Q&A: Kresge REED partners share the power in holding space for rest, healing, collective learning

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This blog post was originally published on the Kresge Foundation’s website and describes work Community Wealth Partners facilitated with grantees working in community development, arts, and culture. Read the original post here. Images created by Brandon Black of Drawnversation

For six months throughout 2022, a group of more than 50 nonprofit representatives and grantee partners working in community development, arts and culture came together to learn, dream, heal and be in community with one another. In the process, they created a space grounded in joy, liberation, rest and healing.

In the Q&A below, a few members of the group – also known as The Kresge Foundation’s Racial Equity Exploration and Discovery (REED) community – share tips to help funders create learning spaces ripe for this kind of engagement.

The REED community was first convened in late 2020 by Kresge’s Arts & Culture Program to connect leaders of community development and arts and culture organizations. Together they exchanged ideas about ways to advance racial justice, identifying new practices to adopt and the systems support their organizations need to thrive.

“These groups harness the creativity and imaginative power of artists and residents to envision and build a more inclusive future,” said Michelle Johnson, senior program officer with Kresge’s Arts and Culture Program. “Lessons learned from their work can be of use to everyone who seeks a more equitable, prosperous and healthy America.”

What did you most appreciate about the space that was created through REED?

  • “I really appreciated this learning series. Particularly during these collectively turbulent and uncertain times, not only is holding space for rest and healing needed – it is a revolutionary act.”
  • “What I appreciated about the space was that I realized that I was not alone. I wanted to just be angry about how artists of color have been treated and I didn’t feel there was anything that I could do to change the systemic racism in my country.  But we were not allowed to languish in that helplessness.  The focus on joy and personal health took a while for me to embrace, but when I did it was liberating.  I also grew to enjoy reading the objectives each time we gathered because I began to ponder what those objectives truly met.  I now use that process in my class because my students need to see where they are in the process. I have a new appreciation and joy for the persons I have met and hopefully will meet them again in person.”
  • “I most appreciated having an opportunity to hear from my peers in the field – the learnings + validation I receive is inspiring and grounding. I get a lot of ideas from folks across the country that include perspectives I would not necessarily get from my region of the country.”
  • “I appreciated the intentionality in planning the sessions, the topics and the follow-up emails with additional resources. I also appreciated the compensation to participate in the sessions.”
  • “[The spaces created through REED were] such a welcomed change for how professionals can meet and gather. It invited me to reimagine how online meetings can feel and ways to make connections with like-minded individuals and organizations.”

What from REED would you recommend to other funders in the field who are doing other similar convenings or capacity-support efforts?

  • “I would recommend providing stipends to participants and facilitators, asking for recommendations for speakers from grantees, and including participants in shaping the content for each session.”
  • “I would recommend Reed – I think communication has been great, the stipends have been helpful in being able to ensure I can participate.”
  • “The stipends did help a great deal because I don’t know about others, but many times I am asked to participate on panels, but no money is offered because it is my social responsibility to participate. There is a saying that all African American artists that came up in the 60’s and 70’s are social workers at heart.  We feel responsible.  I would have participated without the stipend, but the stipend said what I had to say was important, my time was important, and my presence was important.”
  • “My hope is that these spaces will become common practice and that funders continue to provide participants with stipends to honor the time and intention they bring into these spaces.”

For more from the REED community, read two previous articles:
Kresge partners share 8 ways to advance racial justice through culture and creative practices
Advancing Racial Justice: 5 Practices to Adopt from Arts and Culture Organizations

 REED Resources
Throughout the sessions, the group and guest speakers shared the following resources related to the learning topics the group chose.

Changing Organizational Practices to Confront Anti-Black Racism

 Prioritizing Rest and Healing

Divesting from Oppressive Systems and Creating a New Reality

REED Principles
The REED group co-created these principles and grounded each gathering in a group-led reading of each principle.

