A hopeful ending to 2008

Wow, so much to report on at the end of the year.  The chaos of the past few months has finally started to coalesce.  I feel bad that I haven't posted any updates in the last weeks.  They have been a roller coaster.   My mother has been ill and away receiving treatment in Arizona, where I went to visit her the week before Christmas.  It’s been one of those crazy times that we all face at some point in our lives when the demands from all directions are coming at fever-pitch levels.  And yet, contrary to expectations just a few months ago, FORGE is going to be closing out 2008 on a positive and hopeful note.

So where do I start?  Firstly, I want to express how much of a pleasure and honor it has been to work with Curtis Chang from Consulting Within Reach.  Curtis has great perspective and a simple knack for distilling goals into deliverables and distinguishing between priorities.  If there is one thing I’ve learned about Curtis, it’s that he believes in efficiency and prudence!  As a nonprofit leader always trying to juggle a dozen balls, it’s been great to have his feedback and advise on what is and isn’t the best use of my time. 

As a management team and as a Board, we’ve had some time to digest Curtis’ recommendations and have already started taking action on many of them  (for example, growing the board and finding a person to take admin/finance responsibilities off of my plate).  I’ll save the details for a further post, but we have a lot of promising organizational developments in the works.

Now, for the really good news – in the past month, donors have stepped forward to allow us to effectively close the funding gap for 2008.  In a surprise turn of events, a foundation has generously offered to provide us with a $20,000 matching grant followed by a $30,000 administrative support grant in 2009.  In response to the challenge, many of our past supporters rallied with second and even third large donations for the year.  We had until February to raise the $20,000 matching, but we were actually able to cross the threshold today.  The foundation has been very progressive and generous with its terms, and in the spirit of transparency even published its reasoning for offering the grant.

Of course, this story is far from over.  2009 is going to be an unpredictable year for us all.  We can proudly say that we made it through the thick of 2008 and will be able to send more funds to continue our programs into 2009, but we’ll need to stay extremely cautious and diligent to ensure that we leave 2009 in a stronger position than 2008.  That is what so many people have bet on when they decided to take a chance to invest in us in these risky times, and that is what we are committed to delivering. 

Thank you to the whole social edge community for your support and feedback through this (ongoing) process.  I am looking forward to many new conversations and explorations in 2009.  Right now, our challenge as a sector is a great one: working together to develop creative and effective strategies that will keep those who are already most vulnerable from bearing the brunt of our economic reality.

-Kjerstin Erickson

www.FORGEnow.org