GV in December: see you in 2025
I hope this newsletter finds you fed, hydrated, and rested, and that you have some things to look forward to!
I'm listening to: Jamila Woods' Water Made Us. It's a love letter to love - romantic love, friendship love, self love, community love ... it's holding me in a way that feels warm, silly, and whole. Her album before this one, LEGACY! LEGACY! is also so. good. It's in part an homage to many Black Artists and leaders, including poet Nikki Giovanni (RIP - Track 3 on the album).
I'm reading: Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen. This feels helpful as I continue to unpack my ideas and socialization around gender, sexuality, and bodies ... especially my own!
I’m still working my way through the Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, which outlines Project 2025. I'm also starting to get a better lay of the land through Project Esther—another political strategy from the Heritage Foundation that outlines a plan to dismantle civil society organizations through accusations of antisemitism. (already in process via HR 9495, I learned about this through Diaspora Alliance, an organization that works to strengthen the values of multiracial, pluralistic democracy by confronting antisemitism and its instrumentalization.)
UPDATES & LEARNING
RISK & AVOIDING "OBEYING IN ADVANCE"
Some funders are doing the opposite of what many of us think is the correct* response: some are closing up shop, some are freezing their funds, and some organizations are changing their language to be less "woke." This certainly isn't all funders, but it's enough that many movement organizations are scrambling for resources and strategy shifts more than they were before.
This is a distressing trend—AND many folks are doing great work to protect civil society and to encourage funders to get louder, not quieter, in their support of grantees that may be threatened by the incoming administration. Just a couple of these folks are:
Solidaire Network nurtures relationships between social movements and donor members to create regenerative systems rooted in love and justice. One of their funds, the Janisha R. Gabriel Movement Protection Fund (MPF), is especially relevant to this conversation. From their website: "MPF moves resources rapidly and securely to protect frontline organizers facing immediate security threats, while investing in longer-term safety infrastructure. MPF protects frontline movement organizers from state repression, vigilante violence, digital attacks and institutional backlash as a result of their organizing work."
RISE Together Fund is a fund initiative from Proteus Fund that "works alongside impacted communities to advance their civil rights, fight for full inclusion, and promote their contributions to democracy, culture, and society.
I'm curious about how other folks in philanthropy are thinking about risk and their resources. If we focus on philanthropy's survival more than we focus on civil society as a whole, where will that get us? I don't have a ton of answers, and I'm interested to see what the next six months feel like as we start to understand what's "real" about these political strategies we're reading about. Who else have y'all seen mobilizing—rather than restricting—their resources (not just money, but platforms, power, networks)?
*like any of us know what the ultimate, correct responses are ... I certainly don't! I'm not arguing for a one-size-fits all solution, and I've never held serious fiduciary duties at a foundation, so it's easy for me to say things like "HEY MOBILIZE YOUR RESOURCES. THIS IS A RAINY DAY, AND DOES YOUR ENDOWMENT REALLY NEED TO EXIST IN PERPETUITY?!" but today is not the day for this conversation. What I'm saying is: I'm not an expert, but I do have opinions.
PROCESSING & TAKING ACTION IN COMMUNITY
I'm so grateful for community and friendship. So many people in this wacky field of work are compassionate, brilliant, and fun.
Next week I've got the opportunity sit with some of these compassionate and brilliant folks to untangle some of the themes I and others are pulling out of the Heritage Foundation's strategies through an event here in NYC on Monday, December 16. MERLTech's December Technology Salon is an off-the-record discussion exploring How Will Big Tech Influence the 2025 Administration? I think the event is already at capacity, but if you'd like to get on the waitlist, you can RSVP via MERLTech's website.
The last Technology Salon was so generative and (surprisingly) hopeful. Linda Raftree, MERLTech's founder and all-around lovely human being, wrote this summary of the group's discussion of the question, "Can we safely use AI to conduct research on Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Violence against Children (VAC)?"
I'm grateful for forward motion that isn't driven by urgency or perfection, but by connection, curiosity, and practicality.
SEE YOU IN 2025?
I'm getting ready to go into reflection and planning mode, and I'm feeling mostly excited about next year! I'm building out my conference calendar and here's what's in my plan:
Good Tech Fest (April/May)
Exponent Philanthropy Annual Conference (November)
What else? What events + convenings do y'all find most valuable?
I've also got some capacity for consulting, coaching, facilitation, and speaking - if you'd like to explore working together in 2025, let's chat!
HEALTH UPDATE FOLLOW-UP
In my last newsletter I shared some health news, and I've felt so supported and seen by so many folks! It's wild how many other folks with uteruses also have PCOS and/or PMDD. I'm happy to report that I'm feeling—for the most part—good, which is itself a wild thing to process.
