Reasons for Hope in 2025

By Suzette Brooks Masters | Fulcrum

As a new year dawns, it’s hard not to feel anxiety about what’s coming next, especially when it comes to American democracy. At times like these, one can feel the urge to check out or hunker down, to turn inward. But it’s important to remember that all this flux and tumult can create important openings for transformation. How we act and what visions for the future we advance when those openings occur are critical.

My way of not giving in to despair and apathy amid all this uncertainty is to look for sources of hope, to find in uncertainty itself reasons for hope. Happily, once you look for the places where hope and imagination live, you find it in ample supply. As part of the research I conducted for Democracy Funders Network’s Imagining Better Futures for American Democracy report, I talked to dozens of visionaries who were imagining and creating new and better ways of being with one another, with nature, with technology, and with the planet. The final section of that paper, titled Inspiration, is my curated compilation of examples of what better futures could look like in real life and in the imagination. Whenever I feel the pull of pessimism, I turn back to those examples. 

Paradoxically, the challenge for me now is keeping up with all the examples of good work, charting the path to better futures, and figuring out how they can be connected for greater collective impact and systemic change. Since I began an intentional practice of recording bright spots more than two years ago, I’ve developed a strong network of thinkers, aggregators, innovators, and creators I didn’t even know existed when I started my research. Their ideas and energy are a bulwark against the corrosive, soul-crushing, aperture-narrowing impact of the dystopian media and political environment we inhabit. 

So, as we enter 2025, here are some reasons for hope I’d like to share, some happening here in the US, some further afield. Many are examples of dynamic ways to practice democracy better and to think about how we design systems and use resources for the common good.

Governance Innovations

Civic or citizens’ assemblies. These deliberative processes convene a representative sample of randomly selected people to solve problems together. While especially common in Europe, they are gaining some steam in the US and elsewhere. 

Democracy Vouchers. This campaign finance innovation provides vouchers to residents to enable them to donate to political campaigns. This empowers local citizens to participate in elections and puts more pressure on candidates to campaign in the community, not simply cater to wealthy donors. 

Fort Collins, Colorado’s Futures Committee. To my knowledge, this is the first city council committee explicitly focused on the longer-term future. Please let me know if there are others.

Future Design. A simple practice that involves imaginary time travel and role-play allows participants to develop empathy for future generations and to engage in bolder thinking about how to solve problems today. It was developed in Japan but is starting to gain currency in other parts of the world.

Intergenerational Fairness Frameworks allow leaders to better understand the consequences of their policy decisions on people living today and in the future so they are fair across generations. They create evaluation mechanisms to assess public policies systematically.

Participatory Budgetingis a democratic practice that allows community members to decide how portions of their budget are allocated and spent. 

UN Summit of the Future is a seminal gathering that occurred in 2024 and led to the adoption of a Declaration on Future Generations and of a Pact for the Future. Like the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this bold new framework has the potential to transform how nations think about their roles and obligations to future generations. 

Wales’ Well-being of Future Generations Act of 2015 is the first legislation of its kind to require the government to focus on wellbeing and the impact of its actions on future generations. It creates new institutional roles, like the Future Generations Commissioner, to advocate on behalf of future generations.

Innovative Organizations And Networks

Dark Matter Labs. Recognizing the complex, entangled reality of living systems, Dark Matter Labs explores alternative pathways for organizing society and stewarding the shared planetary commons.

Democracy 2076. This organization is dedicated to working towards brighter futures for our democracy in 2076 by focusing on constitutional reform, popular culture and narrative, and political party realignment.

Future Caucus. This organization brings a growing number of young lawmakers together to work in a productive, bipartisan way for the common good and model constructive, collaborative practice.

Futurific Studios supports the creation of protopian content to imagine better futures ahead. Futurific funded A Brief History of the Future, a PBS series conceived by Ari Wallach that highlights several promising governance innovations.

Governance Futures Network. This network of doers and visionaries is experimenting with how to design and test governance systems able to address 21st-century problems and deliver better outcomes for people and the planet now and into the future.

Next Generation Foresight Practitioners Network. Next Generation Foresight Practitioners are a network of over 900 people from all over the world who are using futures thinking and strategic foresight to create positive impact and systemic transformation globally.

Our Children’s Trust. This novel legal organization brings lawsuits on behalf of young people to ensure a sustainable planet for generations to come, enshrining new rights to a healthy natural environment.

School of International Futures uses structured thinking about the future to usher in global transformations in systems and policy that create an equitable and sustainable world for future generations.

Wellbeing Economy Alliance is a global network seeking to design an economy that serves both people and the planet. In such an economy, rules, norms, and incentives deliver flourishing for all people in harmony with our natural environment. 

If this list doesn’t lift your spirits, try subscribing to Futurepolis, Next City, Progress Network, and Reasons to be Cheerful and lose yourself in rabbit holes of possibility.

Suzette Brooks Masters is Senior Fellow and Director of the Better Futures Project at Democracy Funders Network.