Check out my short piece detailing how my colleagues and I at USAID incorporated a movement mindset into our work. This is especially true for Powered by the People, a $45 million, five-year initiative that I was brought on to design. Powered by the People is USAID’s largest single commitment exclusively to supporting the work of organizers and movements around the world.

Check out my article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy that details three big reasons why donors hesitate to support grassroots people powered movements as well as ways that donors have overcome these obstacles. And I invite you to “imagine what might have become of Gandhi if he had spent his days completing monitoring and evaluation spreadsheets for potential donors thousands of miles away.”

On February 9, 2022, I spoke with the Harvard Program on Negotiation community about my research that develops a relational approach to social movement strategy. This research draws on the strategy of the African National Congress (ANC) as part of the Anti-Apartheid Struggle. And it relies on archival material I collected in South Africa and the United Kingdom. This relational approach to movement strategy entails movement leaders conceiving of leaders of their target regime as having a dual identity – enemy and potential ally. You can watch the video of the presentation and discussion here.

For the launch of my Dollars and Dissent report on September 13, 2022, I was joined by Tom Perriello, Executive Director of Open Society – US. The launch was co-sponsored by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) and Human Rights Funders Network (HRFN). Video of the launch event is available here. This report is the result of five years of research including in-depth case studies of Humanity United and the American Jewish World Service. You can download the report and watch the video online. And feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.

Through December 2024, I served as the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) Social Movements Advisor, the first such position in the U.S. government. I am a Ph.D. candidate and the Topol Fellow in Nonviolent Resistance at The Fletcher School where I teach and research social movements. My dissertation is titled “Dollars and Dissent: Donor Support for Grassroots Organizing and Nonviolent Movements.”

Currently, I am a Term Member in the Council on Foreign Relations, a Truman National Security Fellow, and a Research Fellow with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. During the 2020-2021 academic year, I was a USIP – Minerva Peace and Security Scholar. During the 2021 calendar year, I was a Graduate Research Fellow at the Harvard Program on Negotiation. During 2022, I served as International Collective Action and Social Movements Expert consultant for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

I hold a M.P.A. from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and a B.A. with honors from the University of Chicago. I have served as a Program Officer with the Open Society Justice Initiative, an electoral observer with The Carter Center, and a board member of the University of Chicago’s Human Rights Program. I co-directed Darfurian Voices, the first public opinion survey of refugees from Darfur on issues of peace, justice, and reconciliation.

My publications include “Nonviolent Resistance,” “Surviving Success: Nonviolent Rebellion in Sudan,” and “The Founding Myth of the United States of America.” My teaching includes “From Gandhi to the Arab Spring: Theory and Practice of Nonviolent Resistance.” I’m the father of twin girls and husband of Nadia Marzouki.

My dissertation, which I expect to complete in 2025, is titled, “Dollars and Dissent: Donor Support for Grassroots Organizing and Nonviolent Movements.”

During the most recent decade, more people than ever before around the world used nonviolent collective action to secure rights, achieve justice, and build democracy. This strategy has been twice as effective at attaining these goals than has violent action. Yet, despite this success, from 2011 to 2018, public charities and private foundations gave only three percent of their total human rights funding to support grassroots organizing and social movements. My dissertation has entailed dozens of semi-structured interviews, surveys with donors and grantees, and three in-depth case studies of the American Jewish World Service, Humanity United, and the United States Agency for International Development. It outlines trends in donor support and details how donors’ values, organizational structures, lived experiences, and perceptions of risk affect their decisions about whether, when, where, and how to support for the work of grassroots organizers and nonviolent social movements. The dissertation offers a novel theory of donor decision making and offers actionable recommendations that donors public charities, private foundations, bilateral donors, and multilateral donors can adapt and adopt to their own circumstances.

My committee is comprised of Dr. Alex de Waal (Tufts) as chair, Dr. Marshall Ganz (Harvard), and Dr. Richard Shultz (Tufts).