In 2021 Amplify staff and Steering Committee got clear the Fund would extend beyond it’s original 4-year planned lifespan; in 2022 we are designing the “Future of Amplify,” guided by a sharpened set of values*.
While the first version of our theory of change, created by our early funders and staff, served us well, so much has shifted since 2018. We now have more than 55 grantees and a robust funding community. The COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 elections, and racial justice uprisings have made inequalities even more pronounced. We have also learned so much from grantees, local strategy advisors, consultants, funders, and steering committee members. Our goal with the Future of Amplify design process is to revisit some of our initial design decisions without an artificial time horizon and take leadership from our grantees about the future of the Fund.
Knowing the only way to bake our values into Amplify’s future design was to center them also in the process, staff hired experienced design consultants Latonya Slack and Susan Misra to facilitate a values driven process and to craft clear roles for grantees, funders and staff. While the majority of decision making power resides in a representative group of grantees, all Amplify Fund stakeholders have a role to play in the Future of Amplify.
*Values include: center Black womxn and womxn of color without burdening them, design towards greater sustainability for everyone involved in Amplify Fund, and reorganize who has decision-making power so grantees and other local leaders are in front.