It was an honor to join the new board of Social Enterprise Alliance earlier this month, after an intense period of organizing with 40 SEA chapter leaders across the country. On February 11, the outgoing board, who many of us believe were trying to make the best choices to allow the Alliance to thrive, announced that local chapters would cease to exist by March 31. This was what my mentor, Eric Martin, would refer to as "mistaking authority for leadership." They had the authority, but because we had not been involved and vehemently disagreed with this decision, we stepped into that leadership moment and worked to chart a new course.
And now, here we are! We do not know how things will play out - maybe we will struggle and fail; maybe it was already an impossible task, due to the economy caving in or otherwise. What we do know is that with whatever time we have, we will re-build into a bottom-up organization, where strategic decisions are made by a spectrum of local leaders as informed by the realities in their communities.
To do that well, we will need your help. And the help of folks who aren't on LinkedIn. And the truly frontline leaders working to build a just economy, through social enterprise and other methods. Let's make this an Alliance that builds power in all of us!
On August 29th, a community forum in San Francisco discussed proposed legislation in California to create more transparency around donor-advised funds (DAFs). For the most part, representatives from opposing sides and opposite ends of the nonprofit spectrum used that time to posture and talk past each other, highlighting the deepening fractures within our community.
Read More
In late July, I was fortunate enough to appear on the Next Economy Now podcast and be interviewed by Ryan Honeyman, Worker-owner at LIFT Economy and co-author of the B Corp Handbook v2.0. We talked a bit about my social enterprise journey, each other’s processes of unraveling layers of privilege towards being a better partner in social justice work, and why the misuse of donor-advised funds is a prime example of how philanthropy is deepening wealth inequality and oppressive systems. Also, dinosaurs!
If you like podcasts and social justice, check it out here! Runtime is 52:22 so mentally prepare yourself and maybe just play it on your long ass commute.
Read More
In the wake of last week’s historic reparations hearings, this felt like the right time to finally try and write down what I’ve been thinking about a lot this year (or really since my daughter was born 10 months ago). This odd, burning question: how can I be a great ancestor in this time?
Read More
She had recently been hired as a senior executive at her organization. As we were chatting about the respective difficulties of our chosen paths, she leaned in and said, “Be good to all the people you meet over the years, because you never know where they might end up.”
This is the colonizer’s architecture at play: all building bridges and climbing ladders. When you burn bridges, you lose access to ladders; and even when we start 100 floors above the rest, the idea of giving up a good ladder just seems like too much.
Read More