Equity Journey: What MC has To Give

You gave me

What you did not have, and I gave you
What I had to give—together, we made

Something greater from the difference.

-Alberto Rίos “When Giving is All We have.”

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If you can believe it, we’ve hit August. We have now passed the seventh month in 2022, which means we’re more than halfway through the calendar year! For us at Mission Capital, August represents the beginning of a new fiscal year as we roll out program services over the next 12 months that meet the needs of our social sector.

2022 has wrought some major challenges, changes, and opportunities for the Central Texas area. We have witnessed our nonprofit partners admirably rise to the occasion as we all navigate rapid regional growth, the impacts of inflation, unprecedented workforce trends and escalating demands for community services.

In the spirit of continued optimism and resiliency, we at Mission Capital want to reiterate our equity commitment and share some highlights of our program offerings as we support our nonprofit and philanthropic sector through this not quite post-pandemic era.

This year, we continue to work hard at refining a slew of equity and people-focused projects. If you have been following us for a while, you know that in 2019 (together with the Mission Capital board & staff) we cast a bold mission and vision to advance race equity in Central Texas.

Why? 

We believe this mission pivot is critical in examining and addressing the impacts of structural racism in our institutions and community. We believe that systematic racism can be addressed through authentic dialogue and the commitment to building deep interpersonal, institutional and community relationships. Furthermore, we’re working to unify individuals and nonprofits to the vision of a Central Texas where BIPOC individuals have equal voice in the organizations that serve them, the same opportunities for funding, and can celebrate the diverse experiences that make our sector stronger.

“We weren’t sure about the journey or what it would mean, but we needed to practice what we were teaching.”

-Madge Vasquez, CEO.

Mission Capital has existed as an organization for over twenty years, formerly operating as Greenlights for Nonrofits. While we have always shared our capacity building, consulting, membership, and collective impact backbone services with nonprofits in the Central Texas area, the worldwide shock of COVID-19 gave us daily reminders of systemic barriers still existing in the nonprofit and philanthropic sector, as well as stark disparities in our community.

As we enter the 4th year of our Strategic Plan centering racial equity, we continue to deepen our progress and work collaboratively with community partners to achieve 3 strategic goals.

We’d like to share with you three examples, anchored by our strategic goals, that demonstrate our impact:

Goal 1 - Closing the Racial Leadership Gap

In Spring 2020, Mission Capital was part of the Race to Lead report alongside the Building Movement Project, which works to close the racial leadership gap within our nonprofit sector nationally. Through this research, we learned that less than 20% of our nonprofits are led by BIPOC leaders, though our nonprofits primarily serve communities of color. The data also showed that BIPOC nonprofit leaders are consistently under-capitalized and receive significantly less philanthropic funding, mentorship opportunities and organizational supports (than their white ED/CEO peers). As a result, Mission Capital, in collaboration with Meme Styles Consulting, has been offering the WeThrive BIPOC ED/CEO Coaching Circle since 2021 as a place for BIPOC executives and leaders to share resources and collaborate as peer cohort leaders. We will continue to offer WeThrive this upcoming year, be on the lookout for future cohort dates.

Goal 2 - Increase Organizational Resilience & Sustainability

In May 2020, Mission Capital worked alongside a group of 13 local funders, businesses, government entities and community partners to survey the evolving needs of the nonprofit community during COVID-19. This collaboration led to a new wealth of data highlighting the community needs of our nonprofit sector, and to new funding opportunities for our nonprofit sector, including a focus on BIPOC led & serving nonprofits. This data work was championed and resulted in a resolution to create the City of Austin’s ANCHOR Relief Fund to provide financial resources and stability to nonprofits weathering COVID-19. Over the last couple of years, Mission Capital has served as a community partner providing technical assistance and coaching to nonprofits. Stay tuned as we’ll be sharing upcoming offerings this year to help nonprofits navigate infrastructure and succession planning needs in the midst of the Great Retirement, Great Resignation and Great Reset within our social sector.   

Goal 3 - Expand Collaborative Networks

For those of you who are currently Mission Capital Members…thank you!  And for those of you interested in joining our Membership Program, the time is ripe. This year we’re revamping our Membership program to ensure our offerings are accessible, relevant, and timely for your organizations. Details are forthcoming, and we’ll continue to bring an equity ethos and lens to our membership work, as we create more opportunities for peer connection and learning. We are also seeking to expand our membership network, while leveraging strategic partnerships with peer capacity building partners.  

At Mission Capital, we are a community of perpetual learners, and we have learned so much over the past few years as we’ve humbly, but courageously, sought to operationalize a racial equity vision through our work. We continue to focus on building an internal culture of inclusion and belonging, and hope that you all feel that in our external work. We are always looking for feedback from our partners and members on ways to enhance racial equity in the nonprofit sector. In the meantime, as always, we are proud to work for and with you, our community.