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Friday! And the port strike is over already! Shana tova!

Today's newsletter is 1,105 words, 4.5 minutes.

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris' plan to build 3 million new houses has one group very excited: the YIMBYs.

Why it matters: The "yes in my backyard" activists who bemoan the U.S. housing shortage and push for more home building say they've never seen a politician on the national level that's been as explicitly pro-housing.

Catch up fast: YIMBYs are a relatively new crew that got their start about a decade ago in San Francisco, frustrated by — who else? — the NIMBYs.

• That's the "not in my backyard" crowd: Lawmakers and residents who have, over the years, successfully fended off development in the famously expensive city (and in other desirable cities and suburbs around the country).

Driving the news: Rising home prices and the affordable housing shortage were a big topic in the vice presidential debate this week between Tim Walz and JD Vance.

• They disagreed on what caused the problem (Vance blamed it on immigrants; Walz seemed to pin it on investors buying up single-family homes). Both appeared to agree that the U.S. needs more housing supply.

Walz touted the Harris housing plan. "The fact of the matter is, is that we don't have enough naturally affordable housing, but we can make sure that the government's there to help kickstart it, create that, create that base."

• The Harris campaign proposes five different ways to get to 3 million homes, including legislation that would expand or create new tax credits for building affordable rentals or starter homes to buy.

Zoom in: What YIMBYs really like about it is a proposed innovation fund to encourage states and local governments to come up with ways to build more units, by experimenting with changes to zoning laws, for example.

• "That's been the most exciting," says Armand Domalewski, co-founder of a new group called YIMBYs for Harris.
• The innovation fund would add to money in the Biden administration's American Rescue Plan that state and local governments are now using to build affordable housing.

The big picture: The federal government has little say in the state and local zoning laws that hold back construction.

• But what it can do is provide a lot of money to encourage local governments to relax rules and permit more building. "The biggest way the federal government can make change locally is by using the power of the federal purse," says Domalewski.

Between the lines: The politics here can be a little scrambled. YIMBYism started out as a fairly lefty movement. But there are many conservatives who like the idea of relaxing regulations.

• The movement has been gaining traction on the right more recently as the housing crisis has alighted on more red localities, as the New York Times reported earlier this year.

The other side: Opponents argue that too much building would ruin neighborhoods.

• At a recent rally, Trump alluded to the YIMBY project of relaxing zoning laws to build more homes, by saying: "I will save America's suburbs by protecting single-family zoning," adding, "I will end this Marxist crusade."

At the debate, Governor Walz referred to a YIMBY policy in his home state: Minneapolis' 2040 plan, which took effect in 2020 and was meant to encourage the construction of more housing.

Why it matters: The policy contributed to a housing boom in the city, although more recently that's fizzled out thanks to higher interest rates.

Zoom in: The plan eliminated minimum parking space requirements for new buildings and upzoned corridors of the city near public transit, making it easier for developers to construct three- to six-level buildings.

Zoom out: Beloved by YIMBYs, the plan is credited with helping rents stay flat in the city, per a study from Pew earlier this year.

• It's also grabbed a lot of media attention — as well as the Biden administration's.
• Last year the White House included provisions in its Housing Supply Action Plan that would have provided $10 million in funding to cities that change zoning rules to allow for multifamily, mixed-used housing and reducing parking requirements.

Reality check: The 2040 plan was challenged in court and had to be paused for almost a year due to an injunction. An appeals court later overturned the injunction.

• That could be a sign of the kind of battles these types of plans will face around the country if they become more popular.

One of the biggest inefficiencies in the nonprofit world is that charities are rewarded for fundraising prowess more than their skill at making the world a better place.

• Causeway, a new product from Charity Navigator, is an attempt to address that problem.

Why it matters: The less effort charities spend reaching individuals and persuading them to open their wallets, the more they can focus on their core activities.

The big picture: "We're finding that our younger users are not as married to a nonprofit as they are to a cause," says Laura Andes, Charity Navigator's vice president of ratings and impact.

• Charity Navigator has therefore created baskets of charities working in certain areas — animal welfare, say, or organizations addressing homelessness or education in the United States.

How it works: Charity Navigator does the work of looking at all the charities working within a particular cause, and then picking a handful of them that are particularly effective and diversified.

• When you donate to one of the Causeway "funds," your money is then divvied up between those charities.
• The funds can be thought of as a bit like ETFs for charitable donations — but they're not funds in the sense that they hold money for any length of time. They're strictly passthrough vehicles.

Where it stands: The biggest and most well-known such passthrough vehicle is GiveWell, which focuses on charities that seek to save or radically improve lives, invariably in the developing world.

• Causeway is an attempt to extend that model to other causes.

Between the lines: Charity Navigator's criteria are much broader than GiveWell's — they include things like financial health and governance standards, rather than just focusing on outcomes.

The bottom line: Picking good charities is hard. Anything that eases giving to them is positive for the sector.

Reach execs and business leaders with Axios.

We'll help you tell your story in the right way:

• We'll distill your brand's message into its most effective form with Smart Brevity.
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Charity Navigator for some years has offered a giving basket option that allows Americans to make a single donation that then gets divvied up between charities of their choosing.

Why it matters: The product hasn't been hugely successful, leveling off at just over $40 million in donations per year.

The bottom line: If the weakness of the giving basket is that it still requires a lot of work on the part of the giver, then the new Causeway product could elicit a significant rise in funds donated.

Reach execs and business leaders with Axios.

We'll help you tell your story in the right way:

• We'll distill your brand's message into its most effective form with Smart Brevity.
• No clutter, no filler — just clean, smart and effective.

Contact us to learn more.

Thank you to Kate Marino for editing, Mickey Meece for copy editing, and to you for sharing part of your week with us. We hope your weekend is relaxing and restorative.