No Change, No Gain
“Change has a bad reputation in our society, but it isn’t all bad - not by any means. In fact, change is necessary in life- to keep us moving, to keep us growing, to keep us interested. Imagine life without change. It will be static, boring, dull.”
-Dr. Dennis O’Grady
Since 2020- and the chaos, uncertainties, and transformations it sowed - for many in our sector it feels as if the last three years have been nothing but constant change. Whether it has been as nonprofits navigating Zoom meetings or parents navigating a child’s homework (what even is a quadratic equation?), we have been here with you experiencing the pandemic, social shifts, and racial reckoning of this time.
I am Deborah Barker, the Interim CEO for Mission Capital (MC). My co-writer for this blog is Denise Davis, MC’s board chair. We are cognizant that change breeds uncertainty and some anxiety, and we also acknowledge that Mission Capital has experienced much of it in the past year.
At the same time, we’ve learned incredible things about our clients and how imperative it is that the nonprofit sector survive. As Mission Capital, every day we discover new roles we can serve in the community.
How We’ve Evolved
Mission Capital has been on an incredible journey over the last few years. The staff, board, and key market partners have joined us as we have centered equity in everything we do.
We strive to go beyond only the personal aspect of an equity commitment and incorporate it into our organizational structures and policies.
What does that look like?
Internally, we have transformed to a people-first culture (for more info on that, check out this blog!) adopted an equity-centered internal hiring framework. We continue to strengthen our understanding of racial equity to foster a wider empathy for nonprofit communal work.
Externally, we’ve tailored our trainings and consulting to guarantee that we share insights and tools in all our offerings. Equity work is not something to add into our sector’s nonprofit work, but something to incorporate into every organizational decision each of us makes. Our board and community partners have been with us every step of this journey as we’ve found ways to create sustainable change.
In the words of former President Barack Obama, “I believe in change because I believe in you.”
We have not implemented these changes because they are popular or easy. Rather, we believe in the power and dreams of our nonprofit partners and sector, and we want to be the best version of ourselves for you.
So, what are the results of our labors? Glad you asked!
Here are a few highlights of what we’re doing and how those changes and commitments are showing up:
In April, MC staff and board gathered in-person to strategize different ways of improving our services. We are excited to unveil the fruits of those conversations in the coming months.
We have new and revamped programming beginning this fall! We continue to offer the equitable professional development, nonprofit capacity-building, and consulting services that you know and love. Plus, we’re introducing new offerings, and bundled training packages. Check those inboxes for more information coming soon.
In Good Measure (GM) we have shifted our programming processes to deepen our relationship and understanding of impact with the Central Texas community, which includes funders and nonprofit leaders, data champions, and evaluators. Prioritizing values such as transparency and shared leadership, GM continues to work with the community to authentically hold race and equity lenses in our Measuring What Matters (MWM) revamp, MiniGrants, and Data You Can Use programming.
The MWM Planning Committee is wrapping up its final recommendations from the Knology evaluation and will be sharing with our community this summer.
GM intends to launch the MiniGrants applications in mid/late summer.
Prioritizing values such as transparency and shared leadership, GM is working to launch Data You Can Use in the late fall.
Thanks to community feedback, we are introducing a brand-new Membership program with exciting new changes and the return of some key benefits. Shh, don’t tell anyone… unlimited Job Board postings are back!
We unfortunately had to pause our Child Welfare work earlier this year to ensure the community’s work is well-supported and funded. That pause will remain in effect until Mission Capital has welcomed its new CEO.
MC board members are hard at work finalizing the details, so we can kick off the search for our next CEO in the coming months. We anticipate filling the role by late 2023.
We also have some opportunities for you to join the growth, we’re looking for new board members! Are you ready to join our spectacular board and expand Mission Capital’s capabilities? We want to hear from you.
On behalf of Mission Capital, Denise and I are both so excited to see what the future holds for our community. We see the commitment, hard work and drive of our fellow nonprofits, and we are, as always, honored to be your partner and look forward to supporting you for another 20+ years.
Thank you for your service to others. Each one of you and your organizations are inspiring.
Deborah Barker
Mission Capital Interim CEO
Denise Davis
Mission Capital Board Chair