The Foraker Group

As is my way, I am going to be honest. As a sector, we face a pretty difficult set of circumstances that are likely to get worse before they get better – and we are not alone. Hundreds of government agencies with which we partner are being dismantled without a strategic understanding of the impact on human life, our environment, or our economy. Simultaneously, we can see some who are incredibly hopeful about the possibilities of these changes. I am sure some would strongly disagree with both these views – such is the nature of democracy. We can do things that feel and impact people in diametrically different ways.

Predominately, however, as I watch and listen every day to the stories of human impact and the depth of the legal actions taken to protect people, the only thing I know for sure is what I knew when all of this started – the nonprofit sector, if not every institution we know, will look different before this is all over.

So what? Now what?

So, now I find myself living in two places simultaneously.

First the present – today – this week – this month.

In this place, I stay extra curious. I ask many questions. I listen. I think. I seek opportunities and connections. I take in the hard news and sit with it for as long as I can before moving to the next thing. I focus on remaining encouraged, without being swayed by or endorsing false promises. And, I still do the job I was doing before all this began because, like you, that is my calling and that is my commitment. Are these the things you are doing? What else is on your list?

In this time, I know many questions come up about what to do now. The Eight Steps we offered last month are still the right next steps. Make time to go through them. They remind us that our job is to tell our story – loud and proud – first to those we communicate with regularly and then to larger, but specific audiences. This is no time to be the “best kept secret” as too many nonprofits are too often. Your work matters in real time. Your mission matters, so be clear and sing loudly.

The Eight Steps ask you to plan for the worst so you can be at your best. I know this can feel exhausting and overwhelming, but we do this so we stay in control of our decisions. Knowing you are making your own choices is at the heart of self-determination and freedom even as you grapple with the reality that these do not feel like decisions you would make on behalf of your mission. Scenario planning invites you to do the best you can with what you have. It does not, on the contrary, ask you to do more with less. This is a key distinction as the latter only hurts more people and doesn’t help the ones you can help.

The steps also strongly encourage you to ensure your house is squeaky clean with compliance. Your internal compliance should always be above reproach and ready for an outside set of eyes. This is not easy by any measure as so many of us are under resourced in staff and money to excel at this critical task. Ironically, the very funding that asks us to have all the compliance pieces in place does not pay for those pieces to be there. Yet, that is all less important now than getting it right. Take the time to look inward. If you know your messy spots – work to fix them. If you can’t tell – ask for help. Now is not the moment to feel bad about the messiness, now is the time to ask for support to fix it.

The second space I am living in feels like an envisioned future. This future comes from people like you and me who take time to consider the questions of “what’s next?” and “to what end?” In this space, we have faced the truth that our work matters to people and communities. And we acknowledge that the system we’ve been working with hasn’t always been effective. In this space of honesty, we can pull out that “to do list” of all the ways we dream of making the system work better for more people.

Over the many decades I have been in the sector, I have heard endless examples of “if we could build it better, it would look like ________(fill in the blank).” I am sure you have heard this, too. In those conversations, we would make it easier to access support, easier to navigate compliance, easier to get paid on time for the work we do, easier to fund operating expenses, and easier to focus on what matters the most in our missions. Our partnerships would be stronger, our people would be even more invested, our donors would feel so much joy in giving, and mostly the work would make even more sense than it does today (if that is possible).

At this point, some of you are saying that is never going to happen. Sure. I get it. Even I think it sounds idealistic right now when we are faced with so much uncertainty and where every day feels like a lot to carry. For me, though, this is where I go for hope. This is where I go to boost my spirit to continue on the path forward.

This is where I imagine how we start, even in small ways, those conversations today.

Believe me, I am not minimizing the harm we face. And I have been saying frequently that if Americans and Alaskans want to have a real conversation about what is important to our communities and our people, then we need a runway not a cliff to move us to those conversations. What if while some are pushing toward cliffs others of us are building runways? What if we began or kept with conversations that had us redesigning systems to help us thrive and not just survive.

Idealistic? Maybe. But Alaskans are incredibly resilient. We also are diverse in our geography, cultures, peoples, and lived experiences. This diversity and our resilience are our strengths. What if we can find the courage and the moments to work together to imagine the future we want to build, rather than struggling now for what we had that we are losing anyway? Why not be the voice for what we want that is even better?

The future is made by those who show up, and I am digging deeper to build a runway where we can all take off and fly. Let’s do it together.

Laurie

PS. I hope I will see you at the Leadership Summit next week. This is one of the many places where we will begin these conversations while we attend to the current reality in front of us.