  • Why race: We lead with race because race is the greatest predictor of how one fares in areas such as health, wealth, career, education, and civic participation.
  • Why focus on anti-Black racism: Anti-Blackness is at the root of racism. Therefore, we make explicit anti-Black racism, which both voids Blackness of value, while systematically marginalizing Black people and their issues.
  • Why racial justice: We seek to advance racial justice where there is the systemic fair treatment of people from all races through proactive reinforcement of policies, practices, attitudes, and actions that produce equitable power, access, opportunities, treatment, impacts, and outcomes.
  • Why liberation: We seek to transform the conditions of our society so that we all can live into our full abundance and self-worth.
  • Why not white-centered: We actively center the experiences of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in our conversations and use intentional racial identity-based spaces to do our respective work.
  • Why joy: We refrain from reducing experiences into singular narratives of victimhood and intentionally lift up joy and resilience in who we are, in our stories, and in how we connect with others.
  • Why arts and culture: We see culture and creativity as core drivers of more just communities.

Farewell to our President, Sara Brenner

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Dear Friends,

I’m writing to share that our President Sara Brenner will be leaving Community Wealth Partners after more than 15 years. She has accepted a position to lead the creation of a new community foundation, the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Washington. With an endowment of $300M from the local Jewish federation, this new philanthropic entity will focus on creating a more just and equitable world and thriving Jewish community with a primary focus on supporting those furthest from resources and power – especially communities of color – in the Jewish community and society at large. Her last day with us will be July 1st.

This is a bittersweet moment. Sara has been a vital and dedicated member of our team, from her early days as an intern and a consultant to more than a decade as a member of our executive team. She will leave an indelible mark on our organization. She has helped build this organization, including critical relationships, systems, and processes, that have allowed us to elevate our impact through our work with clients.

On a more personal note, I will miss Sara’s co-leadership and partnership. Sara’s commitment to the organization’s success as well as mine as her partner have always been evident. She is willing to engage in the hard conversations or assignments and is creative and visionary in solving problems.

Amidst this change for our organization, we are excited for the impact Sara will have in her new role, continuing to contribute to our collective effort to shift power and resources to those who historically have been kept furthest from them. There is nothing more gratifying than seeing one of our own elevate her leadership to help advance racial equity.

As we take this moment to thank Sara and wish her well in her new endeavor, we also thank you for your continued partnership.  By working together, we can get farther in creating a world where all people truly have the opportunity to thrive.

Dream Forward,

Amy Celep, CEO

Standing in Solidarity With Reproductive Justice Leaders

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On the heels of last week’s Supreme Court ruling that rolls back access to safe and legal abortions, we stand in solidarity with nonprofits, movements, and funders who fight for gender equality and reproductive justice. We are committed to using our platform to lift up their voices and following their lead on this issue.

This ruling disproportionately impacts people who have been kept furthest from resources and power—notably women, nonbinary, and trans people who are people of color, undocumented, and experiencing poverty. Studies (such as this one) show that legal abortions are linked to outcomes including reduced maternal mortality among Black women; higher levels of education, workforce participation and earnings for all women but especially for Black women; and lower rates of living in poverty and receiving public assistance for children.

The ruling also opens the possibility to roll-back other rights and protections that have been in place for decades, such as same-sex marriage, interracial marriage, access to contraception, and more. This threatens our vision of a world where all people have what they need to fully live into their potential.

Nonprofits and funders play a vital role in a vibrant civil society through mobilizing communities, advocating for policies, and changing narratives on social issues. This moment calls for bold action and long-term commitment from funders and nonprofits.

The reproductive justice movement was founded by Black women and centers those who experience the greatest reproductive health disparities. We encourage nonprofits and funders to follow their lead and the lead of others who have been kept farthest from resources and power and have been at the forefront of pushing for justice.

If you are wondering how you can leverage your power and voice in this moment, here are some resources that can help:

 

 

 

Moving to Action to Advance Racial Equity: Examples from Community Foundations

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Since 2020, as COVID-response grantmaking and local conversations about racial justice pushed many community foundations to action, community foundations have played a powerful role in directing resources to organizations meeting the greatest needs and catalyzing conversation and learning among donors and other community stakeholders. As private and family foundations consider how they can advance equity in their organizations, they could look to community foundations for guidance.

We’ve seen firsthand the actions community foundations are taking to advance racial equity through research on community foundation practices and a peer cohort of 12 community foundations we facilitated in 2021. Community foundations are making changes at various levels of their organizations. Many have had success aligning internally around a point of view as to why racial equity matters to their mission. Many have also made changes to their discretionary grantmaking—both in terms of how they give and who they give to—in pursuit of greater equity and inclusion. And some are trying new approaches to engage donors in conversations about racial equity and inspire greater giving from donors to BIPOC communities and in support of racial equity.

