engagement

Trust for Civic Life
·
2025
Key Finding
A 500+-respondent survey across eight rural communities found that joint local action, not dialogue alone, is what actually builds social trust and belonging — a useful evidence check for dialogue-centered practitioners.
Effectiveness Evidence

Study

Promising Revelations: Undoing the False Impressions of America’s Faithful

More in Common
·
2024
Key Finding
Identifies “perception gaps” between what Americans assume about religious Americans’ politics and values and reality, showing correcting these misperceptions could reduce a form of “collateral contempt.”
Effectiveness Evidence

Evaluation Report

Braver Angels Evaluation Report, 2024. Part 1: Key Findings from Surveys of People Who Attended Workshops and Events Between 2020–2023

Braver Angels
·
2024
Key Finding
Statistical analysis of participant surveys shows measurable increases in warmth toward political outgroups after Braver Angels workshops — direct outcome evidence practitioners can cite for program design.
Effectiveness Evidence

White Paper

Convergence Collaborative on Trust in Elections — Final Report

Convergence Center for Policy Resolution
·
2024
Key Finding
Synthesizes a year-long dialogue among 13 cross-ideological election-administration experts into practical messaging and trust-building tools for election officials — a model of applied bridging methodology.
Effectiveness Evidence

Study

Reducing Islamophobia: An Assessment of Psychological Mechanisms That Underlie Anti-Islamophobia Media Interventions

Beyond Conflict
·
2023
Key Finding
An intervention tournament testing 11 practitioner-developed videos found that interventions prompting recognition of media bias against Muslims reduced anti-Muslim hostility, both immediately and one month later.
Effectiveness Evidence

Evaluation Report

The Dignity Index Pilot Project Technical Summary

UNITE / Dignity.Us
·
2023
Key Finding
Documents a controlled pilot (Sept 2022) testing whether the 8-point Dignity Index scale can be reliably taught and applied by university students across the political spectrum.
Effectiveness Evidence

White Paper

Searching for a New Paradigm: Collective Settings

More in Common
·
2023
Key Finding
Community “collective settings” built on participatory governance, accountability, and openness to difference and experimentation build democratic capacity more effectively than top-down reform alone, three in-depth case studies find.
Effectiveness Evidence

Data Brief

Key Political Violence and Resilience Trends From 2024

Bridging Divides Initiative, Princeton
·
2025
Key Finding
Threats against local officials rose 10% in 2024, with women and officials of color targeted disproportionately.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

Faculty Attitudes Toward Diversity in their Disciplines: A National Survey

Heterodox Academy
·
2026
Key Finding
All 8 dimensions of diversity tested won majority faculty support, with methodological/theoretical diversity valued most (84%) — but nearly 30% of faculty lack regular engagement with people who substantively disagree with them.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

How Politically Diverse Are University Faculty?

Heterodox Academy
·
2026
Key Finding
National data on the political composition of university faculty — a baseline practitioners can cite when making the case for viewpoint-diversity interventions on campus.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Data Brief

2026 Dignity Barometer

UNITE / Dignity.Us
·
2026
Key Finding
First national survey measuring where Americans experience dignity versus contempt across family, school, politics, media, and work — a baseline practitioners can use to target interventions.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

Civil Dialogue in Higher Education: Exploring How Students and Faculty Think

More in Common
·
2026
Key Finding
Most students are willing to engage across political difference, but distrust institutional dialogue programs — a messaging and program-design signal for campus-based bridging practitioners.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

Beyond MAGA: A Profile of the Trump Coalition

More in Common
·
2026
Key Finding
Segments the 2024 Trump coalition into four value-based types via 18,000+ interviews — context for practitioners designing bridging work who need an accurate, non-caricatured picture of a major political coalition.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

The Local Advantage: How Community-Based Efforts Build the Trust & Agency America Needs

Trust for Civic Life
·
2026
Key Finding
A 1,029-respondent survey across 24 rural communities finds national institutional trust fell 46% year-over-year while local trust held steady, with nearly half of respondents informally bridging political difference locally.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Data Brief

Research Brief: Primary Voters Elect Most of Congress. They’re Not Like Most Americans.

