About This Initiative

Our Common Purpose is an entirely independent and self-funded initiative not beholden to any organization or pre-determined point of view. 

The project, begun early in 2017, is the work of Richard H. Gilman, whose interest in politics and public policy is an extension of a 35-year career in newspapering that began as a journalist in Arizona, included a long stint as an executive of The New York Times, and concluded as publisher of the Boston Globe during the period popularized by the movie Spotlight.

All of the public-opinion surveys have been conducted by Survey USA, a well-respected national pollster that also is free of any outside influence or pre-disposition. The costs of the research, along with the other expenses of the project, have been funded entirely by Richard and his wife Wendy.