The following list is a sampling of actions we have seen community foundations take. Consider which ones you might be able to take or what additional ideas this sparks for you.

Gaining internal buy-in

  • Develop new grantmaking policy around equity
  • Communicate progress already made towards equity to donors, staff, and board
  • Develop policy to screen against hate groups for all donor-advised gifts
  • Develop messaging to communicate the foundation’s point of view on racial equity to donors

Supporting the capacity of BIPOC-led organizations

  • Provide capacity-building for BIPOC-led organizations
  • Connect BIPOC leaders to donors and other funders

Making social norms more visible

  • Develop racial equity donor champion circle for peer learning and sharing on how to bring a racial equity lens to philanthropy
  • Collect disaggregated data to have clarity on amount of resources going to BIPOC communities

Feedback and strengthening identity

  • Partner with BIPOC-led organizations to help donors understand the impact of their giving so they will continue to give to these organizations and encourage other donors to do the same

Curation, “endowing” trust on charities

  • Social media posts highlighting BIPOC-led/community-based grantees
  • Highlight BIPOC-led/community-based orgs in philanthropic advising recommendations
  • Create fund focused entirely on racial equity

Using the endowment for impact

  • Aligning investments and investment management with foundation values, and to advance racial equity

 

Advancing racial equity inside organizations and in communities will require ongoing learning that will never be complete. It is important to find ways to take meaningful action while continuing to learn. Consider what small steps you might take to begin to make progress toward larger changes.

Applications are open for our 2022 community foundation cohort focused on increasing support to BIPOC communities. Learn more here.

Insights from Community Foundations Who Are Talking to Donors About Racial Equity

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As community foundations are increasingly playing a leadership role in their communities and centering racial equity in their programmatic work, many are considering how to engage donors as partners in their efforts to advance racial equity in communities. In a profession that has historically centered donors’ preferences, how can donor advisors have conversations with donors about racial equity and why it matters for local philanthropy? This was a central topic of discussion in a peer learning cohort of 12 community foundations that Community Wealth Partners facilitated as well as in learning sessions hosted by the National Center for Family Philanthropy and Community Foundation Opportunity Network’s NEON cohort.

A theme of these conversations has been there is no one right way to do this. Individuals enter conversations about race and racial equity from different and personal places. Nevertheless, through sharing stories and experiences, community foundations are supporting one another in finding ways to engage with donors around racial equity. Here are four insights that emerged from the conversations.

1. Speak with authenticity and vulnerability.

Many community foundations recognize they won’t be a credible partner on racial equity without prioritizing their own internal equity work. This often includes investing in staff training and spending time together learning about the history of their communities and how systems and structures have driven racial disparities that exist today. In addition to doing the internal work, sharing openly and honestly about that work can help build credibility and trust. For Maine Community Foundation, Jen Southard, vice president of donor services, said leaning into discomfort also made a difference. “Being honest with our donors that the internal work we’ve been doing has been uncomfortable for us too has helped us open vulnerable conversations with some of our donors,” she said.

2. Invest in relationships.

Getting to honest, vulnerable conversations with donors will require investment in relationships. As one community foundation staff member shared, sometimes it can take a few conversations before a donor is ready to talk about race and racial equity with an advisor. Community foundations are also deepening relationships with nonprofits in the community and other local partners and connecting donors to these nonprofits and partners. The Righteous Rage Institute for Healing and Social Justice has developed the Conductor Circle model for multiracial, multifaith community members to come together for individual and communal healing, relationship building, and grantmaking to advance racial justice in the community. The Rose Community Foundation is partnering with RRI to bring the Conductor Circle to Denver, and has convened a mix of local donors, activists, nonprofit leaders, and community leaders. The name “Conductor Circle” comes from the conductors of the underground railroad that fundraised and built the infrastructure to free enslaved people in the South, and RRI lifts up lessons from the abolitionist and civil rights movement to inform the approaches needed to address racial equity today. Healing is central to Righteous Rage Institute’s approach for social justice and liberation and includes components such as wellness and mindfulness rituals, remembering and restoring BIPOC culture, and participatory visioning and building a new future. Black community members will make grants decisions. Rose Community Foundation is providing seed funding for the pooled fund in Denver, administering grants the fund will make, and tapping its network to attract more donors to the fund. “The work has reminded us how complex and time-intensive deep partnership is, but this level of relationship is necessary for the changes we want to see,” said Sarah Indyk, vice president of philanthropic services.

