Possibility Project

I was joined by three stewards of what I consider the "troublemaking triumvirate", Community-Centric Fundraising, Crappy Funding Practices, and More Than Grant Writers! Rachel D’Souza, Patrice Shumate, and Dr. L. Kris Gowen, who joined us to talk about how, now more than ever, we can all engage in challenging the status quo. Be with us to explore how every post, conversation, letter, march, and email matters and contributes to collective action.

As a changemaker, have you ever felt insignificant, like a speck of sand in the universe and stream of time? Have you also felt and seen the ripples of your kindness and support, that made you feel connected to your humanity and purpose? We want to explore the duality and accompanying spectrum of emotions, while also considering the change and changemakers who have come generations before us and the struggles, dreams, and status quo challengers who will continue long after us.

With amazing guests Deborah A., Dr. M. Gabriela Alcalde, and Dr. Kim McLear, we want to explore the complicated dynamics of our pasts, these current tumultuous times, and the opportunities for all of us to be good ancestors as we co-create unknown futures. Join us and invite others who could use connection and inspiration!

In these currently challenging times, how do we both accept and influence our realities? While imagination is helpful, what would it mean to take creative action? While liberation can be aspirational, what does it mean to harness the irrepressible human spirit to change the future?

Aasim Shabazz, Steward of the Twin Cities Innovation Alliance led us through an experience that:

- challenged the realities we consume

- acknowledged the struggle of alignment

- disrupted patterns in how we think and respond

- redefined what is within our control

- helped us equilibrate to better access renewal, rejuvenation, and regeneration.

What does it mean to be a futurist? What if we all could be futurists and design new systems, structures, and practices? Are there mindsets, skills, and strategies we can learn and use to shift from the status quo to the future quo? These are the types of questions we want to address in this episode.

We were joined by three fantastic guests to dive into these topics.

Tameka Vasquez, Humanity-centered futurist, strategist, professor, speaker, and Founder of The Future Quo

Hilda Vega, Deputy VP, Philanthropic Practice, Hispanics in Philanthropy

Grace Mervin, Artist, designer, strategist, and futurist

Many of us are changemakers because we want to make the world a better place. We want the investment of our passion, time, expertise, and focus to have a larger meaning. 

But what happens when we begin to see breakdowns, missed opportunities, blockers, and embedded harmful systems that stall and hold back the shifts we want to create?  

We want to talk about uncomfortable questions that challenge our vision of social impact work such as,

I was joined by the brilliant Donna Sherard, Founder of Changeable, and designer, lecturer, and advisor, Katrina Mitchell, to dive into these questions and many more!

We often hear terms like "indigenize" philanthropy, being in "right relationship", and moving beyond people alone in our design work. We want to dive into this topic and questions like, What and how can we respectfully honor the power and prosperity that lie within ancestral and indigenous ways of knowing and living? - Who and what defines what it means to "indigenize" our work in social impact? - In a white-dominant sector, what are the dangers of tokenism, cooptation, theft, and harm?

We were joined by two amazing guests to dive into these topics.

Maryam Mohiuddin Ahmed, Senior Fellow, Social Innovation Canada

Dr. Anita Sanchez, Author of The Four Sacred Gifts: Indigenous Wisdom for Modern Times

In our dominant cultures’ focus on hustle, grinding, progress, and productivity, where and how do we focus on rest? What does "rest as resistance" really mean and how does rest connect to justice and liberation?

We wanted to talk about the systems and structures that construct harmful expectations and behaviors and discuss how we all can reclaim our power to change how we live, work, and play.

We were joined by two amazing guests to dive into these topics.

Desiree Adaway, Principal, The Adaway Group

Jennifer Lentfer, Creator/Writer and Leadership Coach, how-matters.org

We want to talk about the idea of trust and how many often say that we can only move at the speed of trust.

- But who defines trust?

- What are the elements of power that influence that definition?

- What does it really mean to be trustWORTHY and how does this affect our work in the social sector?

We were joined by three amazing guests to dive into these topics.

Sabrina Meherally, Founder and CEO, Pause and Effect

Terrance Smith, Bloomberg Public Innovation Fellow, The Johns Hopkins University

Pia Infante, Senior Fellow, Trust-Based Philanthropy Project

In this episode,

This is Possibility Project's first-ever all-white panel. This episode will focus on white women's journeys as they navigate race and their own racial identity. We will be joined by three fantastic speakers including:

Julie Ragland, Co-Founder & Consultant at Ragland & Wilhite Consultants

Heather Mack, Antiracist Evaluation Consultant

Dr. Tema Okun, Educator, Writer, Artist, Activist

Isn't it strange how we overlook and avoid conversations about operations and how everything actually gets done inside our organizations? We often don't want to discuss how we do the work, and instead pour ourselves into the why, and focus on providing support and resources.

In this urgency to serve, we often overlook the essential nature of our workflows, and what happens if they are broken, disrupted, or neglected. Philanthropy and donors don't want to talk about these "boring bits", and often don't want to fund overhead, but we all know that the people, processes, and workflows, are actually, how impact is created.

How do we address this gap in understanding and focus and what are the reasons behind this lack of attention? I was joined by two wonderful fantastic speakers to dive into these topics.

Denisha Tate-McAlister, Founder and CEO, Denisha Tate & Associates

Meg Taylor, Co-founder and CEO, Capably