How do you know it works?
This was one of the most common questions we heard from folks in the years after we first launched The Philadelphia Citizen, on September 8, 2015. Back then, as now, our mission was ambitious: Use solutions journalism and calls to action to revive democracy and citizenship in the American city where they were born. In that one skeptical question, I heard all the others we ourselves had when we threw this thing up on the web: Will we make this work? Is anyone paying attention? Will anyone actually “do something” as a result?
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I’m happy to report the answers to those questions: Yes. Yes. And, resoundingly: Yes.
Your donation keeps us going!So, how do we know it works? Because you all, our incredible, engaged, feisty, audience have helped us make an impact on this city over the last 10 years.
Here are 10 ways in which that happened:
We Voted to Win
In 2015, The Citizen held the first of three voter lotteries, cash prizes we promised to randomly-chosen voters at randomly-chosen polling places, just for doing their civic duty. Unlike our first winner, Bridget Conroy-Varnis, a school crossing guard in South Philly who votes in every election, word of the lottery increased turnout by 5 percent among those who had heard of it. Seem insignificant? If every registered voter had known about it, that would have amounted to 50,000 additional votes cast — enough, as we saw in the 2016 presidential race, to sway an election.
That’s not all. Over the last five years alone, 281,000 people have used our voter information to choose candidates on the ballot, at a time when turnout among Philadelphians is … paltry. In 2023 and 2024, we also partnered with Changing The Conversation Together to recruit and train volunteers to deep canvass in low-turnout neighborhoods, connecting stories of love, with the most basic of democratic responsibilities: voting.
We Helped Hire a Mayor
Speaking of voting, perhaps you remember the impressive crop of mayoral hopefuls in the 2023 Democratic primary? And perhaps you recall the flurry of candidate events that gave each of them mere moments to answer questions about how they would run the sixth-largest — and first best — city in America? We answered that challenge with our popular Ultimate Job Interview series, a one-on-one public conversation between each candidate, a panel of hiring professionals and a former mayor, Michael Nutter.
First we created a crowd-sourced job description with input from Philadelphians in every zip code. Then we invited every voter to the Fitler Club to witness the public interview and ask questions of their own. Hundreds of you showed up to hear not how Cherelle Parker’s policing plan differed (slightly) from that of Rebecca Rhynhart, but how her life experiences, management style, mistakes and successes would inform her mayoralty. Because, after all, citizens were engaging in nothing less than hiring our next chief executive.
We continued our Ultimate Job Interview last year, during the race for Attorney General.
We “Stole” Ideas
Since 2018, The Citizen’s Ideas We Should Steal Festival has gathered problem-solvers from around the country for some of the best conversations about what works in cities around the country — because why reinvent the wheel? We’ve also featured civic and cultural giants like Black Thought, Ali Velshi, Piper Kerman, Wes Moore, Josh Shapiro, Majora Carter, Debra Winger and John Oliver.
Some 500 Philadelphians a year — city workers, philanthropists, business and civic leaders — have joined us. And the best part? They’ve actually helped us steal ideas, like funding a Philly branch of Friends of the Children, a 12.5-year mentorship program with incredible poverty-fighting results.
Also …
… We Cured Medical Debt
As part of our 2020 Ideas We Should Steal Festival, we asked our audience to help us solve a uniquely American problem: medical debt, which can be overwhelming and contribute to between 40 and 60 percent of all bankruptcies in the U.S. We partnered with Undue Medical Debt (then known as RIP Medical Debt), which buys unaddressed debt from hospitals at 1 percent of its value — so $1 for every $100 owed — and then forgives it. Seeded by philanthropists like Richard Vague, Jeff Brown and Pat Croce, our crowd-funding campaign raised $50,000 to write off $5 million of medical debt for indigent Philadelphians.
And …
… We Saved Lives
During our 2019 Ideas We Should Steal Festival, we heard from David Muhammad, executive director of the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, about his work in Oakland, California, which resulted in a historic seven-year low in that city’s murder and shooting rates. This was when gun violence in Philly was rising, to its eventual high of 2,331 shootings in 2021.