3. Use data and frameworks.

Many community foundations find it helpful to share data that helps donors understand the racial disparities that exist as well as frameworks that codify the changes the foundation is working toward. The Hawaii Community Foundation created its CHANGE framework to identify equity gaps in six priority areas. The framework includes disaggregated data in each area. Donor advisors use the framework to help donors understand the root causes of challenges faced by the community and which types of investments will make the greatest impact.

For community foundations working to channel more resources to BIPOC-led and BIPOC-serving organizations, one barrier to knowing whether you’re having the desired impact is lack of demographic data or knowing if an organization has sufficient talent and resources to submit a fruitful grant application. To overcome this challenge, Hawaii Community Foundation interviewed about 700 grant applicants and collected demographic data to help them better make decisions given who they are reaching through their giving—and who they’re not. According to Malia Peters, senior director of philanthropy, the CHANGE framework and demographic data on grantees helps donor advisors raise awareness about inequities across the state and advocate for increased funding to BIPOC-led organizations.

4. Ground engagement with donors in patience and love.

When the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham (CFGB) engaged community members to help shape its strategic plan in 2018, equity and inclusion emerged as a priority. Since then, the foundation has been convening community conversations about racial equity. From these experiences, board and staff members have learned that it is important to focus on areas where people have common ground, to listen carefully, and meet people where they are. A common concern among many community foundations is that they could lose donors if they push them too far outside their comfort zone. CFGB has found that while the majority of donors agree that equity and inclusion should be a priority, there are donors who prefer to focus on the future and may not agree that we should reflect on Birmingham’s history to better understand how and why racial disparities exist. Board member Brian Hamilton said in these conversations it’s important to stay grounded in compassion and love and to take a long view—recognizing that dismantling systems that drive racial disparities is generational work, and therefore progress may feel slow at times.


There is not a roadmap everyone can follow for engaging donors in conversations about racial equity, but these four takeaways from fellow community foundations might offer a helpful start. As community foundations continue to lean into having a stronger point of view about racial equity in conversations with donors, continued peer learning and support will help advance the field’s understanding and practice.

Photo courtesy of Jopwell.com

Three Frameworks for Shifting Power for Greater Equity and Impact

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Power.

It’s something we don’t often talk about—perhaps because we tend to think about negative uses of power, such as when people hoard it and cause harm. But if we want to pursue equity, it is critical to be aware and intentional about power, where it shows up, and how we are using it. In a 1967 speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said “Power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political, and economic change.”

Power exists whether we acknowledge it or not, yet I’ve observed that people often don’t fully recognize the power they have. It’s important to reflect on the power we hold, both in formal authority and in other ways, so that we can consider how we might leverage or shift that power in pursuit of equity.

I’ve found three frameworks that can help spur deeper reflection about where power sits in relationships and how it can be helpful rather than hurtful. These frameworks help address three important questions:

  1. What are ways I hold power?
  2. Where does power show up in my life?
  3. How can I leverage power for equity and justice?

What are ways I hold power?

In The Action Guide for Advocacy and Civic Participation, Just Associates distinguishes between a “power over” mindset—associated with hierarchical, “command and control” approaches—and “power with/to/within” approaches, which work together to spark imagination and hope, instill belief in the power of individuals to drive change, and build collective strength and solidarity.

This framework can spur reflection on how power shows up in relationships. For example, if you are a supervisor, are you holding power over your direct reports or are you working to build power to, with, and within? If you are partnering with community members, how are you holding power?

Where does power show up in my life?

We often think of power showing up in the ways that are most visible—money, formal authority, knowledge, etc. In a blog post identifying four types of power, Arabella Advisors lifts up where power might be less visible.

For example, power can show up in structures beyond formal authority and organizational charts. Who is setting the agenda for what is discussed and what’s not? Who is setting norms for how people work together? Folks with roles in communications or fundraising hold power in framing because they are shaping narratives and telling stories that explain why things are the way they are.

