BY Dion Cartwright, President & CEO, The Funders Network
It’s been an interesting time, to say the least.
I imagine many of us watch the national news or read the latest headlines and wonder whether we’re moving forward or backward. Others may decide to tune it all out and act like everything is “normal.”
More importantly, I imagine most of you, like me, are thinking about how we can best support the communities we serve — and each other — while keeping our eyes open to possibilities we might otherwise miss.
Imagination is something!
We use it to dream big, solve problems, and envision a better future. But imagination can also fuel uncertainty, turning our hopes into doubts about what’s really possible.
After 24 years in philanthropy, I’ve found myself wondering whether all this work is making the difference I’d hoped it would. I know from conversations with many of you, I’m not alone in asking those questions.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about faith — what it is and what it isn’t. And while I can’t claim to have figured everything out after all these years, I do know that faith requires us to look beyond our doubts and fears. To hold fast to what we know is right and what we believe is possible, even when the world gives us reason to question both.
I think about the vibrant neighborhoods of my hometown of Baltimore, the residents I met in Fresno fighting for clean water, and the tribal leaders at Standing Rock working to protect their land. I think about the emerging leaders TFN has helped shape, and the beautiful rainbow of people who make up philanthropy today. These are the people and places that give me hope and remind me why I love this work.
I find that same hope in you. From Boston to Houston, Atlanta to Dubuque and beyond, my friends and colleagues across TFN bring creativity, commitment and care to your communities. Change doesn’t always arrive in sweeping victories. Sometimes it happens neighborhood by neighborhood, street by street, policy by policy. It can be easy to miss just how much is happening when we’re focused on the challenges ahead.
I’ve seen what happens when the TFN network comes together. We may work in different places and focus on different issues, but we’re bound together by our belief in equity and justice, in the right of communities to shape their own futures and in the power philanthropy has to serve those causes. When we bring our stories and experiences together, we start to see just how many reasons we have for hope.
That’s what keeps me going in this work: The passion, the people, the relationships, and the way an idea in one place can spark change in another.
Which brings me to two words: MISSION POSSIBLE.
That’s the spirit we’re bringing to Oakland for TFN’s 2027 Annual Conference, March 15–17. It’s an opportunity to come together, share what we’re learning, be inspired by each other and imagine what’s possible.
Registration opens next week, and I hope you’ll join us.
I can’t wait to build the future we want together!
➡️ Click here to learn more about our conference.
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