Like many of you, Tuesday night cut me to the core. It felt like an enormous step backward toward hate, bigotry, xenophobia, economic uncertainty.
When I woke Wednesday morning after less than 2 hours of sleep I could not comprehend how I was going to get through the day. I wanted to hide under the covers and melt into oblivion.
But instead my calendar dictated that I would have to endure a full day of meetings. I didn’t know how I was going to be my usual, optimistic self cheering on nonprofit leaders. Instead of my normal perspective of hope and opportunity, I could now only see the seemingly insurmountable obstacles standing in their way.
But to my complete surprise I found solace in those very nonprofit leaders.
My first call was with an amazing woman who is working to revamp journalism and make it more responsive, accessible, and sustainable. We started the call commiserating about the state of the country. But she quickly pivoted to her work. She described her plans, the networks she has formed, the vision she has for stronger, more effective local journalism. As she continued to talk I could feel — to my complete disbelief — my heart start to soar.
As the day went on, I had similar conversations with social changemakers who were disappointed and frustrated certainly, but full of ideas and new energy for moving forward.
And the drumbeat continued on throughout the day. The thing I kept hearing from nonprofit leaders over and over — via social media, phone calls, blog posts, or emails — was a steely resolve to work harder. As one of my clients put it, “I look forward to working with you in this new era. Our work is more difficult, but more critical.”
Far from being defeated, perhaps this election will have the opposite effect on nonprofit leaders. To me they seem emboldened.
And as I thought about it more, that makes complete sense.
Nonprofit leaders are nothing if not resilient and tenacious. Over many decades they have weathered deep funding cuts, changing political winds, chilly regulatory environments, dramatically growing demand for services. And they just keep getting back up.
Every. Single. Time.
Nonprofit leaders and the critical work they do aren’t going anywhere. And thank God for that. Because now — more than ever — we need nonprofit leaders to lead us toward greater inclusion, greater tolerance, greater economic equity, a greater democracy.
Perhaps, instead of being the final blow, this election will serve as a lightning rod to galvanize our social change sector to lead us all, amid this very dark night, toward the light.
And there is a tremendous amount to be done.
So, let’s get to work.
Photo Credit: Greg Rakozy
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