My friends, especially those of you in philanthropy: as the clock ticks down on this chaotic year, I’ve been reflecting on whether there’s a New Year’s Resolution that could help guide me forward into 2021. And I was considering maybe something like, “I will do everything in my power to mobilize the philanthropic sector in […]
Beloved nonprofit friends. Beloved small-business friends. I beg you to believe me when I say the new federal CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program is not coming to save you. Speaking to you from my heart and from the best of my direct personal knowledge and experience so far: we must act in the belief that […]
Sharing my personal quick takeaways from Thursday’s (3/12/20) Southern California Grantmakers and Philanthropy CA webinar on How Philanthropy Can Support & Enhance the Government Response to Covid-19: Two overall priorities per Kathleen Kelly Janus, CA Governor Newsom’s Senior Advisor on Social Innovation: 1) Support the public health response (testing, tracking, treatment and transparent communications; 2) […]
The first day of Black History Month seems like an excellent occasion to share how Marcus Walton, the new President & CEO of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, inspired a roomful of Los Angeles philanthropy sector folks this week. Myself included. “We need to be transformative in our transactions — but to what end? Thriving communities.” […]
Here are my closing remarks from the September 2019 Southern California Grantmakers “Foresight Philanthropy” conference on using the tools of futurism in philanthropy: Hi everyone! I know it’s been a very long day of learning. I’m just here to take one final moment to thank our brilliant panelists – and everyone who shared their insight […]
For the past two years, I’ve been proud to serve on the board of OCCORD. Our organization is going through a very rough time of transition, which I hope will ultimately be a time of transformation as our open letter says. If that’s to be, I believe the board will need to lead the way […]
WOW before HOW is my new mantra for nonprofit communications. Oftentimes, I think that we nice polite well-meaning nonprofit marketing folks tend to be afraid that our audiences will think we’re bragging or sensationalizing. So we try to avoid that scary risk by explaining the details of our work… and only then do we allow […]
Hi friends, thought I’d try something new. You know I always try to share my learning with you from the books and conferences that are major milestones in my racial justice journey — but there are also so many smaller steps along the way, so many valuable articles and resources that help me try to […]
Earlier this week, I got my mind blown at my organization Southern California Grantmakers’ first-ever conference on disability equity: “Enabling Foundations, Nonprofits and Partners to Include People with Disabilities.” Here are my favorite gems from the day, in hopes they may shine for you as well: “The fundamental question of our country is, who belongs? […]
Why am I here? I mean, obviously I’m here on Cape Cod because it’s so beautiful; can you believe this glorious sunset? (#nofilter!) And obviously because it’s a joy to be with three generations of my family in the place that Childhood Me spent all year looking forward to going for two weeks every summer […]