Gratitude

Hello, GOSW Members

As summer has officially arrived, we recognize that we are still living in a great deal of uncertainty, both with our ever-shifting experience with COVID-19 and our efforts to address systemic racism in our country. Summer, normally filled with a ritualized escape into the Pacific NW sunshine, now has a curious new edge that will certainly change the way that we experience our typical vacation period. While we hope that you will find ways to spend time with family, have some socially distanced fun with friends (please wear your masks for the safety of others), and take time to catch your breath from the whirlwind that was spring, we also want you to know what we will be up to over the next few months. 

Our team has a busy summer ahead of us, filled with lots of planning. We are taking what we learned during the first phase of the Resource Connector pilot and we are building it out in preparation for the next phase of its use as a tool for your grantmaking efforts. We are working with a group of Black nonprofit leaders to discuss opportunities for philanthropy to invest in long-range, sustainable efforts to address systemic racism, not just rapid responses. We are reaching out to our membership to ensure that we have all of your organizational details updated in our database and that you are receiving information from GOSW in the way that you prefer it. And our program team is working on how we might bring  the great sessions and speakers, originally slated for our May conference, to you this fall. We were prepared and ready to provide you with a great learning experience, so we are committed to determining how to offer you what we had lined up for the 2020 GOSW conference…just in our new normal. It is just too good to waste.

As we work on the items on our summer to-do list, we are going to take a brief hiatus on the in-depth, weekly production of our newsletter and teleconferences until summer’s end. But don’t worry…we will still occasionally bring you information that you care about. You can still count on hearing about critical issues related to COVID-19, the dismantling of systemic racism, and other items of importance to our community as they arise. We will periodically share what our members are up to in our member news section. We will let folks know about any new job announcements, and we will make sure that you hear about interesting learning opportunities. And since it is summer and many of us use this slower pace to dig into a pile of books, we will even send ideas for your summer reading lists so that you can continue challenging your thinking around social justice. If you have a book, article or video that you would recommend, click here and we will add it to our list to share with our members. 

“Every morning when I open my curtains for that first look at the day, no matter what the day looks like—raining, foggy, overcast, sunny—my heart swells with gratitude. I get another chance.” – Oprah Winfrey

While we tackle our list and take some down-time here and there, we hope that you can find some time to tap into your gratitude for the ability that you have to change the course of how we live and what we value…for yourself and for others. Our willingness to live in a space of gratitude can be the greatest gift that we have in philanthropy. Gratitude opens our hearts, it reframes what is important, and it encourages us to act with other’s needs in mind on a regular basis. So, whether it is sitting under a tree, watching your children play (two-legged or four), taking a road trip with the windows open and your favorite songs on a playlist, or simply resting on your favorite napping couch, we wish you moments of gratitude to inspire your grantmaking and we hope that you have a happy and safe summer. 

 

Best,

Kendall