Why We Started WhatCanWeDo.org
Because being informed isn’t enough. At some point, you have to do something.
There’s a specific kind of frustration that a lot of us know well. You read the news — really read it, not just the headlines — and you feel the weight of what’s happening. Climate. Democracy. Inequality. Rights being won and lost. You talk about it with people you trust. You feel angry, or sad, or both. And then you close the tab and go about your day, because what else are you supposed to do?
That frustration is what WhatCanWeDo.org is built around.
Not the anger — though the anger is legitimate. Not the despair — though some days it’s hard to keep at bay. The specific, practical frustration of caring deeply about the state of the country and the world, and not knowing what to do with that caring. Of wanting to help and not knowing where to start. Of feeling like the problems are so large and your individual reach is so small that any action you take would be a drop in an ocean.
We started this site because we don’t think that’s true. And we wanted to build something that proves it.
The question that became a site
“What can we do?” is a question most of us have asked at some point in the last few years. Probably more than once. Maybe out loud, maybe just to ourselves, maybe in a conversation that trailed off without a satisfying answer.
It’s the right question. It’s also, we’ve found, a question that doesn’t get answered nearly enough. There is no shortage of outlets telling you what is happening — often in exhaustive, anxiety-inducing detail. There is no shortage of commentary on why it’s happening, who’s to blame, what it means for the future. What’s much harder to find is the answer to the next logical question: given all of this, what do I actually do?
That gap is what WhatCanWeDo.org is trying to close. Every article we publish is built around that question. We don’t consider a piece finished until it answers it. Not vaguely — not “get involved” or “make your voice heard” — but specifically. Here is the phone number. Here is the organization. Here is what to say. Here is when to show up. Here is what a real human being with limited time and energy can actually do about this thing.
What we cover — and why
We focus on three areas: voting rights, environmental justice, and social justice. Not because these are the only things that matter, but because they are deeply interconnected, because the challenges in each are urgent right now, and because meaningful action in each of them is available to ordinary people — not just lawyers, lobbyists, or people with large platforms.
Voting rights because democracy is the mechanism through which everything else gets decided. When the right to vote is suppressed, restricted, or diluted, every other issue suffers. The Supreme Court’s recent decisions, the ongoing push for voter ID laws, the wave of new restrictions on mail-in voting and registration — these are not abstract concerns. They determine who has power and who doesn’t.
Environmental justice because the climate crisis is no longer a future problem. It is happening now, in every state, affecting every community — and affecting lower-income communities and communities of color first and hardest. And because the window for meaningful action, while narrow, is still open.
Social justice because the promise of equal dignity and equal opportunity under the law remains unfinished. Criminal justice, housing, immigration, civil rights — these are areas where policy decisions made right now will shape lives for decades.
We cover national news because that’s where the power to make sweeping change is concentrated. But we also believe that local action — school boards, city councils, state legislatures — is where the most direct impact is often possible, and we’ll bring that lens to our coverage too.
What we are — and what we’re not
We are a progressive publication. We don’t think that’s a dirty word, and we’re not going to pretend to a neutrality we don’t have. We believe in voting rights, in climate science, in the equal dignity of every person regardless of race, gender, sexuality, or immigration status. Those aren’t partisan positions to us — they’re the baseline.
What we’re not is a doom scroll. We’re not interested in manufacturing outrage or making you feel worse than you already do. We think the news can be honest about how serious things are without being paralyzing. We think that most people, given clear information and a clear path to action, will act. That’s the bet we’re making with this site.
We’re also not a place that pretends one person’s action can fix systemic problems. It can’t. But one person’s action, multiplied by thousands of people taking the same action, absolutely can. History is full of proof. The civil rights movement. The women’s suffrage movement. The labor movement. Marriage equality. Every major shift in American life that we now take for granted was made by people who showed up, repeatedly, even when it felt futile, until it wasn’t.
What we need from you
This site works if you read it and act on it. Not every article. Not every week. But when something moves you — when a piece lands and you think, yes, this is the thing I’ve been feeling but couldn’t name — we hope you’ll do the thing it suggests. Make the call. Sign up. Show up. Share it with five people who feel the same way you do.
We also want to hear from you. What issues are you most worried about? What actions have you taken that actually worked? What do you wish someone would explain clearly? This site should feel like a conversation, not a broadcast. We’re building it as we go, and the people reading it are part of how it gets built.
You can reach us at hello@whatcanwedo.org. We read everything.
The name of this site is a question. We intend to keep answering it.
— The WhatCanWeDo.org team