Our Values

The issues are our client.

We take an approach that looks at the whole landscape of an issue. We aren’t focused on groups alone, but on how ecosystems of organizations can work together to make change. We are deeply informed about the issues we address, develop strong relationships with the people we work with, and we are passionately committed to being trusted partners. We don’t track billable hours, but we are obsessed with making the most meaningful contribution to constructive social change that we can, and always in consultation with existing partners and stakeholders.

We aim to maximize collaboration and minimize competition.

We work to minimize competition, maximize resources, eliminate redundancies, and lift all ships from the least to most resourced in a sector. We challenge the premise that media attention is a competition and believe that the more angles and unique voices we help raise across the sector, the greater the coverage. We do not support or undertake proprietary opinion or media research because findings shouldn’t belong to a single organization—they should belong to the movement. They represent shared data that require shared strategies and responses.

Data-driven strategy.

Whenever available, we seek strategies that are informed by solid data. These include analyses of the media environment, of the public opinion landscape, of partners’ demonstrated needs, and of what resources are proving most impactful. We strive to use data both to distinguish between what is an opinion and what is a fact and to bring groups together toward an understanding of strategic decisions and the policy landscape.

Our commitment to progressive social change is a primary value. From Day One, we have been committed to business practices that reflect our political values. Whenever possible, we work with union-run, politically allied, and people of color-owned or run business partners. While we are careful about spending, we avoid saving money at the expense of the people we do business with. We pursue grants and partnerships based on these values. And we have always paid our interns and fellows because unpaid labor is wrong.

Meeting the needs of the groups we work with

ReThink exists to strengthen the media work of the organizations and communities we work with. We measure our work in simple terms: we’re either adding value to their work or we’re not. We consider any idea for new work or new resources through the lens of whether it meets an identified need among our partner groups and projects. We strive to engage our partners in evaluating the services and resources we provide. We expect our staff to be responsive, committed to partners’ strategic needs, and attuned to their institutional interests. We aim to demonstrate best practices, not just describe them.

We are not looking for public-facing credit

Testimonials, perspectives, and evaluations of ReThink’s staff from the groups and individuals we work with, and our funding partners are critical to our reputation and ability to grow the organization’s funding and resources. Nonetheless, you’ll hardly ever see our name in print. We deliberately operate behind the scenes, and we work hard to be a trusted-convener. Success looks like building greater cohesion; centering the voices of the advocates, experts, and community spokespeople that we work with; and reaching and building a broader constituency—a constituency that stands up for civil and human rights, a stronger and more representative democracy, and international cooperation and diplomacy.

ReThink is committed to a just and equitable society wherein all people are treated equally, opportunity is justly distributed, and all voices are heard. We affirm diversity in gender, race, color, ethnicity & national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity and sexual orientation), class, religion, ability, life experiences, and background as both a positive contribution to our organizational environment and a critical asset for informing and enabling our work. With this in mind, we are committed to maintaining a work environment that recognizes, understands, respects, and encourages the unique contributions of each member and we approach every hiring decision with a commitment to workplace diversity.

We hold ourselves accountable to these values.

Working for the long term

People have political and ethical passions, and they also have lives to manage. Our goal is to create a work environment wherein passionate people who are committed to the issues we address receive competitive salaries, regular professional reviews, and wage increases based on performance. We aim for an equitable compensation structure where raises are considered in the context of organizational policy rather than personal negotiation. We are committed to personnel policies like paid parental leave, sabbaticals, and retirement planning. As appropriate, we aim to meet the special needs of staff people with family responsibilities.

Professional development and opportunity

All people should grow in their jobs, irrespective of their seniority. We work to ensure that staff have opportunities to test their limits and learn new skills—and to have their growth curve challenged. Sometimes, this will involve outside training; more commonly, it involves opportunities to take on new responsibilities within our work because, more often than not, that is where the most significant professional development will occur. External staff development opportunities are considered first and foremost in the context of what is most beneficial to advancing the needs of the overall organization and our support for our partner organizations.

Systems of equity

We are unconditionally committed to equity and mutual respect irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity, faith, sexual identity, age, or family situation. That means positively affirming those values in our work and that no form of harassment will be tolerated. We believe that cliques, teasing, excluding co-workers, or speaking unprofessionally about one’s colleagues are corrosive and unacceptable behaviors.

Fiscal transparency and budgets

People should know about the fiscal health of their employer. All our budgets and financial reports, excluding individual wage information, are available to all staff and funders alike. We are committed to providing all of our senior staff with training in reading and understanding budgets and financial reports as part of their professional development.

Holistic decision-making

While we have very distinct teams, often doing separate bodies of work, most major financial decisions are approached from an overall organizational perspective. For example, new positions or resources will be evaluated on how applicable they are across all of our work and whether they will meet the identified needs of groups we work with in multiple areas. Although there are always immediate policy issues to attend to, we will always carefully consider which expenditures will make ReThink stronger over the long haul and allow us to deliver progressively better results for the groups we serve.

Autonomy and accountability

We want staff to have reasonable autonomy to make wise decisions, move our work forward, and capitalize on opportunities. At the same time, substantive decisions are almost always improved by hearing from differing views. Our unique sector-wide view allows us to identify groups’ needs, gaps in resources, and strategic opportunities that inform all of our annual planning and proposals and everyone is then accountable to executing those work plans.

Our funders place their trust in us as a vehicle for their mission and policy goals. We aim to earn that trust by spending money conscientiously, by being genuinely accountable for our results, and by being candid about our own strengths and weaknesses.

At the same time, funders have a responsibility to learn from the organizations in the field and the structure of our model, which puts us in daily contact with dozens of organizations puts us in a unique position to identify patterns and needs. With this in mind, we aim to be forthright and honest with observations and critiques as we see and hear them.

We’d rather walk away from a grant that doesn’t align with our values or make strategic sense or one that would be better directed to another organization.