EGA President and CEO
We find ourselves at the start of another pivotal period for our union. I have had the chance to connect with a number of members. Many in our community are shocked by the results, and yet many are affirmed in their assessments of the fragility of our alignments and committed to meeting the ongoing need for relational infrastructure to combat environmental regression. As we learn more about the terms of engagement, EGA is closely following the appointments and line of succession, understanding that each choice shapes the conditions for our collective work for healthy air, clean water, and regenerative ecosystems that enable equity, and justice as support for people and the planet.
EGA is here to bolster your navigation of the changing landscape of ideas and agendas. We humbly offer a Post-Election Resource Guide to inspire you and inform your decisions about how to show up in this next chapter.
Collective action to sustain democracy today serves our ambition for a sustained planet. Meeting the demand will require us to accelerate the partnerships we have invested in for the sake of sacred places, and nexus species; and to act in favor of embattled peoples for whom the stakes are increasingly heightened. It is imperative that we refine our alignments to meet the political risk, material conditions and safety needs of stewards, advocates, storytellers and community care workers that make up the body politic. No matter where the sector goes, philanthropic impact will be the greatest if the investments go beyond trust and are instead strategic endowments for the generational change of leadership necessary across the ecosystem of our work.
Now, in this very moment when we feel tested and tried, we are needed, most, to play our positions and face the changes in polarity in the republic and the world. Our alignment around equity and the role of racialized identity is essential to build belonging that converges into care rather than numbness over the months and years ahead. Continued care is the multiplier of durable solutions. The protectors of trees, soil and water are gifts of our species that sustain living and they cannot be up for debate. To that end, EGA is sharpening our analysis to deliver timely, visionary and aligned programming to buoy you as the flooding continues so that mindfulness guides you where the information is choppy. We are in this together; we should act like it.
EGA’s north star of generative conflict is instructive for the work ahead, and we are built to withstand tactical differences in a time of strategy. We look forward to hearing from you as answers emerge to learn about the ways your foundation is preparing for and responding to the needs of your grantees, including any initiatives, strategy shifts, insights, or perspectives you are leading or collaborating on.
In care,
Tamara
Tamara Toles O’Laughlin
President and CEO
Environmental Grantmakers Association