Unite America
·
2026
Key Finding
Voter-file analysis shows a small, unrepresentative slice of primary electorates — older, more partisan, less independent — effectively selects most of Congress.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Data Brief

Special Report: Key Political Violence and Resilience Trends From 2025

Bridging Divides Initiative, Princeton
·
2026
Key Finding
Identifies 5 key political-violence and protest trends from 2025 — including high-profile assassinations, aggressive federal operations, and a surge in threats/harassment — plus the de-escalation strategies that worked.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

Listening Across Difference

More in Common
·
2025
Key Finding
A third of Gen Z respondents avoid one-on-one listening with people who differ from them politically — directly actionable for designing generational outreach in dialogue programming.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

Which Unity? Whose Diversity? Cultural Mindsets around Pluralism in the United States

FrameWorks Institute
·
2025
Key Finding
Interviews plus a nationally representative survey mapping how Americans actually think about unity versus diversity — a framing and message-testing resource for practitioners communicating about bridging work.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

Mitigating Threats Against School Board Officials: Mixed Methods Research to Understand and Respond to Rising Hostility

Bridging Divides Initiative, Princeton
·
2025
Key Finding
Mixed-methods research on rising hostility directed at school board officials, informing strategies to understand and respond to the threat.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Data Brief

2025 Nebraska Civic Health Index

National Conference on Citizenship
·
2025
Key Finding
State-level civic health data — volunteering, civic trust, political discourse trends — drawn from Census Bureau supplements, giving practitioners a concrete state benchmark.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Data Brief

2025 Annual Survey on Democracy in the United States

PolicyLink
·
2025
Key Finding
Shows growing partisan gaps in Americans’ perceived ability to effect change — lets bridging practitioners calibrate messaging against where cross-partisan agreement and divergence actually sit right now.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

The Values We Share: What People Want From Government

PolicyLink
·
2025
Key Finding
Identifies four values — accountability, compassion, dignity, opportunity — that hold across the ideological spectrum, giving bridging practitioners evidence-based common-ground language.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Data Brief

What Students Fear vs. What Happens When Students Discuss Controversial Topics

Heterodox Academy
·
2024
Key Finding
Annual national survey data on which topics students self-censor on and why — a key diagnostic for anyone designing campus dialogue or bridging programming.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Data Brief

Pushed and Pulled: How Attitudes About Race and Immigration are Settling and Shifting After Trump

Democracy Fund
·
2024
Key Finding
Longitudinal panel data (2011–2024) shows attitudes on race and immigration shift “thermostatically” against the sitting president’s policies rather than trending linearly — a solid public-opinion baseline.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

The Power of Parks to Strengthen Community: A Special Report

Trust for Public Land
·
2024
Key Finding
Correlates park quality with cross-income social connection — 26% more ties between low- and high-income residents in top-ranked park cities — genuine social-capital data bridging practitioners can cite.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Data Brief

Tracking Attitudes About Elections and Political Violence Over Time

States United Democracy Center
·
2024
Key Finding
Five-wave longitudinal survey (7,659 respondents, June 2023–June 2024) tracking Americans’ views on election integrity and political violence — solid trend data showing pro-democracy sentiment is more stable than headlines suggest.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

2025 College Free Speech Rankings

FIRE
·
2024
Key Finding
Large-scale survey (58,807 undergraduates, 257 institutions) ranking campus free-expression climates — baseline data for practitioners running campus dialogue or bridging programs.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

Silence in the Classroom: The 2024 FIRE Faculty Survey Report

FIRE
·
2024
Key Finding
IRB-approved survey of 6,269 faculty across 55 four-year institutions finds self-censorship four times higher than during the McCarthy era — relevant baseline for anyone designing faculty-facing dialogue work.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

Study

The Civic Outlook of Young Adults in America

Institute for Citizens & Scholars
·
2023
Key Finding
National survey data (n=4,008, ages 18–24) on how young adults think about civic knowledge, democratic commitment, and engagement — baseline evidence for practitioners designing youth-facing bridging or civic-education work.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

White Paper

A Democracy Crisis in the Making (Year-End Update)

Protect Democracy
·
2023
Key Finding
Systematic tracking and categorization of 600+ state bills (62 enacted) that increase the risk of election subversion — a sourcebook practitioners can use to ground programming in concrete legislative trends.
Civic Health & Polarization Data

White Paper

Growing Pluralism in America: Understanding the Health & Vibrancy of the Pluralism Ecosystem

New Pluralists
·
2024
Key Finding
The bridging/pluralism field is large and diverse — nearly 800 organizations — but every dimension, including its shared infrastructure and common evidence base, remains in an early “emerging” stage of development.
Field Landscape & Capacity