Always happy to talk to other folks who experience this stuff, and to compare notes - knowing that all of our bodies are different and have different needs. (That said, supplementing Inositol has been a game-changer for me! Wow!)
QUESTION
How are you thinking about your resources in this moment, whether you're a funder or not? Are you in scarcity/bring up the drawbridge mode? Are you in give-money-to-your-neighbors-for-groceries mode? Somewhere in between? Reply here, send me a DM, or reach out to genevieve@gv-advisory.com
ABOUT GV
Guided by collaboration, humanity, and joy, GV Advisory helps social impact organizations embrace data and cultivate a learning culture. This work enables organizations to evolve into entities that operate based on evidence and relationship to community.
GV in November: everything is political
What a time. I recently saw someone use the greeting (or something like it), “I hope this email finds you navigating the trauma of the American experience,” and I hope you are, however the last few weeks are hitting you and the people you love. If it’s not hitting you, or if you’re celebrating the results of the U.S. Presidential election, I’m not sure how you ended up reading this newsletter!
I'm listening to: (NSFW, probably) IDLES’ Joy is an Act of Resistance. Crass’ The Feeding of the Five Thousand (The Second Sitting) has also made repeat appearances the last few weeks.
I'm reading: Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. Highly recommended to everyone, but especially to those who organize convenings and events. It’s also felt incredibly healing as I come to more fully understand what my body and brain need to want to be alive (more on that later)!
I’m also reading—carefully, slowly, methodically—the Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, which outlines Project 2025. It’s a horrifying document. More on this in a bit.
UPDATES & LEARNING
Well, here we are. I’m not particularly suprised, though I am experiencing a range of emotions between grief and anger and fear. I’m also still experiencing joy and gratitude and silliness (is silliness an emotion? I think so). I’m doubling down on my routines (eating whole foods, making sure I move my body) to ensure that I’m present and healthy in this moment and the next. I'm also in the process of re-painting a bicycle, which nourishes six-year-old Genevieve.
PROJECT 2025
Reading the Mandate for Leadership - really reading it, not skimming like I did before the election - has been wild. Routine has been crucial here: I give myself an hour a day, and I’m practicing a lot of discipline to make sure I don’t get swallowed by it or sink into depression and despair.
When I’ve shared that I’m reading the Mandate, a few colleagues have responded as though it’s a form of self harm: “why would you put yourself through that?!” I understand where this comes from, but we need to understand the implications of this playbook (a nearly 1000-page document that contains policies and initiatives that the Heritage Foundation has been working on in some form or another since the late 1970s) for our work and for ourselves.
I’m not engaging with this document as a form of panic or performative rabbit-hole-diving. Each time I sit down with it, I have a few questions in mind:
What implications does Project 2025 have for the organizations supporting trans youth in counties that voted heavily in favor of Trump and the Republican party? How might funders provide poltiical and social cover for folks on the ground? What work do we need to do with Boards and staff members to get clear on messaging and boundaries, so that when a grantee and the folks they work with are threatened, they have support and we don't get mired in "we don't want to get political" traps?
What implications does Project 2025 have for reproductive healthcare and reproductive justice movement workers? How can Knowledge Management and organizational learning practices provide support and safety to these folks?
What implications does Project 2025 have for data security? Should I be advising my clients to stop collecting sensitive data all together? Or should we be more focused on tech stacks? How much can we rely on tech providers? Will data that are secure now be secure in the future?
…among a number of other concerns, such as the implications for 501(c)(3)s deemed to be supporting terrorist or ‘woke extremist’ causes (according to the Mandate, these include supporting trans youth, reproductive healthcare, racial justice, health equity, immigration justice and advocacy, and more). This is far less about who the president of this country is, and more about where folks at all levels of government are looking to implement (or further implement) the policies outlined in the Mandate.
While the scope of my client work hasn’t actually changed much, the tone has. This is something I’m working into all of my projects—if this is something you’re working on, too, or would like to collaborate on, please let me know!
So, that’s work. Spending this time reading through the Mandate is helping me think through practical, accessible actions I can take in my personal life. Some of these were already happening, but others are new:
Moving all of my personal communication (even if it doesn’t feel relevant right now, it might be) to Signal, rather than using iMessage
Continuing to NEVER track my menstrual cycle in an app - always on paper, always destroy-able
Working with my doctor to ensure the medications I need to function well in day-to-day life, which all happen to be gender-affirming hormone-based care, are the most available, accessible, and reliable they can be over the long term
Focusing on physical health - physical strength feels more and more important to me - I am mostly able-bodied and that can be a helpful thing for other folks. I am also incredibly aware of the “your body, my choice” narrative and I feel the need to trust in my ability to defend myself
SOME OTHER NOTES ABOUT THE CURRENT MOMENT
CONFLICT
Something I’ve been thinkgin about a lot lately is the capacity (or, in some cases, the lack thereof) for generative conflict on the progressive side of things. The “left” (whatever that means in current American politics) is sort of famous for infighting. I’m not saying “we need to unify” - I think that can actually be a quite harmful narrative when it’s not centered in justice and repair. I do think that we need to strengthen our muscle for disagreement. Not “agreeing to disagree,” but really figuring out how to come together and work through disagreement to the point where the things we disagree on don’t pose a threat to ourselves or our work. There are folks who have really figured this out - hello, Black Feminists - but I think disposability culture is still incredibly strong within our organizations and across the larger progressive nonprofit sphere. Now is a great time to read adrienne maree brown’s we will not cancel us.
PANIC
I saw this tweet the other day, and I think everyone else should, too:
“I mean this when I say I empathize with people’s pain and fear but your panic is white supremacy parading as care if you’re not doing anything to make a difference, however small. your panic about politics is only as useful as what you’re willing to plant to build a better world.” - @literElly on Twitter (or whatever it’s called) - they’re an organizer who is compiling a Welcome Packet for those who would like to get into organizing. You can learn more about them and their work here.
A PERSONAL (POLITICAL) UPDATE
NOTE: I debated whether or not it was ‘appropriate’ to share this on a public/work-focused platform, but we tend to act like we don’t have bodies attached to these heads we see on Zoom, and I think that hurts us. So, here’s some values-alignment! :) TW: mentions of depression and suicidal ideation! Close this window if you’re done reading!
October was exhausting! I’m realizing that the last six or seven years have been exhausting. And I’m figuring out why!
I’ve been diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS - an endocrine disorder) and Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD - a depressive disorder). Neither of these are directly life-threatening, but wow, are they impactful.
I won’t get too into the symptoms (you can google on your own, or if you have either of these disorders, you already know, and I’m sorry), but I will say that I had become so accustomed to fatigue and pain that I forgot those things had names. Now that I’m on a mix of hormones and supplements, I’m realizing just how tired I’ve been. Not tired, fatigued. For years, I haven’t been able to get through a day without at least one nap, I’ve struggled with my mental health, and I’ve struggled with injury and pain - pain that, until now, I didn’t realize was called “pain.”
This is reframing a lot for me, and I’m nowhere near finished processing this, but it’s got me thinking about how we think (or how I think) about illness, disability, fatigue, and everything that comes with those things. For years, I’ve thought “if I only catch up on sleep,” or “If I get skinny,” or “If only I wasn’t so lazy,” and “maybe this is just what getting older is like - surely other people think about dying this much?” I’ve even thought that I was imagining my struggle! For a long time, I’ve only been able to accomplish one or two groups of tasks per day, which has usually meant I’ve worked, and, if I was lucky, I cooked a meal.
I’ve carried a lot of shame about this. I want to appear as though I’m an incredibly strong and put together multi-tasking ball of energy and brilliant ideas. When I travel for work, I spend many days in recovery. I cancel plans. Often. This has all had a massive impact on my social life, my work, and my overall quality of life. As a person whose rent, clothing, and food depends on how valuable other folks find my brain, these disorders (both of which result in brain fog) have been FRUSTRATING.
Turns out (surprise) I don’t have to white-knuckle being alive! While these symptoms are common, they’re not a life sentence. I feel so lucky to have found an OBGYN who heard me talk about my symptoms and said “nope, you shouldn’t be living like this.” (Shout out to Dr. Suleskey at NYU Langone!)
It’s also been wild to learn that I haven’t been imagining my pain. I haven’t been dramatic, I’m not lazy, I’m not weak … and I can trust my body. For the first time in years, I feel like I’m on the same team as my body. My body is my home, after all.
I guess all of this is to say, especially to fellow uterus-havers: get your hormones checked! Turns out, suicidal ideation before your period and heavy, painful periods isn’t “just a luck of the draw.” To those of you without uteruses, get your bloodwork done! If you need it, take your vitamin D! A lesson I’m still learning: CHRONIC PAIN IS NOT “NORMAL.” While it is a part of the human experience, you can get support.
This is political because:
I am receiving gender-affirming care for these diagnoses. Even though I am nonbinary, I am super femme. I’ve not had to navigate any barriers to care based on my gender.
I have incredible insurance that I can afford to pay for out of pocket. The costs without insurance for some of the testing for these diagnoses are WILD.
Though I will be less impacted by the incoming administration than other folks (I am white, I am in a heterosexual-presenting relationship, I am for the most part able-bodied, I am cis-presenting, I live in NYC - though this election resulted in some BONKERS power grabs for the Mayor’s office and the NYPD), I am concerned about the implications of Project 2025 on the accessibility of my new-found health support.
I guess this is to say that the personal is political, we all have bodies, and it is a necessary political act to take care of these bodies and to make sure others also have the ability and option to take care of their bodies, too. I feel incredibly lucky to have the friends that I do, who love me so well, and to have a partner who has only ever known this fatigued, sad (but still hilarious) version of me, and who has taken such good care of me and our home when I've been unable to do so.
