Each issue of this annual newsletter focuses on a particular area of the Kettering Foundation's research. The 2014 issue focuses on taking stock of the civic arena, which includes organized projects in civic renewal, civic engagement, civic education, and civic capacity building in communities. This issue contains the following articles that address whether any of this civic stocktaking is looking at what is happening in democracy and assesses the implications: (1) What's Going On Here? Taking Stock of Citizen-Centered Democracy (David Mathews); (2) Yes, Our Democracy Is a Mess, and Yes, Our Opportunities Are Real (Richard C. Harwood); (3) Philanthropy at a Crossroads (Brad Rourke); (4) Lost--and Seeking Directions (Steve Farkas); (5) When Communities Work...and Why Citizens Have Work to Do (Keith Melville); (6) From Both Sides Now: A Field Report from New Orleans (Lucas Díaz); (7) Democracy in the Balance: The Complex Dynamics of the Arab World Make Outcomes Far from Certain (Ziad Majed); and (8) Twenty Years Later, Democracy Still Struggles to Take Root in South Africa (Ivor Jenkins). [For the previous newsletter, "Connections 2013: Citizens in Democratic Politics. Annual Newsletter," see ED560896.]