Michael Edwards is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos whose work focuses on strengthening democracy, civil society, and philanthropy in the USA and across the world. He is also a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Brooks World Poverty Institute at Manchester University in the UK.
From 1999 to 2008 Michael was the Director of the Ford Foundation's Governance and Civil Society Program in New York, having previously worked for the World Bank, Oxfam-GB, Save the Children-UK and other NGOs in Washington DC, London, Colombia, Zambia, Malawi, and India. He also co-founded the Seasons Fund for Social Transformation, which makes grants to organizations that combine their work for social justice with spiritual practices and principles.
Michael writes regularly for the Guardian, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, openDemocracy and many other newspapers and magazines, and is a featured speaker at literary festivals and other events around the world.
His writings help to shape a more critical appreciation of the global role of voluntary citizen action, and to break down barriers between funders, researchers and activists. Michael's latest book is Small Change: Why Business Won't Save the World </publication/small-change>(Berrett-Koehler), a provocative look at the trend to rely on business in solving social problems.
Michael was educated in England at the universities of Oxford and London, and now lives with his wife Cora in the farmhouse they renovated together in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains.