Sharing My Note of Gratitude to MacKenzie Scott

Dear MacKenzie,

Thank you for empowering PEAK Grantmaking’s efforts to serve the world by—much like yourself—taking action to transform how philanthropy shows up in community. We receive this significant investment with humility and honor. We are beyond excited to be included among the 286 nonprofits benefiting from your latest round of donations, including many of our close partners and friends in the sector. Most importantly, we gratefully accept your gift of trust.

In return, we want you to know that we are ready to put these funds into action to accelerate our progress in equipping grantmakers with the tools and skills to operationalize equity.

We stand with you in your call for “seeding by ceding”—that’s what PEAK urges through our Principles for Peak Grantmaking, and our advocacy of individuals, teams, and organizations.

For 25 years, our organization has grown and evolved in support of our members and in pursuit of equitable grantmaking. As we continue to serve our core community of grants management professionals and operations staff, we are also taking a deliberate “big tent” approach to give every philanthropic professional—from CEOs to new grants assistants—the tools, space, and support to advance their own aspirations. We are dedicated to building change agents for philanthropy ready to lead from wherever they sit within an organization, shifting sector values and practices from the ground up and the inside out.

A guest at a recent PEAK conference keynote spoke to the idea that, too often, “best practices” is simply a euphemism for “habits,” justifying the way things have always been done rather than the way they should be done. As you have demonstrated with your own bold new approach to philanthropy, the charge for funders is to upend stale and insufficient ways—to forge ahead alongside nonprofits as generative partners, sharing power and purpose.

To use your words: We strive to provide solutions that benefit us all. When PEAK is successful in helping funders operationalize equity, we empower people who go on to empower others.

We offer our deepest appreciation to you and Dan on behalf of our staff, our board, and all those whose shoulders we stand upon: our founders, Margaret Egan, Ann Gael, Orneata Prawl, and Ursula Stewart; the many volunteers who ran this organization in the years before we could secure a professional staff; more than 250 current volunteer leaders contributing time, talent, and thought leadership; and our mighty community network, now 6,000 strong.

Your generosity is already changing the trajectory and velocity of our work at PEAK, as well as the philanthropic landscape, providing enormous support for the good that nonprofits do while challenging us to follow your lead—to take bold action, to transform our practices, and to trust others wholeheartedly.

We are ready!

Satonya Fair, JD
President and CEO