Find Your Metronome
"So far this year, the work has taken on unprecedented significance, as the communities we strive to support have come under relentless assault. It leaves us wondering what as philanthropy we can do, how do we possibly respond to all of the madness? We must be part of solution. Our part to play is critical and this is not the moment to shy from the challenge." - Dwayne S. Marsh
You may have heard me say – I do what I do because of my father and I am who I am because of my mother. That combination of character and action has served me well. You’ll recall we lost my mother the day I started at NCG, two events that will forever be linked in my lifepath. Over this past week, my father completed his remarkable 91-year life journey and got his reward to reunite with her. I mention this because his seven-decade commitment to social justice and racial equity served as a metronome for countless others that helped us get to this moment – a time when we expect better of this nation. It serves as the drumbeat that will help me keep my rhythm in disruptive times. And I know this is the kind of fight that he would relish.
We are in the fight right now. Wake up. Stretch. Brace yourself. Check your preferred news feed. See what harmful, destructive, vindictive, or just plain hateful executive order has been enacted. Scramble to figure out the implications for our communities. Turn on your email, begin the day.
Repeating this cycle the past three weeks, it’s easy to find yourself stressed, distended, unsure of the path ahead. This is not the rhythm that lends itself to a healthy work existence. So far this year, the work has taken on unprecedented significance, as the communities we strive to support have come under relentless assault. It leaves us wondering what as philanthropy we can do, how do we possibly respond to all of the madness?
We must be part of solution. Our part to play is critical and this is not the moment to shy from the challenge.
In the flurry of unnecessarily generated crises (tariffs, anyone?) it’s easily to lose sight of the role the field can play: standing with communities, investing in leadership, enabling crucial information and strategy sharing, supercharging innovative responses, resisting hate, demonstrating the values that frame the kind of community this nation and its people deserve.
One of the biggest challenges is knowing how much to pivot to meet the myriad challenges emerging. For our part, as your regional resource for effective philanthropic practice, we are adopting a grounded yet flexible approach – staying true to the priorities that we have elevated as a community over the past three years, but finding partners and allies who can help us with emergent crises.
First, a moment of honesty. I don’t have the coveted panacea to resolve the dystopia we’ve all been experiencing. That said, I do see the way forward.
I’ve witnessed the blueprint for this, as partners across the country have stood up to meet the moment. United Philanthropy Forum and Council on Foundations leapt forth in tandem on HR 9495 and began tracking the host of harmful executive orders; Justice Funders mobilized resources to understand and counter authoritarianism, GCIR has validated its indispensable role as ready source for compassionate immigration strategies, and more than forty of our PSO colleagues are agreeing to keep each other apprised in real time over emerging developments. It is the power of networks, of a philanthropic community with shared values, pooling resources to stem the tide.
Locally we’ll do our part. Please take advantage of every tool we have to offer in shoring up your practice in these uncertain times. Talk to NCG’s team members about recent developments on the policy front. Hear from community leadership in conversations we host who are organizing to hold the front line in this assault on systems of governance, decency, and basic human rights. You don’t need to be familiar with everything NCG has to offer, it’s a lot. There’s an opportunity next week to get a helpful primer, at the Maximizing Your NCG Membership event on February 20th. And in just 81 days we will gather for this year’s Annual Conference to explore the theme of Becoming Our Vision. By conference day on May 2nd, there is no way to know what manufactured crisis we will be confronting, but there is also no question that we will be better addressing it if we do so together.
These are incredibly stressful times and what we do to find personal grounding in the raging uncertainty is the essential first step in building a cohesive response that addresses what promises to be a ‘marathon of sprints’ over the coming months.
So please, take care of yourself. Hold your community close. Find your metronome. And do the work with us, together for good.
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