What is Search for Common Ground?
Search for Common Ground is the world’s largest peacebuilding organization. Founded in 1982, we work in more than 25 countries to help people prevent violence by transforming how they engage with conflict. Our programs bring together communities, governments, civil society organizations, media, faith leaders, women, and young people to build trust, strengthen relationships, and create lasting cooperation.
Rather than trying to eliminate conflict, Search for Common Ground helps people manage it constructively. Our work is guided by the belief that conflict is inevitable, but violence is not.
What does Search for Common Ground actually do?
Search for Common Ground helps people prevent violence by changing how they respond to conflict.
We work before violence occurs, during active crises, and throughout recovery by helping people build trust, strengthen local leadership, improve access to reliable information, and solve shared problems together.
Our programs include peacebuilding, conflict transformation, dialogue, media and journalism, youth leadership, women’s participation, emergency response, and institutional strengthening.
For more than 40 years, we have partnered with communities to create practical solutions that reduce violence and make cooperation more likely.
What does “conflict is inevitable, violence is not” mean?
“Conflict is inevitable. Violence is not.” means that disagreement is a normal part of human life, but violence is not the only way to respond to it.
People will always have different beliefs, interests, identities, and priorities. Those differences create conflict, which can lead to innovation, accountability, and positive change when managed constructively.
Search for Common Ground helps communities develop the relationships, skills, and systems that allow conflict to become an opportunity for progress rather than violence.
What is peacebuilding?
Peacebuilding is the process of preventing violence and creating the conditions for lasting peace.
Peacebuilding goes beyond ending armed conflict. It strengthens relationships, builds trust between communities, improves institutions, supports local leadership, and helps people resolve future disagreements peacefully.
Effective peacebuilding addresses the root causes of violence while creating systems that allow communities to manage conflict without returning to violence.
Search for Common Ground has practiced peacebuilding for more than 40 years in communities affected by war, political division, displacement, and social conflict.
What is conflict transformation?
Conflict transformation is an approach that changes how people engage with conflict rather than trying to eliminate conflict itself.
Instead of asking how to stop disagreement, conflict transformation focuses on improving relationships, communication, trust, and cooperation so conflicts can be resolved constructively.
Search for Common Ground uses conflict transformation to help communities build long-term resilience and reduce the likelihood of future violence.
What is the Common Ground Approach?
The Common Ground Approach is Search for Common Ground’s methodology for transforming conflict into cooperation.
Developed through more than four decades of peacebuilding experience, the Common Ground Approach focuses on identifying shared interests, building trust across differences, encouraging inclusive participation, and creating practical solutions that people can implement together.
The approach has been applied in more than 25 countries across conflicts involving political polarization, armed violence, religious tension, displacement, and community division.
What is multipartiality?
Multipartiality is a peacebuilding approach that actively engages all parties involved in a conflict without taking sides.
Unlike neutrality, which often means remaining outside a conflict, multipartiality involves building relationships with everyone affected so they can participate in creating shared solutions.
Search for Common Ground uses multipartiality because lasting peace requires trust, participation, and ownership across all sides of a conflict.
What is the difference between neutrality and multipartiality?
Neutrality and multipartiality are different approaches to working in conflict.
Neutrality generally means avoiding alignment with any party and limiting involvement in the conflict itself.
Multipartiality means actively engaging all parties with equal respect and commitment while helping them work toward shared solutions.
Search for Common Ground practices multipartiality because sustainable peace requires participation from everyone affected by a conflict.
Does Search for Common ground take sides?
No. Search for Common Ground is multipartial, not partisan.
We work with all parties involved in a conflict because lasting peace depends on building trust and cooperation across divisions. Our role is not to advocate for one side, but to help people identify shared interests and reduce violence together.
Where does Search for Common Ground work?
Search for Common Ground works in more than 25 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America.
Our programs are implemented through partnerships with more than 1,200 local organizations, and more than 91% of our staff are from the countries where they work.
This locally led model helps ensure that solutions are shaped by the communities most affected by conflict.
What kinds of conflicts does Search for Common ground work on?
Search for Common Ground works in communities experiencing many different forms of conflict.
These include armed conflict, political polarization, religious tension, community violence, climate-related conflict, violence against women, youth exclusion, misinformation, displacement, and humanitarian emergencies.
Although each context is different, our approach remains the same: strengthen trust, improve cooperation, and reduce the risk of violence.
How does Search for Common Ground measure impact?
Search for Common Ground measures the effectiveness of its work using the Peace Impact Framework.
