About How It’s Supposed to Work

We connect immediate relief with civic learning and participation.

Our work starts with stabilizing basic needs. From there, we explain how public systems operate and provide tools that help people engage with them.

How It’s Supposed to Work Foundation is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation and a federally recognized 501(c)(3) public charity, based in San Francisco.

Mission

Connect direct relief with civic learning and participation.

Vision

A society where everyone’s basic needs are met and everyone can influence the systems that affect their lives.

Purpose

Link today’s needs with tomorrow’s decisions.

What Guides Our Work

These principles guide how we deliver immediate relief and how we design learning that builds long-term civic capacity.

Dignity in Relief

Every act of help affirms human worth.

Education as Empowerment

Knowledge equips people to change their conditions.

Connection over Division

Real change begins with shared responsibility.

Participation as Power

Everyone deserves a voice in the systems that shape their lives.

Change from the Ground Up

Communities closest to the problem lead the solution.

How Relief Connects to Reform

 

Immediate gaps create stress and limit participation. Stabilizing those gaps makes learning possible. Clear learning makes participation possible.

This creates a direct line between relief, understanding, and influence.

Where We Are in the Journey

  • Building operations, governance, and tools to support early programs following federal 501(c)(3) recognition.

  • Testing programs in Starting Points, How Systems Work, and Voices in Practice.

  • Assessing what worked, publishing findings, and expanding successful models with multi-year funding.

Governance and Accountability

How It’s Supposed to Work Foundation is organized as a California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation and is a federally recognized 501(c)(3) public charity. The foundation is governed by a board of directors responsible for fiduciary oversight, legal compliance, and strategic direction.

The foundation is led by Cassie McClintock, Founder and Executive Director, who is responsible for day-to-day operations, program strategy, and organizational leadership, under the oversight of the board of directors.

We are a nonpartisan organization. We do not support or oppose candidates or political parties. Our work focuses on access, public systems, and community capacity, not on telling people how to vote.

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Leadership

Founder & Executive Director

Cassie McClintock

Responsible for organizational strategy, program development, and operations.