Immediately after, Philadelphia Foundation President / CEO Pedro Ramos asked to meet Muhammad, ultimately hiring him, along with several other civic and business leaders, to help them implement a version of his CeaseFire program in Philly. In 2022, they launched the Civic Coalition to Save Lives, a collaborative, data-driven gun violence prevention effort that has been crucial to the city’s record reduction in homicides over the last three years.
We Honored a Civil Rights Giant
It was more than 15 years ago that Citizen Co-founder Larry Platt first had the vision to create a Philly-style memorial to the late civil rights icon Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Why? Because while we have murals galore of Black athletes and musicians in Philly, we had neglected to lift up a man who is the kind of role model we really need — a ceiling crasher, professor, mentor, South Africa Constitution-writer and almost Supreme Court Justice.
We finally made that happen in 2022, along with Mural Arts Philadelphia, Penn Carey Law School and Higginbotham mentees, including former Merck CEO Ken Frazier. A small committee selected a mural sketch by artist Shawn Theodore; dozens of Philadelphians came out to help paint his magnificent image. And that July, we held a tribute breakfast for Higginbotham, featuring Frazier, former NAACP Legal Defense Fund President Sherilynn Ifill and Princeton Law Professor Eveyln Higginbotham, the Judge’s widow — followed by the unveiling of Famous Warrior on a wall at 46th and Chestnut streets.
We Celebrated Engaged Philadelphians
With your help, we’ve identified, profiled and honored local patriots who are stepping up to solve problems and help Philadelphia thrive, from our 20 (and counting) Integrity Icons, city workers who go above and beyond to serve their fellow citizens; Generation Change Philly, more than 30 Philadelphians who are shifting the usual way of doing things in our city; Rad Girls, kickass women bringing innovation and energy in more than 12 different areas. And, in 2024, we launched Citizen of the Year, an annual gala that celebrates those Philadelphians whose work that year has elevated our whole city. Take 2025’s overall Citizen of the Year: Jalen Hurts, whom we decided to honor for lifting up women in sports and helping Philly school children succeed — before he was our Super Bowl MVP.
We Explored the Roots of — and Solutions to — Gun Violence
In 2020, right as a global pandemic led to skyrocketing homicides in Philly and around the country, journalist Jo Piazza took an in-depth look at the causes, realities and solutions to gun violence in Philadelphia. For nearly a year, under extraordinary circumstances, Piazza interviewed victims, survivors and perpetrators, organizers here and elsewhere, social scientists and community members to create a powerful seven-part podcast, Philly Under Fire, that to this day resonates with listeners.
We Talked To Mayors About Getting Sh*t Done
How to Really Run a City, our celebrated podcast (top 10 city podcasts, according to Bloomberg, for the last two years) hosted by Platt, former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and former Philly Mayor Michael Nutter, has featured mayors from around the country, exploring how they have answered their constituents’ calls to reduce poverty, solve homelessness, grow their economy, prepare for climate change, and respond to protests and backlash, among many other issues. The conversations proved the adage that there are really three political parties in America — Democrats, Republicans and mayors.
We Did Something
This takes us back to where we started. How do we know The Citizen has had an impact? Because you’ve told us. In audience surveys, year after year, more than 80 percent of readers said they have “done something” based on a call to action on our website, or at an event. That includes voting, donating to causes, volunteering, collaborating with neighbors, attending civic events and otherwise engaging with their community.
Over the years, we’ve heard from some folks with particulars: Community Advocate Meeka Outlaw who became an environmental justice advocate and speaker after reading Charles Ellison’s column about the Philadelphia tire fire in 2022; a Penn professor that same year who launched a course for substitute teachers after reading Elaine Maimon’s piece suggesting just that.
This is more than gratifying; it’s the whole point, not only of what we do here at The Citizen — but also of our local democracy.
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READ SOME OF THE PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN’S FIRST POSTS