Volume II: Honor

Weaving a community of care and belonging so that we can be generous together

Ethnic and economic division has torn the fabric of society, including relationships between leaders of funding orgs and Black nonprofit leaders. Weaving connection is our approach to solving this problem because solutions are the fruit of connection. At THE LOOM, we tell the stories of how these relationships are being woven and mended through trust, honor, mutuality, and co-creation.

Honor (noun): a quality that combines respect, being proud, and honesty

Honor (verb): to show great respect for someone or something, especially in public

-Cambridge Dictionary

Honoring the need for rest and margin

“One thing I can say is that often I feel as though I have to keep running despite being overwhelmed or tired, because I know that our community desperately needs the services, and I cannot financially afford to take a break.”

-Black Nonprofit Leader

Honoring Through Rest with Kim Bandy & Greg Jones

the name of an experimental effort by FLOURISH to express care by resourcing weary leaders with a tailored experience of rest. This initiative is named after an herb that some believe enhances wound healing, alleviates digestive issues, reduces stress and anxiety, aids brain health, and fights inflammation.

yarrow;

Honoring the need to make a difference AND make a living

"The model requiring Black leaders to invest their time, talents, and treasures in community building without enough compensation to comfortably support or be present with their families is an unsustainable one. It can lead to burnout, disconnected households, and financial and mental health gaps that make it impossible to remain a part of the work that we love and that we know must be done."

-Dr. Quintin Hughes

Featured Article

Gerald Scott

“This call drives me, but it also causes a real struggle because I have a family…”

“What would happen if deep care was standard for the partnerships between philanthropic organizations and Black (and all) nonprofit leaders? How would lives, families, and communities be transformed?”

— Gerald Scott

Honoring the reality of grief through lament

To Lament is to make space to outwardly express grief. Lament allows us to see our own brokenness and to be touched by the pain of others. Through lament, we grieve our own wounds and the wounds of others, especially the ones we have caused or benefitted from. But whether we have caused the wounds or not…we lament because we care.  We refuse to turn away and let fear and pride harden our hearts, blind our eyes, and deafen our ears.

Though allowing brokenness to touch our hearts may provoke discomfort, guilt, anguish, and distress, we understand that hearing about something isn’t the same as living it so we endure and mature, patiently. We resist using our strength to silence someone expressing their pain, we offer comfort instead. We take responsibility, if not for the wound, then for helping with the healing.

Lament also leads us toward a turning. Repentance. Transformation. Healing. Turning hearts of stone to hearts of flesh. Warm and alive, restored by Love.  Lament helps to mend us and weave us together and moves us toward hope. To lament is to love.…mourn with those who mourn. (Romans 12:15)

-Thoughts on Lament by Scotia Moore

Featured Artwork: Lament by Nathan Pratt

“I don’t just want to be known as a ‘funder’. I prefer being a ‘resource partner’. It doesn’t feel good to walk into a room and only be seen as a checkbook. I bring more resources to the table than money, I also bring my heart , relationships, and whole self as a person.”

— Resource Partner

“Nonprofit leaders are not "overhead" or "administrative costs", they are real people doing transformative work who have real bills and should make a real living from that work. Funding the outcomes means caring for and funding these leaders and their teams.”

- Scotia Moore 

"Our team helped to distribute food boxes during the Covid crisis. What our resource partners didn't realize was that I needed to stand in line and get a box for my own family.

— Black Nonprofit Leader

“If we expect these movements and leaders to be sustained and retained, we must reframe and retool how we're supporting this work.”

-Vanessa Morrison

“As I've engaged in this conversation on race and philanthropy and developed relationships with more Black nonprofit leaders, I have observed that they are sometimes working 2 or 3 jobs to make ends meet while doing important work to serve their communities. I wish I would have known this earlier but now that I do, I pledge to create more sustainable leadership models which are critical to the success of these individuals enjoying work/life balance while also enhancing the community as a whole.”

— Sarah Roberts, Inasmuch Foundation

Practices that HONOR

  • Always compensate for lived experience and expertise, don’t expect volunteering from those already challenged to make a living.

  • Consider multi-year, unrestricted funding

  • Recognize that the leaders and teams ARE the program-they bring themselves to the work, not just their ideas or programs

  • Language matters, we must show honor with the terms we use for one another. It doesn’t feel good to be viewed as just a checkbook and it doesn’t feel good to be called “overhead” or an “admin cost”. We are people and partners in making our communities better so that all can flourish. 

  • Honor the need for rest and margin for leaders and teams by resourcing it.

  • Honor the need to make a difference AND make a living by normalizing the funding of good salaries and benefits for nonprofit practitioners 

  • Honor the need to make space for grief through shared lament

The Golden Thread

At THE LOOM, our work is grounded in love and expressed through intentional action. Honor is both a noun and a verb, an idea and an action. Scripture implores us to “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” (Romans 12:10 ESV) 

Volume II Gratitudes: Special thanks to those who made Volume II possible.

Share your thoughts or experiences.

We would love to hear your thoughts or experiences regarding race and funding. Feel free to share them in the form below…anonymously if you prefer. You are also part of the story that is unfolding.