On September 23, we lost our beloved, visionary co-editor Elandria Williams. Elandria was our family. As we grieve this monumental loss, we are even more committed to sharing E’s powerful and prophetic work in Beautiful Solutions. We invite you to join us in celebrating and honoring Elandria by continuing to grow the solutions E knew we needed, wherever you are.

In E’s words:

“I am from a people that have risen from the ashes. My people survived beatings, being owned and made currency, having their land and livelihoods stolen. Through it all, they fought for what they needed and wanted. They crafted the solutions they needed to love themselves and each other. My people built black towns, schools, baseball leagues, unions, farms, credit unions, cooperatives, seed banks, mutual aid societies, and minority investment funds. They did this while staying rooted culturally and with faith as a guide, ensuring that they passed on their culture, art and spirit to the generations that came after — like myself. What we’re trying to do with Beautiful Solutions is tap into the collective, ancestral wisdom all around us to help people imagine a different way of doing things. ... Thank you, and let's be, as Grace Lee Boggs would say, solutionaries!”

Thank you, as always, for supporting this work. It’s going to take all of us to carry Elandria’s vision forward, and we’re so glad it’s you here with us.

In love, grief, and gratitude,

Eli and Rachel, with Nathan and the whole crew at Beautiful Solutions, Beautiful Trouble, New Economy Coalition, PeoplesHub, and Highlander

In these times of pandemic and uprising, the seeds of the solutions we need are all around us.

Beautiful Solutions: A Toolbox for Liberation is an upcoming book (OR Books: Spring 2021) showcasing the stories and strategies that prove another world is possible. 

This system is crumbling. It’s bankrupting and killing us and destroying our planet. Control of the things we depend on — our land, our water, our bodies, our work — feels out of our hands. A small number of powerful people call the shots at the expense of the rest of us and the earth. 

But you knew that already. 

What we’re trying to do with Beautiful Solutions is share ancestral and community wisdom to help people imagine a different way of doing things. With your support, this book, companion website, and educational training program will inspire people all over the world to take collective action to change the course of history. 

Thank you for helping us make this book a reality!

We are humbled, very proud, and incredibly grateful that we have surpassed the goal for the Beautiful Solutions crowdfunder! We are thrilled to be one BIG step closer to making Beautiful Solutions a reality. This crowdfunder will continue to be the go-to place for Beautiful Solutions book pre-orders, so reserve your copy by clicking on the perk at right. We can't wait to get this book out in the world thanks to your support! 

What’s in the book?

• Nearly 40 STORIES of beautiful solutions from around the world.
• More than 30 SOLUTIONS — a specific strategy or tool that people might use in order to solve a problem – for example, a cooperative loan fund, a solidarity health clinic, or a community land trust. 
• 10 PRINCIPLES that explain what makes a solution beautiful and how to make sure they stay that way.  
• ACTIVITIES AND RESOURCES for educators and community organizers, so you can turn inspiration into deeper understanding and action. 

Written by more than 80 contributing authors, Beautiful Solutions brings together some of the world's most innovative community leaders to share their stories. You’ll find examples from Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands, the Americas, and Turtle Island — We know that our problems are connected and international, so our solutions must be too.

Examples of Beautiful Solutions stories:

• GREENWAVE: A network of regenerative ocean farmers in the US that have been growing shellfish and seaweed for food, biofuel and fertilizer without use of freshwater or other inputs –creating good jobs and saving the planet.
• LA CRUZ AZUL: A cooperative cement company whose marketing strategy also happens to be the third most popular soccer club in Mexico.
• SEIKATSU CLUB: A women’s milk-buying club that has grown into a massive political force for female empowerment, renewable energy, and food safety in Japan.
• CHITSVACHIRIMURUTSOKA COOPERATIVE: Twenty-two veterans of Zimbabwe’s war of liberation pooled their demobilization allowances to start this collective farm, whose name means “nothing ventured nothing gained"

Here are some of those Beautiful Solutions:

• COMMUNITY LAND TRUST: a form of nonprofit collective land ownership that prioritizes community uses of the land, promoting affordable and cooperative housing, sustainable agriculture, and other uses not fully valued by the market.
• WORKER COOPERATIVE: a business that is owned and democratically run by its workers. Think outside the boss!
• PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING: a democratic process for community members to directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. It allows residents to work with government to make decisions that affect their lives and communities. 
• CREDIT UNIONS: a cooperatively owned, not-for-profit financial institution that offers banking, loans, and other financial services to members. 

