Try Something

They faced the most devastating economic depression ever known, a total war that spanned the globe, and the beginning of a truly new world order.  So instead of leaning back on old ideas and outdated paradigms, they looked forward.

It is common sense to take a method and try it.  If it fails, admit it frankly and try another.  But above all, try something.  (FDR)

At the Roosevelt Institute, we are committed to the notion of trying something.  We know that in the war of ideas, conservatives have built an infrastructure that overwhelmed the Roosevelt legacy in recent decades; the time has come to reclaim that legacy and those Roosevelt values for the progressive movement.  It’s time to try something that other liberal institutions haven’t tried.

Where other organizations began by building stables of policy experts, we began by fostering a national network of young up-and-coming thinkers.  Our Campus Network spans the US with more than 80 chapters and 8500+ members, members who develop public policy with a Roosevelt ethos.  As we engage these young leaders and help empower their ideas, we build the first leg in a pipeline of ideas that will reshape the 21st century.  As these college students graduate into positions of leadership and public service, they carry with them a direct experience of progressive policy – creating it, analyzing it, and executing it at the local, state, and national levels. 

At the next stage, we focus on promoting groundbreaking ideas by an established generation of thought entrepreneurs.  Focused on shifting the economic paradigm that conservatives used, our senior and junior fellows are building financial reform and economic policy initiatives that will steer our global financial systems back toward prosperity.  Their approach and our support our fundamentally different from the typical liberal think tank in one central way: where others focus on generating reports, we focus on promoting bold ideas.  Like the Roosevelts, there is no set plan for how to move forward – but by investing in ideas as if they were "venture intellect," our fellows are developing and debating new paradigms for policy and society.