Read my TIF Challenge in Sheltforce. I am hoping some organization with staff, heft, resources, and passion will take this work over. The TIF Illumination Project needs a home! Reach me at tom@tresser.com.
Category Archives: Protect the Commons
Special Offer for “Outside the Loop” Listeners!
I was interviewed by the dulcet-toned Mike Stephen for his “Outside the Loop” progam on WGN Radio on Saturday, February 28. We talked about greedy billionaires seeking billions of public dollars for private projects – like the Bears new stadium – and the need for a more expansive and generous civic imagination. It’s the first segment of the show.
** Sign this petition – “No Public Subsidies for Megaprojects! (ESPECIALLY for the Bears Stadium)“ **
I made a special offer to Mike’s listeners – 50% off the already low price of “Chicago Is Not Broke. Funding the City We Deserve” – Get the book with $5 billion of progressive and sustainable revenue solutions for Chicago for just ten bucks (plus tax and shipping)! What a civic deal! This offer is only good with the right promo code (listen and you will learn) and only through March 28. I produced this book in 2016 and in 2024 updated it with a whole new section! Order the book today – get multiple copies and start a civic book club :)!
Impeach. Remove. Restore. Revitalize.
Sign and share this petition directed to the leaders of the Democratic Party. It’s the only way to save democracy in America.
Read My Series on Nonprofit Power for The Nonprofit Quarterly!
The great folks at The Nonprofit Quarterly have been publishing my essays on the focus and future of America’s nonprofit sector since last December. Here is the latest piece:
Here are the other pieces:
- “Time for Nonprofits to Generate Their Own Revenue for Political Power” – 10/20/25 – www.tinyurl.com/TT-NPQ-Revenue
- “The Case for a Nonprofit Version of the Powell Memo” – 9/26/25 – www.tinyurl.com/NPQ-NP-Powell
- “US Nonprofit Sector Documents Its Own Powerlessness, but What Will We Do?” – www.tinyurl.com/TT-NPQ-Powerless- 5-6-25
- “What Now? Creating a Civic Infrastructure of 100,000 Local Elected Officials” – 12/18/24 – www.tinyurl.com/TT-NPQ-What-Now
Tom Helps Launch the 100K Project!
Make a tax-deductible contribution to this work via Fractured Atlas, our fiscal agent!
We are doing our first online leadership/candidate training program for creative workers! Learn more. Watch the information session video below to learn all about this creative, interactive, and powerful learning opportunity.
Read my piece from the Nonprofit Quarterly, “US Nonprofit Sector Documents Its Own Powerlessness. but What Will We Do?” from May of 2025. Answering my own call to action from The Nonprofit Quarterly, I am helping to launch the 100K Project! We seek to recruit, train, and propel 100,000 people from the arts, nonprofit, social services, education, and science sectors (and their supporters) to run for local office or help those with our values run as champions of service, science, justice, equity, peace, creativity, and the public sector. All permitted functions inside the 501 c 3 framework. Read this piece from The Nonprofit Quarterly “From Service to Power – Retooling the Nonprofit Sector.”
Tom on TIFs, the State of Democracy, and a Challenge to the Nonprofit Sector on WVON
We Need “More Public!”
In reponse to the Disaster Election, I am hoping to start a movement for “More Public!” and “Great Public!” in America. We need to celebrate, defend, and extend all things “PUBLIC” – so follow and share via BlueSky -> https://bsky.app/profile/morepublic.bsky.social.
Fight Megaprojects – New Article in Nonprofit Quarterly
Super excited to see my account of the No Games Chicago campaign and its connection to fighting megaprojects that threaten to gobble up billions of public dollars and vast swathes of public land published today by The Nonprofit Quarterly!
2016 Summer Games Cost Rio $24 Billion!
According to an excellent report from the Council of Foreign Relations from July of 2024, the 2016 Summer Games cost Rio de Janiero a staggering $24 BILLION!

No Games Chicago Book In Hand!
Wow! I just received the hardback version of my book on the No Games Chicago campaign! What a thrill to hold it and flip through the pages. Order your copy now at www.tinyurl.com/Get-NGC-book and use promo code “AFLY03” to get 20% off PLUS free shipping. What a civic deal! After all, No Games saved every taxpaying adult in the city at least $1,000!











