CompassPoint Executive Director Shannon Ellis reflects on the overlapping crises of this political moment and invites everyone in progressive organizations and the social change sector to consider how we can tap into the creative side of our power.
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This past year, CompassPoint set out to take on our budgeting season in a different way: using principles from participatory budgeting to inspire new practices for distributing power.
In service of our commitment to practice liberation inside and out, and in honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we want to share how a few of our Asian staff members at CompassPoint have benefited from convening as a racial affinity space (or as they were called back in 2016 when they were first established at our organization, racial caucuses), in hopes that more social justice organizations can devote time, space, and resources to provide such spaces for their own staff.
In this second part of our blog series on centering racial justice at CompassPoint, we’re talking about the power of visions.
What does it take to put equity into action at the organizational level? In this guest blog, Elodie Baquerot and Nadia Owusu (Chief Operating Officer and Associate Director for Learning and Equity, respectively, at Living Cities) outline their organization’s long and intentional journey to center racial justice.
Are you feeling the urgency of “now” — the need as an organization or individual to take a stand and align your actions towards your convictions? We have certainly felt the call rising at CompassPoint over the past two years to prioritize and center racial equity in our work, and it has only escalated in light of the political changes of the past six months on the national level. As a staff, we’ve been holding important conversations and have been grappling with some big questions as we define the organization we need to be for our community. Questions like: What does our community and staff need from us? Why this work? Why now?
As a follow-up to the blog “What is a Theory of Change and How Can You Use It?” CompassPoint Project Director Shannon Ellis draws on her experience as a consultant in this strategy area to share which situations are conducive to a successful theory of change process and which aren’t.
Have you ever wondered what a theory of change really is, but been afraid to ask? Well, wonder no more. In this blog, CompassPoint's Shannon Ellis provides a thorough rundown of what you need to know about this strategy tool and how it can be used in your organization.
In this blog, we share our thinking behind our recent organizational shift to Holacracy, a new organizational operating system that features distributed decision-making and greater role clarity and accountability—and that we feel will help us more fully live out our Theory of Change.
We’re excited to welcome our newest practice member Lupe Poblano to the CompassPoint fold – and we’re equally excited to share his first blog for us on the topic of inquiry and its importance as a leadership tool. Lupe joined our practice in early July, though the guidance in this post align with CompassPoint's leadership approach like he’s been on staff for years. He’s clearly at the right place.
