FROM THE DESK OF HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON

Read Secretary Clinton's annual letter to the philanthropic community:

Sparks of hope show us that democracy, while fragile, is far from lost.

We face a moment that demands both reflection and resolve. Around the world, and here at home, democracy is under siege, people are losing their rights, and the institutions we rely on are being tested as never before. The last year has shaken many of us, leaving some despairing about the future.

And yet, even in the darkest moments, there are sparks of hope. Civil society — including the Clinton Foundation community — stepped up and proved that democracy, while fragile, is far from lost.

The challenge is clear. In too many countries, including right here in the United States, authoritarian forces are on the rise. Around the world, autocracies now outnumber democracies for the first time in 20 years. Nearly three quarters of the world’s population lives under autocratic regimes. Too often this has been called ‘democratic backsliding.’ But, as I said at our Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting in September, that’s a euphemism that doesn’t capture what’s really going on. The rule of law isn’t slipping; it’s being purposefully undermined. Leaders aren’t merely failing to protect rights; they’re actively seizing and consolidating power. We’ve seen it in countries like Russia, Nicaragua, Hungary, and Turkey — and now we’re seeing it at home.

I’ve watched with great concern as the health, education, economic and disaster relief programs our neighbors and communities rely on here in America are being dismantled. Decades of investment in development efforts around the world are wiped out without a thought for the people who will die without USAID support and other foreign assistance. And yes, as guardrails and norms that have held our democracy aloft for 250 years are being swept aside.

There are many forces working in concert to endanger our democracy. Technologies like social media and AI have the ability to diagnose and treat diseases, but they can also supercharge the spread of misinformation and disinformation, rewarding extremism instead of empathy. Social media has made it possible for bad actors to further divide Americans, creating siloed information ecosystems and generating viral disinformation. And even in the absence of organized efforts, it’s hard to tell truth from fiction online.

Without trust in what you see or read, you can become easily discouraged, marginalized, or manipulated. When your information ecosystem becomes an echo chamber of meanness and anger, you lose the ability to connect with other people.

One phrase people use is that we are living in a “post-truth world.” I worry a post-truth world will also be a post-trust world. A thriving democracy is impossible in that world.

And it’s no coincidence that women’s rights remain an urgent frontline in this fight. 2025 marked the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, where I declared that “human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.” And yet, we’ve seen those rights under renewed attack around the globe. Argentina’s president vowed to remove the targeted killing of women and girls from the penal code. Turkey withdrew from the Council of Europe’s treaty opposing violence against women. Afghan women are barred from public life. Even here in the United States, women’s rights are being stripped away — from restrictions on reproductive healthcare to firing women serving our country in military and other positions, to removing references to women’s rights from the annual State Department Human Rights Report.

As part of a CGI Commitment to Action, Columbia University’s Institute of Global Politics, of which I am proud to chair the advisory board, released a report outlining the policy priorities critical to meeting modern challenges and furthering the Beijing Platform over the next 30 years.

The report is both a prescription for the future and a call to action. The takeaway is clear: if you’re fighting for democracy, you’re fighting for women. And if you’re fighting for women, you’re fighting for democracy. From suffrage movements to civil rights, women’s participation has always fueled democracy. So when autocrats move to suppress democracy, they target women by rolling back legal protections, dismantling reproductive healthcare, and pushing women out of public life and back into the home. The converse is also true: promoting women’s rights and full participation in their communities, economies, and countries is a critical tool in the fight against democratic erosion.

We must do many things, all at once.

There’s a simple metaphor that helps explain what it takes to support thriving, free societies. It’s like a three-legged stool: An open and dynamic market economy is one leg. An effective and accountable democratic government is a second leg.

And the third is a vibrant civil society. This vision helped inspire Bill to start the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative twenty years ago. Now it helps explain why this work is even more important and urgent than ever. One leg of our stool is under attack, and another is creating prosperity for only a few. The federal government is no longer effective or accountable. And our economy is riddled with corruption and inequality. That puts a lot of weight on civil society.

But that doesn’t mean all hope is lost. It means that it’s on all of us to make sure our leg is strong. No knight in shining armor is coming to save democracy. We’re the ones who will have to save our democracy and our rights. Civil society, philanthropies, activists, faith communities, mission-driven companies, citizens — we must lead the way.

We’ve seen so many respond to the moment by doing just that. Here in the US, state and local elections across the country saw unexpectedly high turnout. Massive protests brought people of all backgrounds out into the streets to make their voices heard.

I wish I could give you an easy guide: five simple steps to defend democracy. But it’s not easy, and there is no simple guide. We have to do many things, all at once. Defend democracy with peaceful protests. Defend it with lawsuits against legal and constitutional abuses in the courts. Defend it at the ballot box. And make sure that our country is a place where we put people first so that families and communities can thrive. We know from history and from global examples that democracy only flourishes when it delivers results. That means long-term investments. That means building institutions that work for people.

Bill likes to say: “There’s nothing wrong with America that can’t be cured by what’s right with America.” And, at the Foundation we know it’s also true that there’s nothing wrong with the world that can’t be cured by what’s right, and by what we can do together. Even now — when government falters and companies retreat from the common good — we see evidence that it’s still true.

I’m proud of the work that the Foundation does and overjoyed to hear from our CGI commitment-makers and partners. But, more than ever, I’ve been struck by just how much communities like this one are an antidote to despair — and a bulwark against attacks on democracy. When we gathered in September for our annual CGI meeting, I found my mood lifting with every working group and panel. A few blocks away at the United Nations building, there was a lot of doom and gloom (and for good reason). But in those rooms at CGI, over 2400 people from 90 countries — spanning the public, private, and nonprofit sectors — stood up with what one attendee called “dignified optimism.”