This framework can help you reflect on ways in which you hold power that you may not have recognized before. Where does power show up for you? How might you shift or leverage it in pursuit of greater equity?

How can I leverage power for equity and justice?

Once you have deeper awareness of how and where you hold power, what can you do differently to advance equity? The Power Moves framework from National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy offers some guidance. While this tool was created with the grantmaker-grantee relationship in mind, it holds relevance for other types of relationships too.

Check out the Power Moves toolkit for more guidance on ways to build, share, and wield power.

Stories of Shifting Power Within Organizations and Communities

A webinar hosted by the Center for Nonprofit Excellence featured stories of nonprofits and foundations who are working to shift power in pursuit of equity. To learn more about what’s happening at ACT for Alexandria, Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, Cultivate Charlottesville, and the Fountain Fund, watch the video below and here.

Leveraging Arts and Culture Practices to Advance Racial Justice: An Interview with Michelle Johnson from The Kresge Foundation

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Equitable community planning and development embodies the culture and voices of the community and focuses on racial justice. This is a core principle of Kresge’s Arts & Culture Program that applies its Creative Placemaking approach to elevate arts, culture, and community-engaged design as central elements of community development and planning. In late 2020, The Kresge Foundation hosted a virtual event that gleaned the collective wisdom of 27 community development, arts, and culture organization leaders and provided space for connection and peer support.

Sara Brenner interviewed Michelle Johnson, senior program officer with Kresge’s Arts & Culture Program, to discuss why Kresge invests in arts and culture organizations, how the foundation is supporting BIPOC leaders, and what other organizations can learn from arts and creative practices to advance racial justice. Watch highlights from their conversation below.

About the work

Convening arts and culture organizations

Learning from arts and culture organizations, part 1

Learning from arts and culture organizations, part 2

Investing in BIPOC leaders, part 1

Investing in BIPOC leaders, part 2

Reflecting on the work

 

To read more takeaways from last year’s convening, read “Advancing Racial Justice: 5 Practices to Adopt from Arts Organizations.”

No More Needs Assessments

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Raise your hand if you’ve received or (guilty!) sent something resembling this email:

Dear Valued Grantee,

We hope you are well! As we at the Foundation have talked amongst ourselves, we’ve realized our grantees are weak and could use more support in fundraising and financial management. As a result, we have paid an enormous amount of money to a consulting group to do a deep needs assessment of each of you to determine where you need the most help. This is HIGHLY ENCOURAGED for you to participate – we want to make sure we really know your weaknesses and then give you the capacity building training we determine you need to get better. Consultant Q will follow up on this email to schedule some time, oh and there’ll be a survey and also some follow-up conversations and we’re not paying you for this.

Cheers! Walter

Okay, I may have taken some editorial liberty, but you get the gist. How does it make you feel to read that? What this brings up for me – beside owning I’ve done this and need to do better – are a couple of things:

  1. Good intent doesn’t excuse negative impact: The intent here is well-meaning: “we want to support our grantees!” But the impact of this is harmful: the grantee doesn’t have say in the matter, they just need to do this long process, without just compensation, at the funder’s whim. It reinforces the notion nonprofits have to do whatever the funder says in order to secure funds.
  2. Deficit mindset: Just the term “needs assessment” should go the way of the dodo (i.e., extinct). It centers what is perceived to be “wrong” and reinforces a “we are right, you need help” power dynamic. We’re working together toward transformational systems change, folks – each of us has strength and beauty and specific capacities unique to us and our community to bring to this fight. Let’s name that and center that instead of “needs.”
  3. No voice or choice: Did you notice the first sentence – “we realized our grantees are weak in fundraising”? So often, we think we know grantees, nonprofits, or communities better than they know themselves. That’s just not the case. We’ve seen in our work over and over that when you share power with nonprofits and communities, “the answer is in the room” – they know what it will really take to get to the change they seek. And it’s often very different than what the funder or consultants think.