It feels strange to feel this way, but brighter days are ahead. This is not to minimize the danger many folks are and have been facing. So are darker days, but we really do belong to each other. We can keep us safe, but we have to choose to do so, every day. The work that this will require is for another discussion, which many folks have been having for years.
GV in October: getting ready to nest
It's autumn! Crisp air and cozy sweaters. Listening to this song a lot.
I'm listening to: Intocable's Modus Operandi. My brother James and I got to see these guys play on their 30th anniversary tour and it was unbelievable. They're a six-piece (accordion, two six-string guitars, a drummer, a bassist, and a percussionist who spent just as much time skillfully playing conga as he did tracing a heart shape over his chest whenever the band sang the word "corazón." I fell in love with him immediately.) and they play incredible, cinematic, lovely music. Not a single word of English was spoken or sang (sung?), and the whole crowd knew every. single. word. Everyone (us included) was wearing cowboy boots and fringe. The whole place felt so full of love and joy and sorrow, all mixed up together.
I'm reading: Last month I was hoping to jump into David Bellos and Alexandre Motagu's Who Owns This Sentence? A history of copyrights and wrongs, and I have! Like I mentioned in September's newsletter, ownership is a bonkers concept, especially when it comes to ideas. I have such a hard time thinking through my own approach to 'intellectual property.' Super interested in how others think about this - especially those of you who exist in both the "I work for myself and need to be recognized for my efforts in order to get paid" and "I think everyone should share most things/we all belong to each other" worlds.
UPDATES
It's almost here! Generosity Xchange is next week on October 16 & 17! It's virtual! It's free! Take a peek at the agenda and register for free. I posted about the other sessions that I'm especially excited about here. (I'll be talking about values-aligned data & tech on the Main Stage on October 17 at 2:15p CST.)
Unless something comes up at the last minute, I don't have any more events in 2024! I'll be starting my annual hunker-down. I'm shifting to my autumnal animal activities - nesting, learning, breathing, and gathering soft, warm items to lay on/under.
LEARNING
LEARNING ABOUT MYSELF
I'm realizing that I really enjoy speaking! (turns out this is more surprising to me that anyone close to me, ha!) So I’m saying out loud: get at me for speaking requests please and thank you!
please hire me to show you photos of bugs and yell… (ft. Annie Zhou, Sr. Consultant @ TCC Group, Jenn Dickinson, Grants Director @ Helmsley, and Jeannine Corey, Founder of Philanthropy.io)
...or to do whatever this is. (ft. Annie Rhodes, Chief Strategy Officer @ Fluxx, Victoria Vrana, Chief Executive Officer @ GlobalGiving, and Ori Carmel, CEO/Founder of Sowen) Thanks to Shawn Garrison @ Fluxx for the top photo and to Sophie Blondeau @ Sowen for the bottom photo!
LEARNING ABOUT THE WORK - IT’S WORKING!
I've been working with a funding organization for a few years—they first got in touch with me to see if I could help them choose a database for their impact measurement. I said "Not yet, but I'd like to help you think through the why of your data. Then we can talk about the how/where of your data." This was a risk—their board was hungry for data and dashboards and graphs—but they didn't have a whole lot of clarity around why they wanted those things. We had to uncover some core assumptions about the work and the community. When we started this work, the board threw around phrases like, "everyone in the community is coming to us for a handout" and they were rating potential grantees' proposals based on grammar and punctuation.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, these same folks are taking a holistic and compassionate approach to grant-making and capacity building. They're embarking on their first year-long collaborative data and measurement design work with a cohort of grantees across their community.
I REALLY hoped this is where we'd end up, but I wasn't sure that we would! I knew I was taking a risk by inviting folks to focusing on shame, power, and feelings before getting to the data. Especially for this length of time. I'm happy to report that we've kicked off the tactical data work, and things are going well - we've built our foundation and our trust (our emotional roadmap - IYKYK), and we know how to care for each other as we do this work.
It’s important for me to name that this isn’t a “me” success - it’s all of us! staff, leadership, board - we stayed curious and really dug in, and now we’re here! I'm feeling grateful and inspired by these folks. I love my clients so much. One day I'll get around to writing a case study, but for now, this will have to do.
LEARNING & THINKING ABOUT WHAT WE DON’T SAY IN CERTAIN ROOMS
Fluxx's FluxxCon24 was a blast (see photographic evidence above). I'm so grateful to the organizers, speakers, and the folks with whom I got to share space and learnings. I already shared a few of my reflections, but I have more! During a keynote panel, I had an opportunity to name a few things, so I did! Here are the highlights:
American Philanthropy is rooted in land theft, genocide, and enslavement - all acts committed in service of white supremacy and racial capitalism (I learned this term by reading Cedric J. Robinson's Black Marxism and Ruth Wilson Gilmore's Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation).