Our most recent CGI meeting brought back a model that we originally developed to respond to the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis: working groups with targeted conversations designed to bring more doers together to generate new partnerships and drive solutions. CGI partners and commitment-makers came ready to work and deliver results.

One example is a breakthrough partnership to expand access to Lenacapavir for that could help us end AIDS as we know it. Lenacapavir is a revolutionary twice-yearly injection, developed by Gilead, that is exceptionally effective in preventing HIV. One shot offers six months of protection. At CGI, CHAI, Unitaid, Wits RHI, and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories announced a new agreement for a high-quality generic version of the shot that will be made available for just $40 per person per year in 120 countries. That’s roughly the same cost as current daily PrEP pills, and a 700-fold price decrease from the $28,000 cost of lenacapavir in high-income countries. The generic version will be available in low- and middle-income countries just one year after the lenacapavir hits the market. That means that for the first time, we have a real shot at moving from managing HIV/AIDS to actually ending it.

And we heard from the Coalition for Mutual Aid in Sudan, which launched last year as a CGI Commitment to Action and has delivered life-saving medical support and aid for thousands of people caught between war and famine. As the coalition updated the CGI community on its work and the escalating situation in Sudan, Chef José Andrés was so moved that he immediately committed a million dollars to further fuel its efforts.

Seeing leaders across sectors come together to find solutions that make a real difference in peoples’ lives renewed my optimism. This year’s attendees shared that they came away feeling hopeful and energized. It was a beautiful microcosm of what is true all year, every year: our connections across this work not only spark new ideas and solutions but help to remind us why we keep moving forward. Especially when things look hardest.

Our model of making real commitments and delivering results is more urgent than ever. Your support makes it possible for us to bring together problem solvers, lift up changemakers, and deliver real results for people. Because it’s never been about wringing our hands, it’s been about rolling up our sleeves. Talking together is nice — but working together is better. That’s what makes the Foundation and its partners so remarkable.

The Clinton Foundation community is built for moments like this. Our guiding principle of putting people first and the strategy of building practical partnerships that make a difference in people’s lives are critical in an era when the world is fracturing instead of uniting around shared challenges.

The fight for our future.

We’re in a fight for our future, but it’s being fought over our past and our present. There are those who want to erase certain parts of our history and create a different narrative about who we are as Americans and citizens of the world. They’re forcing us to really ask ourselves: who are we as a people? What do we stand for? What do we owe to one another?

To meet this moment, we’re also strengthening our policy expertise at the Foundation to devise bold solutions to today’s most pressing problems at the national, state, and local levels. We’re focusing on four areas — health, economic security, children’s safe and healthy development, and democratic and civic resilience.

With all that’s going on in Washington, we know that to make meaningful progress over the next four years we must look to the states. There’s a reason states are called “laboratories of democracy.” Many of the most innovative, effective policy ideas come from states and local communities, and we are working with state and local leaders to develop ideas and craft and implement laws and policies that can then be shared and replicated around the country.

We are convening leaders from government, the private sector, and civil society. We are bringing people together to build the coordination and collaboration necessary to deliver and disseminate effective policy solutions. We’re also building the capacity to respond to urgent challenges, providing quick policy responses or effective communications campaigns that can be deployed rapidly.

To take a few recent examples, we’ve been working to increase access to childhood vaccines by making sure parents and communities get trustworthy information about the safety and value of vaccines, and to help states design evidence-based policy recommendations to respond to changes in federal vaccine recommendations. We’re also working with New York and other states to implement the new “bell to bell” law prohibiting the use of smartphones during school hours, collaborating with student leaders, educators, school officials, unions, and advocates to communicate the requirements and benefits of the law. And, we are working with our partner Common Sense Media to protect children against the dangers of AI bots and companies.

Finally, we’re revitalizing the Clinton Presidential Center in Arkansas, to make sure we have a convening place in the middle of the country where we can bring people together to share ideas and to train the next generation of activists and leaders. As part of this, we’re working on preserving and digitizing my archives — I’m told I have the largest archive of any non-president — not for the sake of looking backwards, but to make sure we can apply the lessons of the past to our present challenges.

I like to turn to the words of another woman leader who lived in a time when the very ideas of freedom and justice were in peril: Eleanor Roosevelt. She wrote, “Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier. We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at time, meeting each thing that comes up.” Looking ahead to the new year, none of us has to be a singular hero to save democracy. We just have to take what steps we can and find like-minded people to join us on our journey. And when you reflect on all that the Foundation has accomplished this year, you’ll see people who are stepping up every day.

This is a moment to evaluate what it means for each of us to be a leader and a citizen. Because what is happening now in many places in the world is a deliberate effort to disempower all of us, to discourage us from feeling that we have any control. We can each show that’s not true, and in doing so, empower each other. Even a small kindness or tiny step forward is like a statement against the darkness and authoritarianism that would change who we are as people. There’s something for all of us to do.

I have always said that it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it also takes a village to save a democracy. This year, and every year, I thank you for being a part of our Clinton Foundation village. As we begin another new year, I hope you’ll take a moment to feel proud of the work you are a part of — delivering results for people, lifting up communities, and defending democracy. And I hope you’ll ask what that work looks like for you moving forward. We’ll be here, ready to help you magnify your impact and keep changing lives for the better.