Float Every Boat: Start a Rising Tide Table at Your Local Library
A leaderboard can make it look like a race. It isn’t. We built RAISE the Tide to find the nonprofits and companies building shared prosperity and safe AI that keeps humans in charge, and then to connect them so they work together instead of competing. No single organization can fix a broken system by itself. A tide can.
This post is a playbook for that work. It covers why lasting change takes many organizations pulling together, how to frame that work so people from any political background can say yes, and how to start in the simplest place we know: a meeting room at your public library.
Why systemic change is a team sport
Most of the problems our members care about are systems problems: who owns local internet, who benefits from AI, whether a paycheck covers rent. They come from how many pieces fit together, including rules, money, habits, technology, and who gets a seat at the table. One organization can improve one piece. Changing the system means many organizations moving the pieces together.
In a 2011 Stanford Social Innovation Review article, John Kania and Mark Kramer called this collective impact. They found that groups who move big problems tend to share five conditions:
- A common agenda: one shared picture of the problem and the goal.
- Shared measurement: a few numbers everyone agrees to track.
- Mutually reinforcing activities: each group does what it does best, in a way that supports the others.
- Continuous communication: regular contact that builds trust.
- Backbone support: someone who keeps the effort organized.
None of that requires a big budget. It requires people in a room who trust each other enough to plan together. That’s where framing comes in.
Frame it so everyone can say yes
The fastest way to shrink a coalition is to make it feel like a team jersey. The moment an effort reads as “left” or “right,” half the town stops listening, including business owners, faith leaders, and neighbors who would have been great partners.
Nonpartisan framing doesn’t mean avoiding hard topics or pretending everyone agrees. It means starting from outcomes most people already want, then debating methods in the open. Values like fairness, local ownership, self-reliance, family, safety, the dignity of work, and stewardship cross party lines. So do concrete goals: good local jobs, reliable and affordable internet, and technology that serves people rather than the other way around.
A few swaps that keep the door open:
| Instead of | Try |
|---|---|
| Labels for people (progressive, conservative, left, right) | Names for places and outcomes (“our town,” “good local jobs”) |
| Fighting against a policy or a person | Designing a better system together |
| National talking points | Local facts anyone can check |
| “AI will take your job” or “AI will save us” | “How do we make sure AI keeps people in charge here?” |
| Asking people to join your side | Asking what they’d need to see to say yes |
When the frame is “our community, our future,” more organizations can see themselves in it. That’s how the number of groups working toward shared values grows: new organizations find a reason to form, and existing ones find a reason to join.
Why in person, and why the library
Online tools help a coalition stay in touch, but trust is easier to build face to face. Sharing coffee and a whiteboard with someone who sees the world differently changes a conversation in a way a comment thread rarely does.
Your public library may be the best room in town for this. In many communities, nonprofits and community groups can reserve a library meeting room for free or for a small fee. Libraries are also one of the few places built to be neutral ground. The American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights says:
“Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.”
Library Bill of Rights, Article VI
That makes the library a natural home for a nonpartisan gathering. It’s familiar, it’s usually reachable by transit and accessible to wheelchair users, and nobody feels like they’re walking onto someone else’s turf.
Policies vary, so check your library’s before you book. Common rules include:
- Meetings must be open to the public.
- No selling, admission fees, or fundraising during the event.
- Reservations open within a set booking window, so plan ahead.
- Your promotion can’t suggest that the library endorses your group.
- Stay within the room’s capacity and leave it as you found it.
Those rules fit a Rising Tide gathering well: open doors, no pitches, shared space.
The playbook: host a Rising Tide Table in six steps
1. Pair up across sectors
RAISE the Tide asks people to nominate one nonprofit and one for-profit. Host the same way. When a nonprofit and a company co-host, people can see right away that this isn’t one group’s project. If you can, add a third neutral partner, such as the library itself, a school, or a local government office.
2. Book the room
Call your library or use its online room request form. Ask about capacity, the booking window, Wi-Fi, a projector or screen, whether you can bring coffee, and whether you need to be a nonprofit to reserve. Aim for four to six weeks of lead time so people can plan.
3. Map the players
List who shapes your community’s future and who is missing from the usual conversations: nonprofits, small businesses, co-ops, credit unions, worker and trade groups, faith congregations, schools and colleges, neighborhood associations, local government staff, young people, and seniors. Then invite at least a few people you expect to disagree with. A table where everyone already agrees can’t build anything that lasts.
4. Send an invitation built around one question
Pick one question that’s specific to your place and open to every point of view. Here’s a template you can copy:
You’re invited to a Rising Tide Table. [Nonprofit] and [Company] are hosting a 90-minute community conversation at [Library name], [Room], on [date and time]. One question: What would it take for everyone in [community] to share in the gains from new technology and a changing economy, with people, not machines, in charge? No speeches, no sales pitches, no party lines. Bring your ideas and someone who sees things differently than you do. Free and open to the public. RSVP: [link]
Invitation template: fill in the brackets
5. Run a 90-minute agenda
| Time | Segment | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00–0:10 | Welcome and ground rules | Hosts explain the purpose and the ground rules below. |
| 0:10–0:25 | Introductions | Everyone answers: “What’s one thing you want our community to look like in five years?” |
| 0:25–0:45 | Shared values | Put sticky notes on a wall and group them. Circle the values almost everyone shares. |
| 0:45–1:05 | Asset map | List what’s already here: people, spaces, skills, funding, data, and existing projects. |
| 1:05–1:20 | Pick one project | Choose one small, concrete thing to do together in the next 90 days. |
| 1:20–1:30 | Commitments | Each organization names its part. Set the next meeting date. |
Keep the ground rules short and post them on the wall:
- Speak for yourself and your organization, not for a party.
- Curiosity before critique.
- Disagree on methods; look for agreement on outcomes.
- No selling, recruiting, or campaigning in the room.
- Share what you heard, not who said it, unless someone says otherwise.
6. Follow up within 48 hours
Send notes, the list of commitments, and the next date to everyone who came. Name a backbone: one host organization, or a rotating pair, that books the room and keeps the notes. Then post a summary in our member forums so other communities can learn from what you tried.
From one meeting to lasting change
A single gathering is a spark. Change comes from what happens next. Here’s how a Rising Tide Table grows into the five conditions of collective impact:
- Common agenda: the one shared question and project your table chose.
- Shared measurement: two or three simple numbers you track together, such as households connected, residents trained, or local dollars kept local.
- Mutually reinforcing activities: each member does what it does best. The nonprofit organizes, the company builds, and the library hosts and teaches.
- Continuous communication: a monthly table at the library, plus a running thread online.
- Backbone support: your host pair, with RAISE the Tide connecting you to members in other places.
Not sure where to start? These first projects work well with a mixed group:
- An AI literacy night for small business owners, parents, and seniors
- Community-owned internet for apartment buildings, so residents share in the value of the network they use
- A “buy local” pledge where members agree to source from each other first
- A joint grant application that no single member could win alone
- A youth internship pipeline across member organizations
- A shared data pledge on how members collect, store, and protect community data
Then use the rule of two: before each meeting, every member invites one organization that hasn’t come yet, ideally one that is new or that no one else at the table knows. That’s how one room becomes a network, and how a network becomes a tide.
Your next step
You don’t need permission, a budget, or a big title to start. You need two partners, one good question, and a room. Your library probably has one.
- Nominate one nonprofit and one for-profit you’d want at your table.
- Book a library meeting room four to six weeks out.
- Share your Rising Tide Table in our member forums so we can connect you with members nearby.
When we pull together, the tide rises and every boat floats a little higher. Let’s build it, one room at a time.