When done right, diagnostic surveys can be helpful tools. They can help you understand the context in which nonprofits are working, their strengths, the challenges they’re grappling with, and themes across grantees. And they can provide nonprofits with more data points to have conversations in their teams about what capacity areas they think are worth investing their time and energy in. In our recent field guide Making Capacity Building More Equitable, we’ve offered some guidance on how to move away from a deficit default and toward an approach that is more fair, honors nonprofits’ strengths and agency, and shares power with them. We offer these learnings as fellow learners – we’ve messed up, and we commit to doing better alongside you:

  1. Provide choices: As we have developed capacity indicator and other diagnostic surveys, we’ve learned it’s critical to share survey results and data directly with the coalitions or grantees, then let them decide what to do with it. They could say, “we’re good, these results seem to indicate we’re in a good place,” or “we’re going to double down on what we’re good at,” or “yeah, we want to focus on that one gap uplifted by the data.” We then encourage funders to just give unrestricted funds directly to these groups for them to decide what to work on and who to work with – or not work with. There is support and connections we can provide – a list of racial equity providers they may not be connected to, as an example – but then they have the power and the decision.
  2. Take an asset-based approach – which means, no more “needs assessments”: It’s not just a language shift, although that is important as well. It’s a shift in mindset and how we approach those we’re partnering with. It’s seeing the fullness and wholeness of their assets, strengths, social capital, community trust, racial equity competency – all of it – and taking the approach of “how do we work together to double down on this strength our community wants?” This also means expanding the capacity areas you are looking at, too – not just traditional financial management, fundraising, board management, etc., but also racial equity capacity, staff wellness and self-care, community trust, representation, and power sharing. There are skills and strengths we can all learn from, spread, and grow together – if we choose to look for them instead of focusing on the need, deficit, or weakness.

If you want to talk more about capacity assessments or equitable approaches to capacity building, reach out to Walter Howell at whowell@communitywealth.com.

Want some real-world examples?

Join our webinar Wednesday, November 3rd from 2-3 pm Eastern (11-12 am Pacific). This session will offer frameworks and guidance on how capacity building can be more equitable and share learnings from two funders — Caroline Altman-Smith of the Kresge Foundation and Jennifer Wei of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation — who have reconsidered their assumptions and approaches.

Making Capacity Building More Equitable

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Many funders understand the value of capacity building and the need to ground work in equity. Yet many grapple with what it can look like to make capacity-building offerings more equitable.

Up to now, capacity building across the field has been far from equitable. Traditional capacity building has perpetuated harmful assumptions of how effectiveness should be defined and by whom, which means capacity building traditionally has been steeped in white dominant culture, implicit bias, and a host of inequitable practices. We need to fundamentally rethink our assumptions of what good capacity building looks like.

We have released a new field guide that offers ways to rethink capacity building with equity at the center. It outlines questions to hold, decisions to make, and intentions to set. We’ve organized it into five areas we’ve seen are common in this process:

  1. Before You Begin: Questions for Reflection
  2. Goals
  3. Designing Your Approach
  4. Working Through Power Dynamics
  5. Learning & Outcomes

Q&A: COOs of Democracy Nonprofits Reflect on a Year Unlike Any Other

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The nonprofit chief operating officer (COO) role can vary widely from one organization to the next. The role comes with challenges: it can feel isolating since COOs bridge between the CEO/board and the rest of staff, and COOs don’t often get as much investment or resources as CEOs. Yet their role is critical in helping organizations turn visions into reality, navigate change, and operate effectively.

From October 2019 to May 2021, a group of about 11 COOs from organizations of various sizes and lifecycle stages met regularly to talk about topics ranging from scenario planning to personal leadership strategies. This cohort – funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation – was comprised exclusively of COOs from organizations focused on strengthening U.S. democracy. As they weathered the pandemic, election, racial reckoning, attack on the U.S. Capitol, and much more, their conversations surfaced commonalities and informed how their organizations navigated the tumultuous year.

In this Q&A, members of the cohort share reflections on what they’ve learned about the COO role and the importance of investing in this role.

What Is the COO Role?