It's not just "the bad guys in the shadows" who can do harm with the data we collect - all of us are capable of causing harm, and we've got some work to do on our collective accountability practices!
The continued rise of fascism and authoritarianism is a massive threat to our work and the communities we claim to work with and for.
After that session, I got (mostly) positive feedback - but the majority of it was communicated in hushed tones and out of earshot of other attendees. Folks shared that the session was "refreshing" and that "we don't talk about this stuff enough." There were some folks who brought this up in their questions to panelists or during their own sessions (👀 Aleda Gagarin), which was lovely and heartening, but I was struck by just how quietly folks were saying "we should say this louder." What might happen if more of us said these things in more rooms and at a louder volume? What might it take for folks to feel like they can turn up the volume? I don't think that what I said was all that radical or earth-shaking - can we lift the bar a bit here?
As I reflect on this, I'm feeling grateful for the opportunities I've had to continue my political education. I've learned that when my understanding of these issues is rooted in historical context and analyses of power, I'm way less worried about ruffling feathers or offending folks. I'm not saying "some people are mean and some people are not." I'm not saying "we should all get along." I'm also not saying "I'm a good person and y'all are not." I'm saying: we are all subject to an incredibly violent system. We all participate in this system to varying degrees, and we cannot divorce the history (and therefore current state) of philanthropy from these systems. I think it's irresponsible for us to talk about "driving philanthropy forward" without addressing these issues. I didn't always feel comfortable in these conversations! I used to wring my hands and I used to subscribe to white feminism and respectability politics. (And I likely still do - more behaviors and biases still to be discovered and unlearned!) ...all of this is to say that I wouldn't be nearly as comfortable as I am in these conversations without the teachings of:
Monique Melton - her class for white folks about wealth redistribution in service of Black Liberation, Money Work, is EXCELLENT. Her coaching is incredible, too.
White Awake - they offer great courses for folks of European descent. I've taken Radical Genealogy and Before We Were White, and I'll continue looking to this organization for resources and guidance as I continue my unlearning/learning.
There are many more resources to name here, but some books that were directly helpful to this instance of saying things out loud include Racecraft by Karen E. Fields & Barbara J. Fields and The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, a collection of essays compiled by INCITE!
A note on the above: I have a lot to say, but I'm a white woman - I'm firmly at the top of the white supremacy pile. I'm working to be sure that I'm using the access and power that I have, and I am not the one who should be leading these conversations. We need more Black folks, more queer folks, more disabled folks, more trans folks, more Indigenous folks, more folks who are not currently at the top of our power structures on these stages using these microphones. (I also can't speak to how it would have felt to be a person of color on that stage, looking out at mostly—not all, but mostly—white faces. I'm not sure what safety looks like in these spaces.) I also know these things are being talked about and acted upon in other, perhaps more radical, more social-justice oriented spaces. For the purposes of what I'm writing right now, I'm thinking about the main stages of mainstream philanthropy events and the chasm between what's named in mainstream philanthropy (and techno-philanthropy) and what's happening in folks' lives.
I’ll share thoughts on the other feedback I heard at FluxxCon soon! Spoiler alert: “that was…interesting.” ha!
HURRICANE HELENE MUTUAL AID
Hurricane Helene has hit a bunch of folks hard. Please consider donating to mutual aid efforts to support folks on the ground. Find more info via Pansy Collective, a queer and trans-powered collective based in Appalachia. From their IG: "Pansies are colorful and durable flowers with flexible soft stems which allow them to survive frost and trampling. That is why when we say we are pansies, we mean - we will survive, grow, bloom." Their linktree will get you to where you need to get!
QUESTION
What's something that you think your field needs to talk about more on its main stages and in its main streams? let me know what you think! genevieve@gv-advisory.com
GV in September: a lot
September is a sad, joyful, wacky month. Seven years ago in September, my father died (boo). Three years ago this month, my husband and I got married (yay!).
Grief and joy, grief and joy. Together, always.
I'm listening to: Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah's() Ancestral Recall - I told a dear old friend that I was feeling cranky, and they sent me this. It filled a void I didn't know I had. Maybe you'll like it too?
I'm reading: Nothing! Nothing yet, anyway. I've felt a little overwhelmed, so my brain hasn't been a reading brain. That said, I've got plenty of plane time later this month, so I'm hoping to start David Bellos and Alexandre Motagu's Who Owns This Sentence? A history of copyrights and wrongs. Ownership is a bonkers concept, especially when it comes to ideas. I have such a hard time thinking through my own approach to 'intellectual property.' If y'all know of more books like this, lemme know!
