Where can we find hope right now?

Dear Diary,

I found it very hard to write out my thoughts for this month’s entry. 2020 has truly taken us for a ride, and it is still April. If there was anything that we needed right now, I believe it would be a great laugh, a hug (due to social distancing I advise you to please hug yourself), progress, or great conversations, positivity, family (call them), friends (call them as well), leaders who you believe are honest and hardworking, and peace.

As people in the nonprofit world, I believe we are resourceful, and know how to pivot and adapt. We find ways to keep our mission alive and repeat it as a mantra. Our donors, those who are privileged and able to give, are still supporting us and other missions. Our volunteers are finding ways to be a resource – the wheels are still churning. So, there is hope.

Hope can be found in health care workers who are risking their lives to save others, and students who are tuning into their classes and doing homework online because they want a better future. There is hope, thanks to community leaders and organizers who are finding ways to reach the disadvantaged populations suffering mentally, physically, and financially due to this crisis.

Hope can be found at grocery stores as workers risk their health to make sure you and I can buy what we need for dinner, and construction workers who are still building homes that we will one day live in. The amount of advice columns and articles on working remotely, staying active, virtual professional development opportunities, health tips, mental health tips, and more, that I have seen floating around only makes me believe that we are all really trying to help each other get through this. I think we have to see the people hard at work for us, and believe in some sort of humanity.

And in the midst of everything, you have to have hope in yourself. Things have changed, yes, and no one can predict the future, but the best thing you can do is still believe in yourself and your ability to change lives and do the great work that you have always done for your organization, community, and world.

To those who have been furloughed or laid-off from organizations due to this crisis, hope is not far from you. I have to believe that you will recover from this, because the nonprofit world would be at a loss without your talents. So, I hope to soon learn of your new endeavors as we get through and beyond this.

Stay safe everyone.

Until next time, May 15th!