Our Mission
The Institute mobilizes civic capital and builds institutional capacity for consistently turning creative destruction into creative transformation. Its current focus is on building tools to facilitate imaginative, Bayesian, collaborative swarming.
We fulfill our mission by developing, providing, and applying structured methods (often embodied in software tools) to help individuals, communities, organizations, and governments create attractive and sustainable futures.
Focus Areas
Crisis Mitigation
Developing proactive approaches to identify and address potential crises before they escalate.
Strategic Coordination
Building frameworks for effective coordination across organizations and stakeholder groups.
Organizational Resilience
Strengthening capacity to adapt, recover, and thrive in the face of disruption and change.
Research & Development
Advancing the science of coordination, decision-making, and collective intelligence.
Our History
The Institute is a United States-based nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, incorporated in Maine in 1991 as the Center for Creative Democracy (CCD). Shortly after incorporation, the name was changed to the Center for Consensual Democracy and then later to Running Start Institute (RSI). The corporation's founding purpose was to identify, develop, and implement innovative and practical approaches to improve the quality of community life and governance in existing and emerging democracies.
Past Projects & Impact
Over the course of our history, CCD-RSI has successfully worked with a wide range of communities, school districts, churches, and other organizations. Our first major mitigation challenge was rebuilding a community in Maine, shattered by the closure of Loring Air Force Base. The population dropped from 8,000 to 1,800 in a few weeks. The Maine School of Science and Mathematics was one of the 7 success projects we facilitated. The first five years of this ten-year project were documented with a grant from the Schumann Foundation: view documentary.
We also contributed to and helped distribute a book by Lloyd Wells and Larry Lemmel, based in part on our work: Re-Creating Democracy: Breathing New Life Into American Communities (ISBN 0-9672292-0-0).
Our second major community project, in Waterville, Maine, was cited in an article on community renewal in U.S. News & World Report. We also worked in Waterville with the Sustain Mid-Maine Coalition as part of our efforts to prepare communities for climate destabilization.
Our Approach
What makes RSI unique is our methodologies for facilitating the emergence of positive futures, marshaling collective intelligence to make wise decisions, and promoting civic cultures that inspire commitment, achievement, civic responsibility, and equity.
Our current worldview and the latest evolution of our approach are derived from Amaranthine: How to Create a Regenerative Civilization Using Artificial Intelligence (ISBN 9798373849098) by one of our founders, and current president, Michael Thorne Kelly.
Contact
For inquiries about Running Start Institute's work, partnerships, or programs:
Email: mtkelly@crisismitigation.org
Website: crisismitigation.org
Recent Updates
Website launched January 2026. Additional program information and resources coming soon.