UPDATES
I'm gearing up for FluxxCon in Denver, CO next week (Sept 23 - 26)! Let me know if you'll be there, too! Sidenote: If any of y'all are in Denver and would like to get together to yell about change, data, knowledge management, or bicycles, let me know!
Next month (October 16 & 17) I have the privilege of speaking at Generosity Xchange! This one is virtual! Take a peek at the agenda and register for free.
talkin' bout an emotional roadmap!
LEARNING
Alignment is a practice. This blog by JustOrg Design is SO. GOOD. The opening line resonates and resonates and resonates: "Organizational alignment is not the same as continuous agreement. It is not a moment, or an event, or a document, or a destination. It cannot be demanded nor enforced. Organizational alignment is a practice." This is one of those concepts that I read and think, "well, yeah, of course," but like any concept, intellectual understanding does not equal embodied understanding. This feels especially important at this moment in time - project momentum feels hard to find, let alone maintain. So - something I've been using to ground myself is this idea of re-alignment. Day by day, how might we re-align? It slows me down and it's helped to keep the fog at bay. I learned about this blog via a post by Jeanne Bell, who is worth a follow on LinkedIn!
I'm re-learning that having colleagues to learn with outside of client work (or even outside of deadlines and presentations and appearing professional) is a key ingredient for my emotional survival as an independent consultant. I'm feeling grateful that I made this post and now a small, loving group of incredible Measurement, Evaluation, & Learning and International Development practitioners from across the globe are getting together monthly to work through the Matriarchal Design Futures workbook together. All of our work involves facilitating a lot of group learning. We've only met once, but it already feels good to hold this learning together and more casually than how I might usually hold something like this: when there's a contract and/or professional reputation involved, my energy is different - what I expect from myself is different. This feels like a soft, gentle way to engage in learning, which is welcome at this wacky moment in time.
I'm keeping the bike learning going! I disassembled, cleaned, painted, and rebuilt a 1978 Olmo racing bike. I feel like the kid in Breaking Away! I even got a funny little hat to wear. The Olmo's got a mixed groupset of Campagnolo and Galli components - learning about Italian bicycle component manufacturing politics is wild. Machismo, fascism, and questionable knowledge management practices, oh my! Since this month is a big feelings-about-my-dad month, this has been a cool way to hang out with him. (He spent a good portion of his life on a bike. He also spent a good portion of his life laughing. Both of these are happy things that I also spend time doing.)
a photo of my dad getting ready for a race sometime in the 80s, next to a polaroid of me working on my Olmo
Steel is real!
QUESTION
What do you practice during times of transition? Whether it's changing seasons, changing political landscapes, life changes ... how do you keep the ground under you (or do you)?
GV in August: bikes bikes bikes
It's August! The heat in NYC is breaking and we're getting lots of rain. By the way, I’m now publishing this newsletter on LinkedIn. Feel free to subscribe (or not)!
I'm reading: David Graeber's Debt: The First 5000 Years. It's so good - if you liked The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (David Graeber & David Wengrow), you'll also love this. ...I'm also flipping through the Big Blue Book of Bike Repair and Zinn & The Art of Road Bike Maintenance, but more on that later.
I'm listening to: Remi Wolf's Big Ideas (I can't stop dancing!) and Josaleigh Pollett's In The Garden, By The Weeds (who is playing Boise tonight [8/8], Seattle tomorrow [8/9], and Portland on Sunday [8/11] in case you're in the area - they're INCREDIBLE live.)
UPCOMING HANGOUTS
I'm gearing up to do a bit of travel and some speaking this fall! Let me know if you'll be in these areas (in-person or virtual) and let's say hi to each other!
September 23 -26, Denver, CO: FluxxCon - on Tuesday, September 23, I'll be joining the 'Big Ideas' panel conversation called Data, at the intersection of Intent and Impact, led by Ori Carmel of Sowen. The next day (Wednesday, September 24) I'll be talking about cultivating an organizational change practice - after yelling for just a bit, I'll be joined by Jeannine Corey of Philanthropy.io for a panel conversation!
October 16 & 17, virtual: Generosity Xchange hosted by Neon One (and the wonderful Tim Sarrantonio) - I'll be presenting about data + feelings! We'll talk through how emotional roadmaps can support social impact organizations' technical work.
Late October, dates TBD - Andrew Means, M.P.P. and I are planning on hosting a small restorative retreat for social impact leaders (nonprofits, philanthropy, social enterprises, etc.) that are wanting to find a way to sustain their impact through better wellness practices. We're focusing our first retreat on senior leaders (Director and above) from across the United States. Let me know if this sounds interesting to you and I'll send over a brief expression of interest form!
LEARNING
Something simple AND revolutionary was Lana Kristine Jelenjev's post about The Hum's Collaborative Rhythm exercise. I've done some of this, but always in either an ad-hoc, reactive manner or with just one element of what they lay out in the linked article. Check it out! I'm curious about what resonates for you, or if you and your teams have done something similar.
