Debby Warren Consulting

Helping nonprofit organizations embrace and successfully cross critical frontiers

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Wilkesboro Takes Your Breath Away: A Tale of Two Towns

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Wilkesboro sits atop a low, broad ridge that runs along the south bank of the Yadkin River in the northwest part of North Carolina. Not only does it have, as per its tourism board, “a newly revitalized historic downtown, mind-blowing music talent, stunningly scenic mountain views, heart-pounding outdoor adventures, and Southern small-town charm,” but it hosts MerleFest each […]

What Kind of Freedom Is This? From Prison to a COVID-Transformed World

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On its face, it makes perfect sense: Release nonviolent offenders from prisons and jails, both now hotbeds of COVID-19 infection fueled by overcrowding, poor hygiene, and a surfeit of inmates with underlying health conditions. Public health experts agree that decreasing the prison population is the best way to forestall explosive COVID outbreaks in these settings. Fewer inmates mean […]

COVID-19 Shutdown Freezes Out Citizen Ballot Initiatives

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It was spring, though it felt like winter, when volunteers for Reclaim Idaho trudged from door to door, seeking signatures for a petition to expand Medicaid coverage, a measure the legislature had repeatedly refused to consider. Idaho temperatures had a crisp autumnal chill, but perhaps it felt like spring, on November 6, 2018, when 60 percent of Idaho’s voters […]

COVID-19: A “Perfect Storm” for Indian Country

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Broken Promises is the apt title of a 2018 report by the US Commission on Civil Rights evaluating the federal government’s performance to satisfy its promise to adequately support the well-being of Native Americans. This “promise,” which, as the study documents, the US has failed to fulfill, is not an abstract concept, but a formal “trust” relationship codified […]

Rural Communities Divided over Wind Power: Is There Another Way?

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A fierce wind of acronyms is blowing across rural America: WINDCOWS (Wisconsin Independent Citizens Opposing Windturbine Sites), River RATS (River Residents Against Turbines), SOUL (Save Our Unspoilt Landscape). The UK’s not immune, what with England’s STINC (Stop Turbines in North Cornwall) and STEMM (Stop the Exploitation of Mynydd Mynyllod) in Wales. All are grassroots groups organized to […]

COVID-19’s Closing of College Campuses: A Look Through the Equity Lens

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All college students are not created equal. When colleges and universities abruptly extend their spring breaks, shut their doors, and convert all classes to online instruction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many students struggle. They don’t have the means to go home and learn remotely. “Harvard expects us to go home,” recounts one low-income […]

China’s National Sword: A Reset for Recycling and an Opportunity for Nonprofits

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What’s a devoted recycler to do now that China is out of the paper and plastics collection business? Cities are reducing or cancelling their recycling programs since the market is gone. Shall we keep on dutifully dumping our pizza boxes and yogurt containers in those bins marked “commingled,” hoping that they don’t get buried as […]

Proposed CRA Changes Threaten Access to Capital in Underserved Communities

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Since the 1980s, neighborhood activists have had the ability to sit across the table from the most powerful bankers in the land. They portray their community’s critical needs for capital to buy homes and start businesses, presenting data showing stark lending disparities between their neighborhoods and better off white communities. And they assent to sign […]

Urban and Rural Communities Take On Dollar Store Scourge

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As economic behemoths, Dollar General and its fellow chains, Family Dollar and Dollar Tree (now owner of Family Dollar), are impressive. Last year, more than half of all brick-and-mortar retail openings were dollar stores. Industry leader Dollar General operates more than 16,000 stores in 44 states, opening 900 new outlets just in 2019. These stores are profitable, too, […]