“The COO role is often a grab-bag of different responsibilities. This cohort put a fine point on something I think we knew implicitly: the job description of a COO is to navigate change, and anything that falls under that broad definition is your job to manage.” – Layla Zaidane, Millennial Action Project

“My role has changed a lot since we founded this organization. I spent the last few years homing in on what my role should be and what’s unique to my position, rather than playing whack-a-mole or using the excuse that ‘we wear a lot of hats.’ With that mindset, you tend to spread yourself thin, trying to solve problems as they come up.” – Joe Coon, Niskanen Center

“When you’re more virtual, different people shine in different ways. The skillset of a COO comes to the forefront because if you look at the data and science of who makes a good leader, it’s different for a virtual leader. That potentially impacts CEOs and COOs.” – Erica Schoder, R Street Institute

How the Past Year Affected Their Leadership

“With the pandemic, there’s no playbook for how to deal with it. I learned to be a little more fluid in decision making and be more of a positive outlet for folks. A lot of people were down and worried about job security. I had to be that positive voice saying, ‘we’re going to get through this, we’re going to make this work.’ That was something I wasn’t always so good at.” – Justin Hill, Take Back Our Republic

“My self-care improved out of necessity. This year, we created a culture where we thought about self-care, were intentional about it, and incentivized it. The idea I would actually go for a walk during a meeting would have never happened before the crisis. We realized we needed to model it as leaders. We held ourselves accountable to it. Before, it was a little bit of lip service.” – Erica Schoder, R Street Institute

“We’re also thinking about, aside from COVID, how everything that happened – the election, the Trump presidency, Black Lives Matters – fits into us looking ahead for the next 10 years. For me, the biggest thing is, how can our organization be more inclusive? … Before taking someone’s money, we now take a moment to ask – is this company worthy of showcasing on our website? Is this a board member we want? Do we have any board members who should no longer be on the board? … What does bipartisan mean? … What voices do we want to elevate? … I feel much more passionate about taking a stand on all of that.” – Sabine Schleidt, Former Members of Congress

“We didn’t just survive; we thrived. The events of the past year helped us realize what was important and surfaced new opportunities. During the pandemic, we expected our normal in-person operations would be jeopardized and hard to replicate virtually. However, we were able to adjust quickly, our funding stayed steady, and we expanded our operations to deliver online events and content. Taking advantage of opportunities presented by these horrible times allowed us to expand what we do.” – David Priess, Lawfare Institute

How (and Why) to Engage Staff in Internal Changes

“People want to be heard and not be left out of big decisions that will meaningfully impact their work life. How can you transparently and honestly communicate the things you can share, and share them as early as possible? And how can you be transparent in communicating what you can’t talk about or don’t have an answer to? Communication is fundamental.” – Layla Zaidane, Millennial Action Project

“I lead by influence, not by authority. I rarely make a decision by myself. I prefer getting lots of ideas so my own decision is strengthened.” – Sangita Sigdyal, formerly with Fair Vote

“Communication is always key, as much transparency as possible, and as much heads up to staff so they’re prepared. We always let staff know, ‘this is coming around the bend, you’ll hear more about it,’ and always explain why so it doesn’t seem arbitrary or like we’re implementing protocols just because. We want to create efficiencies, not burdens. How will this help the organization in the long run? When rolling out policies, we as an executive team look at things first, then we take it to managers to get input and feedback. We make sure nothing is just foisted on people from above.” – Mary Mares, formerly with Campaign Legal Center

Why Democracy Organizations Need Greater Support

“My new organization [was] in the middle of all this controversy about certifying election results. … This organization’s work has never been as important and as controversial. We’ll need all the support in the world to save our democracy. It’s a very dangerous time.” – Sangita Sigdyal, currently with Verified Voting

“In the democracy space, … there’s a boom and bust in funding. Around elections, philanthropy funds organizations like ours that invest in the strength of our democracy. With the impact of COVID on people’s budgets, I worry that in non-election years, what does that mean for our budget and our organization?” – Layla Zaidane, Millennial Action Project

Why to Invest in COOs

“One of the things that’s been made clear to me through this cohort experience is that the operations and finance team is too small at my organization. We’ve kept the spending on management and general down at an unsustainable level. It’s been a huge awakening to learn how other organizations of similar size invest in the operations and finance teams.” – Amelia Leonardi, Issue One

“There are too few foundations who support this sort of thing. There’s very little investment in helping our organizations succeed at a management level.” – Joe Coon, Niskanen Center

 


 

Read more about what we and the COOs we worked with learned from this experience: