Elevating our voices from every generation
These are hard times for our colleagues in government and in allied non-governmental organizations. Many of us are asking ourselves, what can we do to support our collective future? How can we not just focus on the many individual battles popping up everyday, but play and win the long game?
I want to call attention to the very timely thoughts from David Beckman, president of the Pisces Foundation, on what is required of the nonprofit environmental advocacy sector at this moment in time. I think his strategic instincts are applicable even beyond the climate+ space.
What popped for me in his LinkedIn post was how he answers the question of how we make progress in the years to come: “I hope we can engage what is, for me, the fundamental issue: the strength of our strategic posture. The most important shift we can make is to focus less (relatively speaking) on developing policy and more on policy’s prerequisites: influence and power. We have solutions. We need more sway.” In other words, solutions and sound policy proposals are great…when you hold power, but useless when you don’t, which is the moment we’re in at the federal level and in many states.
While Beckman speaks to the need for nonprofit organizations to take collective action—and for funders to support the infrastructure needed to build, sustain and strengthen movements—I believe that the strength of our collective movement extends to the individual leaders within nonprofit organizations (and their boards and top volunteers who are also brand ambassadors). Supporting the communications leadership capacity of these individuals—whether a policy expert, an executive director, or a grassroots organizer with deep relationships in a community—will be critical to the long-term success and sustainability of our movements. We’ve all watched anti-environmental interests significantly ramp up the amount of money they are pouring into promoting a cadre of voices who as often as not spout misinformation and disinformation, alongside their damaging policy proposals.
Let’s get to the work of “confronting and directly addressing an imbalanced policy-power equation” (h/t David Beckman) with not only broad coalitions, but skilled individual voices. When I use the word “skilled,” I’m looking at you, friends and colleagues. All of us are leaders, whether we hold a fancy title or not. Each of us has the professional and/or lived experience from our different backgrounds and generational wisdom to bring valuable ideas and perspectives to the fights ahead.
Please reach out if you or your organization wants support, coaching or training to advance your thought leadership, whether it’s honing how you share your calling to this work, how to be a go-to source for the media and nail that next interview, how best to share your ideas on LinkedIn, or all of the above and more (Resource Media has three-, six- and nine-month-long communications leadership development training programs for individuals, organizations, and coalitions). The world needs to hear your bold, innovative solutions for the challenges we face, and the urgency of the work ahead for us to act on your vision for the future.
As the civil rights leader John Lewis urged others when revisiting Selma a few months before he died, “Speak up, speak out, get in the way. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”
– Authored by Liz Banse, Senior Program Director
