I’ve been back from the #2018GEO conference for days but I’m still unpacking all the inspiration and desperation that so many funders and organizers poured forth from their personal experience of the inequity and injustice that haunt our country, our communities, and our sector. I’ll be working on this for years, but let me start by sharing […]
Swept away at yesterday’s #2018GEO sessions by inspired speakers holding up a mirror to philanthropy’s responsibilities and practices around equity and racial justice. I couldn’t post and feel at same time, so here’s a roundup of a few well-aimed arrows I managed to jot down that hit me the hardest in the heart: “Your CEO should be […]
Homemade scones, mismatched cups and broken clocks from Goodwill, plastic roses and foofy pens from dollar store, stacks and stacks of my beloved childhood books… and a packed agenda which my brilliant staff co-led to successful completion. Another happy and productive quarterly themed retreat!
I am where I need to be today, apparently. Just received the gift of these words from Tara Houska of the Ojibwe Tribe, reflecting back to me why I’ve recently been immersing myself in the historical and contemporary reality of racism in the US: “Because you cannot transition to justice without first knowing the truth […]
Dammit, I did it again. I completely missed the point. Heart was open, eyes were closed. Want to see if you do better than I did? So there I am, visiting LURN with some of my Southern California Leadership Network Leadership LA cohort on Friday. Merced, who is one of their clients, comes in to talk about the successful […]
As a member of the advisory committee for the LA County Center for Financial Empowerment, I had the honor of speaking today on the “Meet the Funders” panel at the CFE’s first-ever Financial Capability Summit. Here’s the session description – if this looks interesting to you, read on for the specific questions our moderator asked […]
In my Leadership LA fellowship, we were asked to define our Values and Leadership Principles. I know I frequently fall short of these standards, but this is the best I could come up with to represent who I aspire to be as a leader and colleague: Kindness – treat everyone with warmth and openness rooted […]
PSA: I am 12% into the audiobook of Ijeoma Oluo’s “So You Want To Talk About Race” and she’s already given me 3 insights that made me gasp. 1) “Do you think black people are poor for the same reasons white people are poor?” (spoiler alert: no) 2) So, my own lifelong focus on economic […]
Today as I fly across our country, I’m looking down and sending love to all the Marchers in all the streets of all the cities. And I’m sending gratitude, because without gun control laws, I would have lost a beloved family member. A few years back, someone I love got suicidally depressed. He started to […]
I’ll say his name: Stephon Clark. Because I could have an actual gun in my hand in my backyard and the police wouldn’t shoot me dead in three seconds. Pretty sure I’d live to eat a Happy Meal like Dylann Roof after he killed 9 black worshipers at Mother Emanuel. And I’ll be honest: part […]