Category: Uncategorized

***Vu’s new book, Reimagining Nonprofits and Philanthropy: Unlocking the Full Potential of a Vital and Complex Sector, comes out October 14th. Pre-order your copy***

Hi everyone, I am on a plane bound for Vietnam from Tokyo. A couple of announcements before we get started:

I’m taking my yearly summer break from this blog, so this will be the last post for a while. I’ll be back with a new post on August 19^th.

Also, I’m switching to another platform [not sure which one, after hearing from some of you about how problematic Substack is] when I get back. WordPress has served its purpose, but it’s gotten increasingly frustrating to use, including the several months when it didn’t send out notices of new posts to anyone. Substack hopefully will take care of some of these problems. The old posts will remain here so you can access them anytime. New ones will be published on the new platform. If you subscribed by email, you’ll automatically be transferred over; feel free to unsubscribe later.

I’m still keeping everything free on the new platforms instead of limiting some content to paid subscribers. But thank you in advance to paid subscribers, both on Substack and on Patreon. Your support each month allows me financial security to speak my mind freely without worrying about being canceled and not being able to pay the bills.

***

The last few days in Tokyo have been very fulfilling and exactly what I needed. I don’t want to romanticize Japan too much, as I know it has its share of challenges, but it’s just been nice to be in a society where the sense of responsibly to the collective community is so strong. People care for one another and for the environment. On the trains and everywhere there are constant reminders to be thoughtful about children, older adults, and disabled people. Traveling around with two relatively young kids is always challenging, but I don’t remember a time when I’ve felt this relaxed about their safety. It is such a contrast to the US, where each morning I send them off to school and pray there’s no mass shooting.

Continue reading “Instructions on not giving up: Let’s conserve our energy for the battles ahead”

Hi everyone, if you’re free on June 5^th at 10am Pacific Time, my friend and colleague, Ananda Valenzuela, will be leading a FREE virtual workshop called “Exploring Power Dyamics and Principled Accountability.” It’ll be bilingual in English and Spanish. Register here.

Last week, I attended a production of “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the Rainbow is Enuf” by Ntozake Shange, directed by Michelle N. Matlock. If you’re in the Seattle/Tacoma area, check it out; it plays until June 8^th.

Led by an all-women-of-color cast, the interwoven pieces combine poetry, monologues, singing, and dancing, vividly illuminating the challenges women of color—especially Black women—face, while highlighting their strength, joy, and unbreakable spirit. I hadn’t heard of it before and went mainly to support a friend who was one of the performers. I left with a reminder of how powerful and instrumental the arts are for society—especially during these horrible times.  

Continue reading “Let’s support the arts like democracy depends on it—because it does!”

I know everyone has been on edge, anticipating the Executive Orders that are coming this week, possibly even today, that are targeted to devastate the nonprofit sector, including targeting climate-focused organizations, punishing organizations that fund or do work abroad, revoking the tax status of organizations like Harvard that refuse to comply with the administration’s ideology, and designating certain organizations as terrorist organizations.

The attacks are strategic, designed to overwhelm and exhaust us all so we can’t fight back against the horrible things this fascist administration is doing, including the planned gutting of Head Start, a vital resource for hundreds of thousands of low-income families.  

The actions of this administration are unlawful, as this helpful document from the National Council of Nonprofits shows. It has no authority to limit what types of orgs are eligible for 501c3 status, nor does the president have authority to order the IRS to revoke the c3 status of specific nonprofits, nor does the IRS have the authority to remove nonprofits of its status without due process.

Of course, none of that matters when we’re dealing with a dictator, one who has suggested deporting US citizens to torture camps abroad and who has ignored even the unanimous ruling of the Supreme Court.

Continue reading “A mass uprising is needed. Our sector has a vital role to play.”

The Trump administration has already started attacking nonprofits, two months before they’re even in office. You may have heard of the bill (H.R. 9495) that would allow the government to terminate the tax-exempt status of nonprofits by giving the Secretary of Treasury the authority to designate any org a “terrorist-supporting organization.”

H.R. 9495, if it passes, is an effective way to neutralize nonprofits that take any actions to protest against the incoming government’s horrific agenda, which we know so far includes fast-tracking genocide, gutting social security, removing the citizenship of and deporting immigrants, shuttering the department of education, and banning abortions nationwide.

Shutting down nonprofits that protest against injustice by marking them as supporting terrorism is a violation of the First Amendment and a glimpse into the incoming administration’s fascist intentions. The bill was put to a vote last week and did not pass. But they are trying again. This WEDNESDAY* (Nov 20) morning, it will go to a full house vote, and just needs a simple majority to pass, unlike last week, when they needed a 2/3 majority. (*originally it was Thursday Nov 21)

WE MUST ALL TAKE ACTION! Here are some things you can do immediately. Please rally everyone in your networks. This bill poses a grave existential threat to our sector, and is a terrifying vision of the future if we don’t do everything we can to prevent it.

Continue reading “Urgent actions to take this week to stop a bill giving Trump unchecked power to destroy nonprofits”

Hi everyone, I’ve been reeling the past several days after the elections, as I’m sure many of you have been and still are. I found myself unmotivated and uninspired, dealing with waves of dread and anxiety. Luckily, the those waves were often beaten back by even bigger waves of fear and despair! Sorry, maybe now is not the time to joke around. Or maybe it is; I don’t know. I’m still a jumble of thoughts and emotions and stress eating, so thank you for your patience, as it might take me a while to get back to my usual self.

I do say though, that the past week reaffirmed to me how amazing community is. I am lucky to be surrounded by so many incredible people. Dozens of friends and colleagues reached out, checking in on me, the ones in Seattle getting me off the couch, reminding me that we’re not alone, and that the world is still full of good people.

Thanks to you, I am moving out of despair…and into anger. Righteous anger. The kind that Desmond Tutu described here:

Continue reading “We must move from despair to righteous anger”