If we've met in the last few weeks (or if you caught this post), you know I'm newly re-obsessed with my bike and learning about bicycle building and repair. Rebuilding my bike was an opportunity to work with my hands and exercise a different part of my brain! When I started, I thought, "what a great way to stop thinking about work" - ha! No chance! The way Park Tool's repair videos, articles, and book are laid out are fantastic examples of content and presentation that enable learning.
A few elements really stuck out to me:
Each repair article begins with two sections to make sure the aspiring bike mechanic is prepared: 1. What do I need to know how to do? and 2. What tools do I need? What a way to know what you don't know and to avoid getting very stuck and very frustrated halfway through a process!
Not only did the resources have clear process steps, but along the way the content included lots of "watch out for X" (X was usually something like damaged threads, misaligned parts, or some other issue that, to a newbie, might not seem like a big deal), so there's a higher chance of getting something right (or close to right) the first time and a lower chance of destroying components in the process.
The content felt compassionate. At no point did I feel silly or unintelligent because I didn't understand something. In the introduction of the Big Blue Book of Bike Repair, the author and bike mechanic extraordinaire, Calvin Jones, writes,
"In my years of working on bikes and teaching people about working on bikes, I have come to realize that people learn in many different modes. One person may prefer to see pictures of something and not read any text. Another person may want to strictly read written procedures, step by step. And yet another may like to have the basic principles of a part explained, and then just figure it out themselves. If I have done my job in writing, this books will have something for the many different types of learning."
And wow, he did do his job! I feel like we talk about "honoring different learning styles" a LOT, but I rarely see it in practice (I include my own work in that assessment).
So - I'm thinking about how these elements might support my + our work in Knowledge Management, Organizational Learning, and Measurement & Evaluation. I know that not everything about bicycles is immediately transferable to this work (do I really know that?), but I think there's something here.
When it comes to my own learning, I've been keeping a learning log. I'm "eating my own cooking," as they say. I documented all of my learning with each component, from how to get the right cable tension to what silly mistakes to avoid. (jeez, I love Miro so much.)
fingers crossed that the next build goes faster/smoother.
I also documented issues that came up during my test ride and how I fixed (or didn't fix) them!
Rebuilding my bike got me working with my hands, yes, but it also helped me look at learning a bit differently, and I'm looking forward to seeing how these seeds germinate.
The final product, graciously photographed by Claire Bleiler when we met up earlier this week. I was so obviously excited that she said, "don't you want a photo?!" Gone are the days of playing it cool!
feeling more like a little kid every day
My next bike project involves a mid-70s Italian road bike, so buckle up! This isn't a phase!
QUESTIONS
What do you do to exercise your brain and problem-solving skills outside of work?
AND/OR
Has the above stirred anything for you about how we learn within organizations? Are there folks who are doing this really compassionately and effectively? How much of this do you think is transferable to social sector learning?
P.S. as long as clowns don't freak you out, this video of Calvin Jones building offset wheels is one of the best things I've ever seen.
xoxo,
gv
GV in July
GV on Fluxx’s Untapped Philanthropy podcast, recent learning, and a question
happy middle-of-July! I hope you and your families and neighbors are staying cool and finding time to do things that nourish you. Here are some updates, learnings, and a question.
GV ON UNTAPPED PHILANTHROPY
I got to hang out with Kerrin and Tim on Untapped Philanthropy, and it was so fun! Check out the latest episode, What Does it Mean to Align Data with Community Values? We chat about:
rethinking how we collect and manage data in the social sector
slowing down in the face of manufactured urgency
navigating change by caring for each other and building conflict practices
…and a bunch of wacky stuff in between! I’d love to hear about what does or doesn’t resonate with you and your organizations.
LEARNING
July has been an introspective month so far. As an independent consultant, I tend to learn about the Work and the Business on different timelines. I feel so strong in the Work, and less strong in the Business (read: business development and lead generation, revisiting pricing structures at reasonable intervals, social media strategy, etc.)
Throughout my career, I’ve heard “I have no idea what you do for work, but I know that you’re excited about it” a lot. Words and phrases like ‘value proposition,’ ‘business development,’ and ‘brand identity’ have always made me feel itchy. My reaction is usually, “Surely everything else on my to-do list (as well as everything not on my to-do list) comes before those things.”
BUT, at the end of June, I got to spend some time with a dear friend and colleague workshopping and brainstorming about collaboration, our work in general, and what we want out of our careers. At one point, we named that what we do for a living is what we want to be doing for a living. How wild! How fortunate! And something clicked: the Business deserves the same attention and care that I give to the Work.
