Our thoughts and prayers are with each of you during these unique times of uncertainty and change. Indeed, as new realities associated with COVID-19 or the novel coronavirus become more apparent, we wish you and your loved ones renewed patience and focus on whatever is most essential to your well-being. Thank you for your gestures of generosity and encouragement as we have joined the ever-growing number of organizations who have adopted new ways of doing business to preserve the safety of our members and stakeholders.
As we work together with our colleagues on field-wide reactions to the immediate impact of COVID-19, we are seeing an overwhelming number of strategies to increase awareness and support resilient grantee organizations. We are pleased to see the speedy adoption of principles that reflect our Vision for Smarter Grantmaking that provide optimal flexibility while promoting grantee effectiveness during this unprecedented crisis.
As we continue to “zoom in” on emerging details, we encourage you to protect yourself against “coronavirus-fatigue” by staying connected with a peer community, and “zooming out” periodically to re-calibrate your thinking about what is most essential to your organization as well as your personal well-being. As a network focused on supporting you with resources and coaching for effective implementation through cohort learning and peer connections, we remind you to take comfort in the fact that you are never alone.
Though this is proving to be the largest global crisis we have faced in a generation, we draw confidence from our ongoing committment to fostering a community of practice and learning that has reliably revealed the collective genius needed to respond during similar moments of adversity. I want to take this time to point you to our most recent resources on Change Management, Race Equity, and the Learning in Philanthropy Guidebook, that examine the benefits of embracing risk and experimentation in moments such as this one. In spite of the uncertainty that characterizes this moment, our community of grantmaking professionals is informed with ample lessons, frameworks and, most importantly, people, for producing results that align with our highest aspirations for the philanthropic sector.