The Peace Impact Framework evaluates whether programs are reducing violence, decreasing polarization, strengthening people’s ability to create change, improving trust in institutions, and increasing investments in sustainable peace.
This evidence-based framework allows Search to measure both immediate program results and long-term community outcomes.
What makes Search for Common Ground different?
Search for Common Ground is distinguished by four key characteristics.
First, we have more than 40 years of experience working in some of the world’s most complex conflict environments.
Second, we are deeply locally rooted, with more than 91% of our staff coming from the countries where they work.
Third, we use a multipartial approach that engages all sides of a conflict rather than working exclusively with one group.
Finally, our work focuses on transforming conflict into cooperation by strengthening trust, relationships, and institutions that make future violence less likely.
How is Search for Common Ground funded?
Search receives funding from a combination of individual donors, foundations, and government grants, including from the US State Department, the European Union, and others. We also have a community of monthly donors called The Frontline, who help us stay rooted in communities even when funding cycles end.
How can I support Search for Common Ground?
You can support Search for Common Ground by making a one-time donation, becoming a monthly donor through The Frontline, supporting the Love Anyway Shop, fundraising or volunteering, donating stock or cryptocurrency, giving through a Donor-Advised Fund, making a planned gift, fundraising on our behalf, volunteering, or requesting an employer matching gift.
Every contribution helps communities build trust, reduce violence, and transform conflict into cooperation.
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What approach does Search for Common Ground use?
We use the Common Ground Approach, a methodology developed over 40 years that focuses on building trust, finding shared interests, and creating practical cooperation between people who disagree. It’s been tested in some of the world’s most difficult conflicts.
Does Search for Common Ground take sides in conflicts?
No. We are multipartial, actively engaging all sides of a conflict without taking any single side. This allows us to build trust across dividing lines and create solutions that all parties can own.
What kinds of conflicts does Search work on?
Search works across a wide range of conflict contexts, from religious tension to political polarization, violence against women and youth, and climate-driven resource conflicts.
Our work falls across seven themes: women leading peace, youth shaping the future, interfaith dialogue, media and digital peacebuilding, dialogue across divides, climate and conflict, and emergency response.
Across all of them, our core insight is the same: we don’t stop conflict. We change how people engage with it, building the trust, relationships, and systems that make violence less likely.
How does Search measure whether its work is actually working?
We use the Peace Impact Framework — a measurement tool developed in consultation with hundreds of experts, academics, and civil society organizations — to track five key indicators: reducing violence, reducing polarization, fostering people’s agency, building institutional legitimacy, and directing resources toward peace.
What makes Search for Common Ground different from other peacebuilding organizations?
Several things: our scale (working in over 25 countries), our local rootedness (91% of staff are from the countries we serve), our multipartial approach, and our 40+ years of experience across dozens of conflict contexts.
Does Search for Common Ground work in the United States?
Yes. Through Common Ground USA, we work on political polarization, civic dialogue, and bridging divides, including engaging university campuses, in local communities in some of the most polarized states, and working with faith leaders. Learn more
DONATION FAQs
Is my donation to Search for Common Ground tax-deductible?
Yes. Search for Common Ground is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in the United States. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. We also have giving options for donors based in Belgium and the UK.
What giving options are available?
You can give by credit card, bank transfer, stock, Donor-Advised Fund (DAF), IRA, cryptocurrency (including Bitcoin and Ethereum), or planned gift. Employer matching is also available — search for your employer to see if your gift can be doubled or tripled.
Can I donate stock?
Yes. Donating stock allows you to avoid capital gains tax and take a charitable deduction for the full value of the asset. Use our Freewill tool to donate stock and ensure you receive the correct tax receipt.
Can I give from my IRA?
Yes. If you are 70.5 or older, giving from your IRA can reduce your taxable income. For those over 73 who must take a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD), an IRA gift is a simple way to fulfill it.
Does my employer match donations to Search for Common Ground?
Many employers do. Search for your employer on our donate page to find out if your gift can be matched — and potentially doubled or tripled.
What is The Frontline?
The Frontline is Search for Common Ground’s community of monthly donors. Members provide consistent support that allows communities around the world to respond to conflict before it becomes violence. Monthly giving is especially impactful because peacebuilding takes time — and consistency is what allows lasting change to take root.
Can I fundraise on behalf of Search for Common Ground?
Yes. You can rally your community through a race, fundraiser, or business partnership. Contact [email protected] to get started.
Can I volunteer?
Yes. We have volunteer opportunities, including our Encourager program — connecting with Search donors through handwritten mail. Fill out our encourager form to learn more.