I found Melisa Liberman’s work (through a simple Google search, who knew it could be that easy) and worked through her book and toolkits - a sort of self-paced intensive - and came out of the other side with a working value proposition and so much more clarity about GV’s services (GV provides two core services, not eighteen and a half), why the way I deliver those services is valuable, and how to talk about the organizations and people with whom I work.
Woof! It only took five and a half years (for which, gladly, I’m not beating myself up) - and I’m excited to see how it evolves.
QUESTION
Whether you’re at an organization or independent, How do you balance a continuous self- and work-improvement practice (“I need to keep learning and growing and changing”) with allowing things to run as they are (“I won’t change this process or fidget with this messaging for X amount of time”)? How do you embrace “good enough”? …or, do you embrace “good enough”?
GV in June
GV Facilitation Guide, recent learnings, and a question
Happy almost Summer! It’s been sunny and beautiful here in Brooklyn—this photo is from a walk we took this weekend.
I know many folks are wrapping up their fiscal year - if that’s you, I hope you’re able to breathe soon and that you’re delegating what you can.
GV FACILITATION GUIDE
The 2024 Facilitation Guide is ready! It’s evolved quite a bit since the first version, developed in 2022. I’m doing my best to document my learnings and where I’ve changed my mind over the years (for instance, I used to use ground rules, now I co-develop Community Agreements) - and I imagine that the guide will look different in another couple of years!
Feel free to comment and leave suggestions or questions! I only know what I know, and I’d love for this to become a collaborative document. Just be sure to comment with your info for attribution or reach out to me to chat about further collaboration.
LEARNING
I’m taking Monique Melton’s Money Work class through the Shine Bright School, where I get to work in community with other white folks to build out my own lifelong wealth redistribution plan in service of Black liberation. It’s already so generative and nourishing - it’s got me thinking about not only material wealth, but also networks, time, energy, and opportunities - expecially working in Philanthropy! So, I’ve planted this seed in the back of my head, and maybe it’s helpful for some of you, too:
As my career moves forward and I navigate client work, speaking opportunities, and other collaboration, where will I accept, share, and decline opportunities? Which doors can I hold open and which doors are not mine to begin with?
One of my big learnings so far is that I have a pretty ingrained belief that for other folks to thrive and succeed, I need to suffer - there’s that zero/sum thinking so inherent to white supremacy! I’m excited to see how this work evolves in me and my work over time.
QUESTION
Something that comes up in consulting and change work a lot is the conversation about readiness. If you’re a change practicitioner/consultant, how do you assess a client’s readiness? If you work in an organization, how do you assess and communicate your organization’s readiness? Send me your thoughts!
GV in May
new GV website & branding, recent learnings, and a question
NEW BRANDING & WEBSITE
I’ve finally graduated from stumbling through website builders and using poor quality screenshots as a ‘logo’! I worked with Caleb Blansett of pretty skin stickers and Penance Tattoo in Brooklyn, NY. This was a wild and surprisingly emotional experience. Caleb asked me the questions I usually ask my clients - turns out that this is vulnerable work!
Check out the new website at gv-advisory.com. (you’re here right now!)
LEARNING
I’m learning so much from so many people all of the time.
Gabi Fitz of Think Twice and I have been learning and teaching each other (or trying to, anyways) how to hold urgency, responsiveness, and spaciousness in our knowledge management projects with social justice movement workers. This looks different every day, but I think it has a lot to do with presence, boundaries, and getting very clear on what we mean by failure//success. (Eugene Kim’s Success Spectrum is helpful for this!) I also think it has something to do with collaborating with folks who know more than you - Gabi is a wonderful collaborator in this way.
Donita Volkwijn of Philanthropy New York has been teaching me more and more about how centering racial equity in our work is crucial for continuing to build systems and cultures that readily share (or even cede!) power instead of hoard it. Check out one of her recent articles: Unveiling the Illusion: How DEI Roles Echo the ‘Magical Negro’ trope in Philanthropy.
Andrew Means (of a million things, but most recently the organizer of Good Tech Fest) has been teaching me (or really, allowing me the space to realize) that I don’t have to separate who I am in my life from who I am in professional spaces — I’m saying this from a place of privilege and power: I’m a white femme, running my own business, so that’s a big part of what makes this safe for me — and I’m so interested in figuring out how to hold the door open, keep the ladder(s) available, and whatever other metaphors we can think of to get more folks in more rooms without demanding respectability or performance from them. That said, I’m not assuming that the ‘rooms’ we have now are even the right rooms.
QUESTION
As a professional “I don’t know”-er, I have more questions than answers. I’d love to hear what you think about this incredibly simple, not-nuanced-at-all question:
What practices might help practitioners and organizations balance the slow, emotional work (like trust building, conflict repair and accountability, and definining what our values statements mean in practice) and the faster, tactical work (information architecture, building out dashboards, working on design sprints)?