Friday Notes, June 18, 2021
Dear Friends –
Attentive readers of these weekly musings may remember a wistful one from a while back about “stretch goals.” Pestered by nudges to think beyond our limits, I leaned heavily on a framework prescribing when an organization can and should commit to grand, world-changing goals – and when it should focus on incremental wins. Based on our situation at that moment, I saw IDinsight squarely in the “make the very best of what you have” space, and quite far from “rock the world.”
That changed on Tuesday.
By a stroke of good fortune that felt like the tap of a fairy godmother’s wand, we are on the list of organizations that have received significant one-time grants of unrestricted support from MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett. There are a million things to say about how remarkable a no-strings grant equivalent to one year’s budget (but that can be used at any pace) is to IDinsight right now, as we turn 10. I’ll stick to three.
It lets us breathe. My colleagues and I are always hustling to find the perfect opportunities to make a real-world difference with data and evidence that are deemed fundable by someone. I, personally, am always watching the fuel gauge to make sure we don’t run out of gas. We will continue to hustle and I will continue to mobilize support but we can do that with less anxiety about making payroll. We can breathe. I can breathe.
It lets us build. IDinsight has always been a scrappy organization, making the most of what we earn from our projects. The precious unrestricted support we’ve received from a few crucial supporters has mostly been channeled into the R&D for new services and subsidizing our highest-impact projects rather than building out the bread-and-butter organizational capability in Asia and Africa that will serve us for the long run. A portion of these resources will create a solid foundation for our next phase — and will make us an even better bet for future funders and other partners.
It lets us bloom. We have ambitions. These include but are not limited to more intentionally connecting the evidence agenda to social justice; and creating a full suite of services to support the integration of great interventions, tested in the nonprofit sector, within the public sector. We have ideas about how to create an international nonprofit that will be the best possible professional home for team members from the countries in which we work, at all points in their careers. We’re designing ways to use evidence and data to steer our own work in project selection, communications, human resources, fundraising, and more. While we won’t — and probably shouldn’t — tackle all the ideas on a long list, the resources give us the ability to take some bold steps instead of tiptoeing.
Breathe. Build. Bloom. Sounds like a pretty good job description to me.
I am in the cicada belt of the United States for a few days meeting some of the colleagues who, so far, have been boxes on a Zoom screen. In addition to the miracle of eye contact, I have enjoyed the insect chorus. You can enjoy it too, from my talented friend Ken Kolodner, right here.
Have a good weekend.
- Ruth