Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew
That even as we hurt, we hoped
That even as we tired, we tried
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious
─ National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb
As is customary, a “welcome to” letter juxtaposes what took place in the past year with ambitions for the coming year. Throughout 2020 we endured raw social, economic, emotional, and physical traumas wrought by a global pandemic; witnessed the wave of a long overdue uprising and reckoning against racial injustice and systemic oppression; and braved obstacles, natural and manmade, to cast a vote for change.
Our responsibility today is to call out the pain, suffering, and injustice of the past year and to convert it towards hope, healing, and boldness. We are not going to tinker our way towards a more just and equitable democracy—we must wholly reimagine what is possible. To do so, as a sector, we must listen intently, ideate together, and commit to transformative change and with it necessary discomfort.
As the events of last year unfolded, we saw partners—nonprofits, government entities, and philanthropy—take small but important steps. We saw more flexibility and responsiveness to imminent need, more general operating support for nonprofit providers, increased investments to support Black, Indigenous, and person of color-led organizations and causes, and gradually, more investments in community organizing, advocacy, and structures to support power transfer and agency of those most affected by inequities.
These are important first steps as the sector listened to its constituents…and we need more. Much more. If we are serious about creating transformative change, and reimagining what the nonprofit and philanthropic sector can do, and become, we must openly interrogate our history and sources of wealth and assets. We must redefine what we value as public goods and human rights. And we must demand reparations for individuals, communities, and entities that have endured intentional and systemic and economic oppression. That will require more than simply loosening grant guidelines and allowing timeline extensions. These transformative changes will necessitate shifts in power, incentives, and accountability.
Equal Measure is committed to a year of reimagining and preparation for transformative change. We hope to lead by example—drawing from what we’ve learned, what we’ve experienced, and what we’ve known to help the sector consider what is possible. As we anticipate a new president joining our team, and as we continue to strengthen our focus on advancing racial equity and justice within our organization and among our partners and clients, we will uphold a steadfast commitment to ideate with humility, explore with open dialogue, and learn with intent to act.
Our Learning Circles, launched in 2020, offer a vivid illustration of this commitment—inspiring us to reflect on how to deepen equitable evaluation approaches into our engagements; how to facilitate dialogues and conversations rooted in inclusion and empathy; and how to present and articulate data in ways that are more accessible and resonant with our community partners.
Our commitment to transformative change is fueled by the collective contributions of our staff and senior leadership, who practice a culture of reflection, humility, exploration, compassion, and action every single day. Under the leadership of Justin Piff, our Vice President of Learning and Impact, we have continued to grow and refine our projects and services to match the adaptive needs of our clients and partners. Through the efforts of our Chief Financial Officer, Anna Jungclaus, we have weathered the past year as a resilient, financially viable, and operationally stable organization, serving as a model for our sector. And through the efforts of Seth Klukoff, our Vice President of Thought Leadership, we have grown our role in democratizing knowledge access and thought partnership to drive our field forward. This Executive Team, along with the brilliant 25-person staff of Equal Measure, is poised to reimagine and transform.
As I wind down my time at Equal Measure this year, I am excited about what this organization and our sector can achieve. We will continue to deliver on our mission—to help our clients shift systems, policies, and practices to make communities stronger, healthier, more equitable, and more inclusive. And we will do it with hope, healing, and boldness, working hand in hand with our social sector colleagues committed to transformative change.
We can reimagine together, and in the words of Amanda Gorman, “forever be tied together, victorious.”