Dear friend,
Over Neighborhood Funders Group’s nearly 45 year history as an organization we have been a steadfast presence in philanthropy, pushing funders to more deeply and effectively support people of color-led, grassroots organizing, and powerbuilding work in communities across the country. And, NFG has become more bold in its vision to liberate philanthropic assets towards the self-determination of BIPOC and low income communities as the organization and the sector have evolved over time.
NFG has been my political home in philanthropy for nearly fifteen years. I became an active and involved NFG member during my first stint as a program officer in 2010. I joined Funders for a Just Economy’s coordinating committee, participated in two National Convening planning committees for NFG gatherings in Albuquerque, NM and Jackson, MS, and eventually served on the Board of Directors. As a funder, I found at NFG my partners in sharpening my vision for what could be accomplished through our grantmaking and agitating for systemic change in the sector.
In 2017, I joined NFG’s staff and became the first member of the Amplify Fund team. I have worked alongside our stellar staff and members to sharpen NFG’s work to organize philanthropy and move more money to racial, gender, economic, disability, and climate justice. NFG has grown into a political home that is also a hub for funder organizing and our role as a bridge between movement and philanthropy has deepened.
I was honored to move into the role of Interim President in June 2022 to support this organization through a critical transition period. Over the past two years, I have been working alongside NFG’s staff, board, members, partners, and consultants at Imagine Us on an organizational development and transition process. At the center of this process is a multi-stakeholder committee made up of staff members, our senior management team, board members, and NFG member leaders. This process has looked back at our organizational history, learned from other organizations in movement and philanthropy, and worked to deeply align thinking about our needs for the future across our organization. A key outcome of this process is to lay the groundwork to prepare NFG’s next leader(s) to be successful and sustainable in guiding this organization into its future as a driver of strategic funder organizing, and an ever-steady political home for those who share our vision for a liberatory philanthropic sector.
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Today, I am excited to let you know that NFG has made a decision to adopt Co-Presidents as the model for our organization’s next leadership.
Turning toward a Co-President model is the next phase of investing in NFG’s programs and grantmaking funds to be more fully supported to meet the political moment, responding to the changes in the philanthropic sector, and centering the evolving priorities of our movement partners. As a leaderful unionized workplace, we believe that by adopting a Co-President model we can achieve more together. Being an organization with Co-Presidents will expand our opportunity for impact and for executive leadership at NFG to be in a longer-term sustainable position. Historically, we have asked NFG’s top leaders to respond to too many competing demands in the role, and the work of separating out two distinct, but interconnected roles — one focused on strategic and smart funder organizing, and one focused on nurturing NFG as a powerful political home to a growing funder membership — will serve the whole organization more effectively.
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This decision to adopt a Co-President model is a significant milestone for the organization. And, now the work ahead is to launch an executive search and onboard and integrate new leaders into our organization. To support us with the executive search, NFG has the pleasure of working with Melissa Madzel, Founder and Principal of Do Good Connections, who will support this part of the process.
I have a strong hunch that NFG’s future leaders are likely already a part of the NFG community, maybe you are even reading this message(!). And if not, one of you probably knows our future leaders through your networks already. As a step towards launching the search, we’d like to hear from our members about what you think NFG needs in our future leaders. Your input in this early phase about the search and core competencies of candidates will support our thinking as the work of our search committee gets underway. Please contribute your thoughts by taking this survey by Thursday, November 7.
I feel hopeful about this next phase of NFG’s transition and look forward to continuing to build with NFG members into the future. For now, I encourage you to take this survey linked above, and please stay tuned as we continue to share our learnings from this organizational development and transition process and the upcoming search.
In solidarity,
Amy
