September 9, 2026
The grant will expand the initiative’s efforts to develop a unifying vision for America’s Exhausted Majority. Visit the Beacon Project’s newsletter.
WASHINGTON, DC (September 9, 2026) – Today, the Beacon Project, an initiative at More in Common, announced a transformative multimillion-dollar grant from the John Templeton Foundation to expand its work over the next three years.
The Beacon Project was founded to help resolve a growing tension at the heart of American life. Rising political polarization has deepened Americans’ struggle to reconcile two core values: the freedom to live as one chooses and responsibility to the common good. This tension fuels distrust in civic institutions, strains relationships, and weakens the country’s ability to solve shared problems. In its research, the Beacon Project has found widespread, bipartisan support for a new national narrative of mutual obligation.
The grant, entitled “Freedom and Responsibility: Building a National Narrative of Mutual Obligation,” will allow the Beacon Project to build, test, refine, and disseminate this national narrative of mutual obligation through three interrelated efforts: research, community-building, and communications.
“Two years ago, I left academia because I believed Americans could find common ground again. I started the Beacon Project because I believed we needed a new civic vision for the 21st century, one that borrows from the great intellectual traditions of the past while speaking to the challenges of the present. That work has given me hope that people across the political spectrum are exhausted by division and share a deep, often unspoken belief that freedom and responsibility go hand in hand,” said Daniel Yudkin, Director of the Beacon Project. “This grant from the John Templeton Foundation is a vote of confidence in that belief and will allow the Beacon Project to expand its work and ignite a national conversation about the civic vision this moment demands.”
“We seek to support grantees who are willing to challenge convention and take meaningful risks,” said Richard Bollinger, Senior Program Officer, Character Virtue Development at the John Templeton Foundation. “We value the Beacon Project’s bold efforts to craft a renewed civic vision rooted in both freedom and responsibility.”
The announcement follows a gathering earlier this summer at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, where 20 scholars and civic leaders convened to lay the groundwork for this next phase of the Beacon Project’s work.
About the Beacon Project
The Beacon Project is a multi-year initiative of More in Common working to build a new civic vision for America. We combine polling data, insights drawn from disciplines like philosophy, psychology, and political science, as well as cutting-edge methods in data science like natural language processing (NLP) to reenvision America’s social contract. Learn more at beaconproject.us.
About More in Common
Founded in 2017, More in Common seeks to understand the forces driving Americans apart, find common ground, and help bring people together to tackle shared challenges. We work with over 200 groups across civil society, business, education, and philanthropy to conduct actionable research that informs policymakers, community leaders, and the public. Learn more at moreincommonus.com.
Media Contact: Aly Ferguson, aly@moreincommon.com