Created by our many movements for our many movements, Beautiful Solutions is an open-source toolbox of collective wisdom that will help us create a world in which we fundamentally have what we need to thrive. And it can’t happen without YOU. 

Help get this project out in the world! (And get a Beautiful Solutions book for yourself in the process!)

We are raising $25K this summer to support our editorial, design and tech teams to finish the book, launch the website, and get this valuable resource out to communities. 

Your contribution will go directly to:

• The Beautiful Solutions book writers and editors who are in full-on sprint mode this summer and fall to make sure this project is out in the world in early 2021.
• Our website developer, who is aiming to relaunch a brand new version of our online toolbox later this year! 

Amazing perks, incredible effort: 

• When you contribute, you have the opportunity to get your own copy of Beautiful Solutions, hot-off-the-press in 2021! Plus, receive the new Beautiful Trouble Strategy Card Deck, the Beautiful Trouble book, movement swag like the Fire The Bosses, Free The Land, Elect Ourselves bumper sticker from the New Economy Coalition, and more! 
• If you don't want gifts in the mail, you're of course very welcome to just make a donation to this campaign (and receive our unending gratitude... virtually!). 
• YES! Magazine has generously offered a one-year subscription to crowdfunder backers who contribute $50 or more to this campaign. Your subscription will be sent to the address you submit with your donation. If you'd like your subscription to go elsewhere, such as a gift destination, please send an email to team@beautifultrouble.org.  You'll also receive a copy of “The World We Want” special issue, and the YES! newsletter. YES! is a nonprofit, independent publisher of solutions journalism. Learn more here.

Other Ways You Can Help!

Please spread the word by inviting your friends and social networks to also back this campaign.

Meet the Beautiful Solutions team

Elandria Williams is Co-Editor of Beautiful Solutions project, Executive Director of PeoplesHub, and is the North American representative in the Brussels based Beyond Development Working Group.

Eli Feghali is Co-Editor of the Beautiful Solutions project, an interim Co-Director at the New Economy Coalition, and Co-Chair of the YES! Magazine board. 

Rachel Plattus is Co-Editor of the Beautiful Solutions project, a trainer with PeoplesHub, a steward of an intergenerational Jewish learning community, Taproot, and Co-Director of Nuns & Nones, a multifaith alliance of spiritual seekers cultivating communities of care and contemplation to incite courageous action.

Nathan Schneider has joined as a Co-Editor of the Beautiful Solutions book. He is an assistant professor of Media Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he directs the Media Enterprise Design Lab. His most recent book is Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition that Is Shaping the Next Economy.

Beautiful Trouble is a book, card-deck, web toolbox, creative campaign incubator, and international network of artist-activist-trainers helping grassroots movements be more creative, effective, and irresistible.

New Economy Coalition is a network of 200 organizations building the power of the solidarity economy movement in the United States. 

Thank you for helping us to make this a reality!

Donate via our Indiegogo now, and be the first to get your copy of Beautiful Solutions: Toolbox for Liberation early next year. 

Crowdfunding Perks

NOTE: This is the full listing of perks that were live during the duration of the crowdfunder campaign. Upon conclusion of the campaign on September 3, 2020, we are now offering pre-orders of the book and e-book only. If you don't want your gifts in the mail, you're of course very welcome to just make a donation to this campaign (and receive our unending gratitude... virtually!). 

$5 - Sower of Solidarity
Backers will get a shoutout on the new Beautiful Solutions website and an early-bird discount on the book when it’s live!

$15 - Cultivator of Cooperation (Ships in 2020)
Backers will get a Fire The Bosses, Free The Land, Elect Ourselves bumper sticker from the New Economy Coalition.

$25 - Planter of Peace (Ships in 2021)
Backers will receive the e-book of Beautiful Solutions: A Toolbox For Liberation hot-off-the-presses when it’s published in 2021! 

$25 - Activator of Action (Ships in 2020)
Backers will receive two special-edition posters from the New Economy Coalition. The one on the left (the blue one) was illustrated by Jennifer Luxton. The one on the right was illustrated by Favianna Rodriguez. 

