CEO Message

“Now is the time to be the grantmaker, you have been waiting to be, Time to be braver and more committed, Than you have ever imagined yourself” - Chinaka Hodge

I’ve been thinking a lot about leadership these days. Recent events have inspired many of us to explore opportunities to lead in our communities, in our work, in our world.

We invite you to take a look at our year’s NCG's 2016 Annual (Not)-Report, to spot some great people doing great work.

Most mornings when I wake up these days the same thought immediately fills my brain: “There is so much to DO!” Don’t get me wrong – this has pretty much always been the case. So many of us live full lives, juggling busy work schedules and family activities while scrambling to squeeze a few minutes for ourselves here or there if we can. Busy is the new normal. That’s not what I am talking about here.

Last Wednesday NCG members and our partners gathered for a festive and lively holiday party. We celebrated one another, gave thanks for a job well-done in the past year, and enjoyed ourselves. It was a beautiful evening. But it was more than a party.

When I was in high school I was captivated by a book called To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, the autobiography of the playwright Lorraine Hansberry. In 1959, two weeks before the opening of her groundbreaking play Raisin in the Sun on Broadway, she said this: "I wish to live because life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful, and that which is love..."

In the dozens of meetings I have had with NCG members since my arrival, I have been struck by the vehemence with which so many of you have strongly encouraged NCG to assume more of a leadership role in our community, and – to paraphrase many – “to stand for something.” In response to your guidance...

The recent attack in a nightclub in Orlando that killed 49 and wounded over 50 others – nearly all LGBTQ Latino/a young people – has impacted us deeply. We are left with questions about how to respond, how to heal, and how to support our membership in addressing the complex issues events like this again bring to the fore.

Our 2016 Annual Conference, The Power of Now on May 25th, is coming soon! Hear from our CEO Ellen LaPointe on what the Power of Now means to her and what you can expect to achieve at the conference.

It’s time for March Madness. For those of us who follow college basketball, this is the month when we talk endlessly of brackets and spreads and Cinderella stories and dynasties and upsets. We fall in love, we berate, we despair, and we exult–in game after game. In the end, only one team pulls off the six consecutive wins necessary to be named champion. Those of us who follow trumpet our victory or lick our wounds, vow to resume our diets, heave a sigh of relief that it’s over, and ultimately return to the routines of daily life. All in good fun–unless you lose big in the pool, of course.