Our Actions Must Be Greater Than Our Fear: NCG’s Reflection on the 2024 Elections

In the days since the 2024 election, we’ve all been deluged with waves of reaction, analyses, and predictions of what will transpire with the seismic shift in political power to take place on January 20. The volume alone is overwhelming, but its detail is even more disturbing. Closer to home, we’ve seen rapid response, primarily in a series of powerful statements of commitment from many of our members, reassuring grantee partners that they will be there during the dangerous days that follow. This speaks to the conviction of much of the northern California philanthropic landscape in support of the region’s diverse communities. It does raise the question – now what? 

We have the privilege of living in one of the richest, most innovative, and – some believe – progressive regions in the world. Now is the time we prove it. We must enact solutions that withstand punitive and regressive policies, fortify community, and embody values-based approaches. 

Four years ago, NCG committed to centering racial equity as we served the region’s philanthropy. Our vision remains unchanged: for philanthropy to redistribute resources, capital, and power back to historically marginalized communities leading transformative change. It is our touchstone for lifting promising practice, building meaningful connections between foundations and community and movement leadership, and for measuring progress toward creating the kind of regions we believe northern California deserves. This commitment remains. We recognize that philanthropic institutions are all at varying points in determining how racial equity informs their practice. But without question, everyone of our 215 institutional members has communities they serve that will experience direct threats from the destructive vision put forward.  

If ever we needed to lean into our values in support of our communities as a field, this is the time. Each of us must reckon with who we are as institutions – we must show our values through our actions. At NCG, we will redouble our efforts to support you in that journey. That includes prioritizing programming and activities that enable you to: 

• Provide support for the front lines. Now is the time to invest in the creativity, resilience, and sustainability of nonprofit leadership and movements for equity. 
• Center the safety of marginalized populations. We know that some will be targeted to galvanize a political base, to further a devastating policy agenda, or to usurp power. We must stand with these people at all costs. 
• Take bold stands. This will not be an era for the timid. Grounding in our values will make difficult choices clear. We’ll create the spaces that will clarify transformative action. 
• Invest for the long haul. Organizations working to hold the line on policies and investments that advance equity are in for an administration-long battle, and we should fund them with that reality in mind.  
• Empower local action. With the federal landscape in disarray and likely producing a multitude of harmful policies, local and state investment in community will be more critical than ever. 
• Flex those advocacy muscles. Philanthropy has both the resources and tools to extend grantee efforts to defend key policies and advance new approaches, and they will be more desperately needed than ever.  
• Preserve institutions that ground a democracy under assault. Philanthropy will be a key institution in bridging differences, and at times, sustaining institutions such as independent journalism that keep vigilance against creeping autocratic conditions. 
• Test your resolve. There will be difficult moments a plenty in the coming months.  Don’t back down. 
• Encourage your colleagues. This is an all-hands moment in support of communities targeted for discrimination and persecution. We are stronger together. If you see a fellow foundation struggling to find their way to action, we can help. 
• This is the rainy day. If your institution was holding strategic reserves for a crucial moment… well, here we are.  

The work of building a sustainable, inclusive multiracial democracy is ongoing, generational work. That work resumes with our sold out post-election convening on November 18 at the Oakland offices of The California Endowment. It continues with creating spaces for members to build strategies matching what is needed for the moment. We will do our part to unlock deeper investment for those at the forefront of protecting our communities.  

We believe love is greater than anger, solidarity more powerful than division, inclusion more transformative than the vitriol of hate. We have the opportunity, the responsibility to reckon with our role as a sector to contribute to the discipline of embodied hope.  

Let’s go.