$35 - Seeder of Solutions (Ships in 2021)
Backers will be the first to receive a physical copy of Beautiful Solutions: A Toolbox For Liberation hot-off-the-presses in 2021! 

$50 - Upstart of Utopia (Ships in 2021)
Backers will be the first to receive a copy of Beautiful Solutions: A Toolbox For Liberation hot-off-the-presses in 2021!

AND

Backers will also receive a free one-year subscription to YES! Magazine and its newsletters, a copy of the YES! Magazine “The World We Want” special issue and a Fire The Bosses, Free The Land, Elect Ourselves bumper sticker from the New Economy Coalition. 

$75 - Harvester of Hope (Ships in 2021)
Backers will receive the new Beautiful Trouble Strategy Card Deck: the key strategies and tactics that have inspired centuries of people-powered victories are now in a deck of 100+ cards YOU can play!

AND

Backers will be the first to receive a copy of Beautiful Solutions: A Toolbox For Liberation hot-off-the-presses in 2021 and will also receive a free one-year subscription to YES! Magazine and its newsletters. 

$100 - Lover of Liberation (Ships in 2021)
Backers will receive autographed copies of Beautiful Solutions: A Toolbox For Liberation and Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution (one of each). 

AND

Backers will also receive a copy of the YES! Magazine “The World We Want” special issue and a free one-year subscription to YES! Magazine and its newsletters.

$150 - Renewer of Resistance (Ships in 2020)
Backers will receive their very own special limited edition “Unpresidented!” prank Washington Post, created by the Yes Men & friends. 

AND

Backers will also receive an autographed copy of Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution, the new Beautiful Trouble Strategy Card Deck, a copy of the YES! Magazine “The World We Want” special issue, and a free one-year subscription to YES! Magazine and its newsletters.

$300 - Champion of the Commons (Ships in 2021)
Backers will receive one of every perk below: 

An autographed copy of Beautiful Solutions: A Toolbox For Liberation
An autographed copy of Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution
The new Beautiful Trouble Strategy Card Deck
A copy of the YES! Magazine “The World We Want” special issue
A free one-year subscription to YES! Magazine and its newsletters
A special limited edition “Unpresidented!” prank Washington Post
A Fire The Bosses, Free The Land, Elect Ourselves bumper sticker 
Two special posters from the New Economy Coalition

$500 - Enlivener of Education (Ships in 2021)
Backers will receive 5 copies of the Beautiful Solutions book for your classroom or group and 10 licensed copies of the Beautiful Solutions ebook.

AND

Backers will also receive a copy of the Beautiful Trouble book, a copy of the Beautiful Trouble card deck, a free one-year subscription to YES! Magazine and its newsletters, and 10 copies of the YES! Magazine “The World We Want” special issue.

$500 - Disseminator of Democracy (Ships in 2020 and 2021)
In 2020 or 2021, backers will get a 1-hour consultation session with either Beautiful Trouble’s cracker-jack creative team or the Beautiful Solutions editors on your campaign 

AND

In 2021, backers will also receive:

An autographed copy of Beautiful Solutions: A Toolbox For Liberation
An autographed copy of Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution
The new Beautiful Trouble Strategy Card Deck
A copy of the YES! Magazine “The World We Want” special issue
A free one-year subscription to YES! Magazine and its newsletters
A special limited edition “Unpresidented!” prank Washington Post
A Fire The Bosses, Free The Land, Elect Ourselves bumper sticker 
Two special posters from the New Economy Coalition

$999 - Renegade of Resilience (Ships in 2020 and 2021)
In 2020 or 2021, Backers will party like it’s 1999 at a virtual dinner with the Beautiful Troublemaker or Solutionary of your choice.

AND

In 2021, backers will also receive:

An autographed copy of Beautiful Solutions: A Toolbox For Liberation
An autographed copy of Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution
The new Beautiful Trouble Strategy Card Deck
A copy of the YES! Magazine “The World We Want” special issue
A free one-year subscription to YES! Magazine and its newsletters
A special limited edition “Unpresidented!” prank Washington Post
A Fire The Bosses, Free The Land, Elect Ourselves bumper sticker 
Two special posters from the New Economy Coalition