White Paper

Building a Culture of Dignity: Insights from the 2026 Dignity Barometer, Related Research, and Practice

UNITE / Dignity.Us
·
2026
Key Finding
Synthesizes UNITE’s own 2026 Dignity Barometer data and practice experience into a field-level overview for bridging and dialogue practitioners.
Field Landscape & Capacity

Study

Online for Offline: What Communities Are Telling Us About Digital Tools

Trust for Civic Life
·
2026
Key Finding
A six-month field scan (11,000+ civic tech projects reviewed, 16 org interviews) concludes basic, community-controlled tools outperform novel tech, and that digital tools work best as bridges to in-person connection.
Field Landscape & Capacity

White Paper

Community Foundations for Civic Health: Learning & Action in 2025 and Directions for 2026

CFLeads
·
2026
Key Finding
Synthesizes how 168 community foundations across 45 states are operationalizing “civic health” as a strategy — useful for practitioners looking to partner with or seek funding through community foundations.
Field Landscape & Capacity

White Paper

The Year in Deliberation 2025

Democracy R&D
·
2026
Key Finding
A data-grounded read on where citizens’-assembly and deliberative-democracy practice is heading (AI use, funding sustainability, representation), based on 171 practitioner votes across the field.
Field Landscape & Capacity

Data Brief

Under Pressure & Evolving: A 2025 Snapshot of Engagement Practice in Canada

IAP2 Canada
·
2026
Key Finding
A national practitioner survey giving dialogue and engagement organizations a current read on the pressures, trends, and opportunities reshaping the field in Canada.
Field Landscape & Capacity

White Paper

The New Landscape of “Civics Centers” in Higher Education

Heterodox Academy
·
2025
Key Finding
Maps the fast-growing landscape of university civics and dialogue centers — useful for practitioners scanning the field for peer institutions or partnership models.
Field Landscape & Capacity

Study

Early Insights into Strengthening and Scaling Pluralism Work in America

New Pluralists
·
2025
Key Finding
Identifies common patterns and gaps in how national “Field Builder” organizations define and scale pluralism-building work — practical for organizations weighing how to scale their own bridging programs.
Field Landscape & Capacity

Data Brief

Analysis in Brief: National Citizens Panel

UNITE / Dignity.Us
·
2025
Key Finding
Reports 36 weeks of interrater-reliability data from roughly 80 panelists scoring political language — relevant for practitioners assessing the measurement rigor behind the Dignity Index.
Field Landscape & Capacity

Study

Coming Together, Not Apart: Inside the Work of Turning Conflict Into Collaboration (Part 2)

Council on Foundations
·
2025
Key Finding
Case-study analysis of five real philanthropic bridging initiatives — their theories of change, implementation, and how they measure impact — useful for practitioners benchmarking their own program design.
Field Landscape & Capacity

White Paper

New Report Explores How Infrastructure Support Can Transform Journalism

Democracy Fund
·
2025
Key Finding
Argues that funding journalism-support infrastructure, not just individual newsrooms, is what sustains healthy local information ecosystems — background for practitioners whose bridging work depends on a functioning local press.
Field Landscape & Capacity

White Paper

Experiential Civic Learning for American Democracy: A Portrait of the Field

Council on Civic Strength Task Force
·
2025
Key Finding
A field survey of 31 experiential civic-learning programs names polarization as a top implementation barrier and argues well-designed programs can build pluralism and bridge-building skills.
Field Landscape & Capacity

White Paper

Discussion Paper: Understanding How the Community Safety and De-Escalation Ecosystem Is Responding to Political Violence Risk

Bridging Divides Initiative, Princeton
·
2025
Key Finding
Maps how the community safety and de-escalation field is organizing to respond to rising political-violence risk.
Field Landscape & Capacity

Evaluation Report

Braver Angels Evaluation Report, 2024. Part 2: Overview of Events, Participants, and Feedback, 2020–2023

Braver Angels
·
2024
Key Finding
Organizational-level data on who Braver Angels reaches and how — useful for practitioners benchmarking their own program’s participant demographics and scale.
Field Landscape & Capacity

White Paper

What Promotes Pluralism in America’s Diversifying Democracy? (literature review)

New Pluralists
·
2023
Key Finding
A cross-disciplinary synthesis concluding that everyday cross-group interaction is the most scalable lever for shifting attitudes toward pluralism — a useful evidence anchor for bridging-program design.
Field Landscape & Capacity

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