I have been watching and worrying, wringing my hands, furiously reading and posting articles, vacillating between being terrified and sick to my stomach, and occasionally screaming about the current status of our country’s leadership and the crash course we seem to be on toward becoming all of our worst fears. As that is only so productive for so long, I am electing to make a list of things I can do, and our field can do, to affect change. I invite you to join me.
Give
I can give to a cause I believe is working for justice. I am already a member of the ACLU and both of my local NPR stations (why we have two is a post for another time, and another blogger) After reading How to Make Fun of Nazis about a town in Germany in which people pledge to donate to social justice for every step made by neo-Nazis, I made a donation to one of my favorite charities. After the Kavenaugh hearings, I sent money to a rape crisis center. Today, the morning after the Tree Of Life massacre, I sent money to the Democratic house candidate in my district.
Nonprofits, you can promote your work addressing these issues. You can engage donors to rally around you. You can engage people to fight hatred in all forms. You can protect your clients, members and community. You can solicit donations to execute (the non candidate related suggestions) listed below, assuming they are aligned with your mission and in concert with your programming and your Board. If not, I encourage you to support your partner agencies in doing so.
Call
I can call my elected officials. I (personally) have called Senator Portman’s office so often, I’m on a first name basis with some of the staff. (Hi Eric and Kevin!) If you’re going to call, be clear on what you want. Is it that a vote should be put off, or an FBI investigation be requested? Is it to vote no? Is it impeachment? Is it that protestors should not be allowed to carry guns? Is it to enhance prayer with action and legislation? Is it to protect and defend minority groups? Statements are nice but legislative or judicial action is the only way we’re going to ensure our values are upheld. While it’s true that our personal values aren’t all the same, our country’s values are pretty clear; even as we haven’t always or often lived up the them. This is one more opportunity to be who we wish we were.
Nonprofits, if you’re not already doing so, you can send out posts informing people how to engage elected officials. If you want to encourage a specific view point or recommend a letter be used, depending on the topic, you may have to follow different rules based on your IRS status. If you’re unsure, check your status before you do. The rules are different for 501 c 3s and a 501 c 4s. Both can lobby, but 3s can only do so to a point and cannot support candidates. I also recommend you check with your Board before you set down this path.
Join
I can join together with like-minded partners. I can join a current group; there are many. Or I can start my own. One person is just that. Three is a group. Ten is a coalition. 100 is movement. We can stand together to fight hatred and promote peace.
Nonprofits, we are all stronger together. If there’s a collation you can build or join with your partner agencies to promote an agenda of peace, I encourage you to consider it. Ten agencies standing together to promote their city as a sanctuary city sends a strong message. Ten agencies partnering to train people to protect their neighbors does as well. Again, bring your Board along with you.
Protest
I can, live and in person, go to a protest and put my life and my body on the line to stand up for my beliefs. It is my right and my choice. Yours, too. The only way to be heard sometimes is to also be seen.
Nonprofits, many of our strongest and oldest agencies were birthed in protest. You can bus people to marches. You can train them on the law and their rights. You can ensure your clients have a political voice and know how to use it. You can also take out an ad in the local paper, write an op-ed piece or post a letter on your website.
Speak Up and Speak Out
Speak out not only to the elected officials or on your computer, but to your family, friends, and neighbors when they say something disrespectful, racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim or just plain stupid, wrong or ignorant. Silence is acquiescence. There are no sidelines and, no (!) both sides do not have equal validity. There’s right and there’s wrong. Where do you stand?
Nonprofits, you can train people on how to do this. It’s hard and sometimes it’s dangerous. You can give people tools.
Vote, Support a Candidate or Run for Office
I can vote, as I have done and will continue to do. I can support, financially and with my time, candidates that I believe in. I can also run for office. So can you.
Nonprofits can and are training people on how to run, register to vote and support others. We can encourage them. We can support them. We can teach them how to raise money, file the paperwork and campaign. Many of you are already doing it. The rest of us can promote your work.
Heal
We have never healed the wounds of our history. We have never reconciled the hell of slavery. The history of women as chattel. The cost Native Americans paid. The scars of internment. The vestiges of WWII on its survivors and the families of those who weren’t as lucky. Our past is haunting us. We have some hard questions to face and some difficult conversation to have. Let’s have them. Let’s talk.
If all we have are words and war, I’d prefer words.
Nonprofits, we are already poised to hold these conversations. We can set ground rules, start the dialogue and begin the healing process.
What I can’t do, you can’t do and we can’t do is nothing. Our silence will not protect us.
What more can I do? What have you done? What else can our field do? I welcome your insight, your answers and your comments, with the understanding that hate will (still) not be perpetuated here.
NON PROFIT EVOLUTION 