National service is one of America's most hallowed traditions. As Alexis De Tocqueville noted in 1835, we are a nation of joiners. Ours is a country where people take collective action for the good of all.

Since the early 1900s, government has created conditions that make it easier for people...

It does not have the presidential allure of CGI or the whiz-bang feel of TED, but the Milken Global Conference, which wrapped up last week, deserves a spot in the canon of conferences. Under the canopy of the Southern California sun, it convenes the...

Its Valentine's Day -- and many of us will spend today tending to our relationships. It's certainly a special thing when we pause to appreciate our loved ones. But perhaps we can raise our game in 2011 and do a bit more on this date.

This idea is inspired directly...

2011 could be an inflection point in the Capitol. New leadership in Congress. New staff at the White House. Perhaps even a new era of bipartisanship forged out of the tragedy in Arizona.

In the hours after President Obama's seminal speech in Tucson, there are signs that...

I believe all nonprofits are created with the best of intentions. While many groups accomplish tremendous things, especially in their early years, a large number go on to exceed their expiration date. Their efficacy diminishes over time, yet they persist often simply for the sake of doing so.

All for...

As children here in America head back to the school, they are diving into the 3Rs -- Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic. It's a good thing since our students need to do better at the basics as standardized tests remind us. But interestingly, many children in the world are struggling with...

As President Obama has said, we are facing an "all hands on deck" moment. Recession hangs over the country. Housing sales have fallen to record lows. Public discourse has descended to new depths of intolerance.

Yet there is room for optimism. Savings rates are on the rise. Volunteering is up....

I attended a briefing this past week that still has me glowing with inspiration. It was a reminder of the miraculous potential of service and the raw power of music. Both can stir the imagination. Both can change lives.

Kiff Gallagher, a friend from our shared time on the 1992...

It's hard to believe that 12 months already have elapsed since we launched All for Good.

A lot has changed in the world. President Obama passed health care legislation. Copenhagen yielded important progress on climate change. Haiti brought out some of the best impulses of the...

A stroll in New York City only 150 years ago would have left your shoes covered with human waste.

This was feces literally thrown into the streets from the windows of mansions and middle and working class homes alike. Cities grew dense amidst the industrial revolution and waterborne diseases such...

This year, MLK matters more than ever.

We all know the oft-quoted maxim, Do unto others. The modern notion of volunteerism epitomizes this phrase. Some people will pitch in today to support groups in their local communities. Others will use services like All for Good, VolunteerMatch...

It may be the image capital of the planet, but Los Angeles itself suffers from a huge image problem. If you watch cable news, LA is little more than the location for a never-ending disaster movie: fires, gridlock, droughts, earthquakes, riots. While New York cultivates writers and Chicago molds future...

You cannot turn on the news or open a browser without drowning in stories about health care legislation.  Make no mistake, this is a singularly important moment for all Americans: progress on health care could be among the most important legislative achievements of our time.  But there are other stories,...

You may be woman, but I can’t hear you roar. In fact, I can’t hear you at all.

Maybe it is because you don’t really have time.  No one can blame you. But maybe if you, and the hundreds of millions of women across the developing world trapped in similar...

Africa is hot. A hot topic, that is. Its going to be front and center at the UN session that opens today in New York.  It will be at the top of the agenda at the Clinton Global Initiative down the street from Dag Hammarskjold Plaza.

It's time to retire the confetti and take take down the streamers. For too long we have talked about philanthropy in hushed tones. People laud the idea of service as if it were a black art practiced only by a few. Occasionally a Hollywood type will grace the public with...

While most of us might not pause on April 3, it is a date that should resonate with every American. It is the anniversary of the death of Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown. Secretary Brown and 34 other people, including more than a dozen dedicated public servants, lost their lives...

Since January 20, the American people have been drinking from a fire hose. We are deluged with progress on issues that once seemed intractable - restarting the economy, safeguarding the environment, universalizing access to health care, and reasserting our good name abroad. As President Obama rounds the bend on his...

We find ourselves at a unique moment: America faces a crisis of historic proportions amid equally historic levels of enthusiasm to repair our world. Everyone wants to serve. President-elect Obama has promised to expand Americorps and the Peace Corps and to channel the civic energies...

I think most of the country knows him as Fast Eddie Felson or Cool Hand Luke. My kids think of him as an aging Hudson Hornet, pining away his days in the mythical Radiator Springs. But in my mind, I regard Paul Newman as perhaps the most successful social entrepreneur...