We ❤️ the PEAK Community!
What a year!
When we sat down to draft our year-end note in 2020, we hoped that the coming year would be better, calmer, safer, and kinder for all. Well, 2021 had its own plans for humanity and what we can say is that, despite it all, it has been a joy celebrating our 25th anniversary with this amazing community. You showed up for PEAK and each other!
Your support means the world to us. It is only through the dedication of our volunteers, members, funders, sponsors, vendors, consultants, partners, philanthropy-supporting colleagues, and each of the individuals within our community, that we can claim 2021 as a successful year.
PEAK is ending the year with more than 500 contributing Organization Members and more than 6,000 professionals in our community. More than 300 members and partners gave back as volunteers, serving on our board, participating in focus groups and committees, leading our amazing chapters, affinity groups, caucuses, and communities of practice, and contributing as speakers, authors, and thought partners. We had our biggest conference yet with 1,300 attendees and were inspired by the wisdom of some true icons.
Our anniversary campaign was a yearlong community-wide collaboration, enriched by an outpouring of reflections on the past 25 years and aspirations for our future. Thank you to all the folks who contributed stories, dug into photo archives, recorded video salutes, showed us their “hand-hearts,” and joined our special events. We are incredibly grateful for the generous support from funders, partners, and sponsors—and to our members for showing the love during our first-ever Giving Tuesday campaign with words of gratitude and end-of-year gifts.
“[P]eople working to build power from within communities are the agents of change. Their service supports and empowers people who go on to support and empower other people.”
Those words from MacKenzie Scott say it all. And that is what PEAK staff members are committed to do day-in, day-out as we each live our values and what PEAK stands for: standing and advancing our Principles and centering Equity in all we do as we Advocate for the individuals, teams, organizations, and partners who are doing their part to accelerate change, and then listening deeply to gather and share our Knowledge and yours with every member, reader, or listener.
We’re charged up to build a movement of equitable change practitioners. But we’ll admit that wearing so many hats in 2021 has left this mighty nonprofit team a bit exhausted. We’re committed to living our values not just through our work, but by also prioritizing self-care. So, as a first step, we’ll be closing out the year by taking a much-needed deep pause. Power down the ring lights. Turn off the cameras. Close the door to our home offices. Taking inspiration from a recent message from SoCal Grantmakers CEO Christine Essel, we will engage in some “radical rest” from December 24 through January 4.
We look forward to reconnecting with you in the new year! Together, we know that PEAK’s next chapter will be amazing!
Until then, in gratitude,
Altinay, Betsy, Caitlin, Carolyn, Chantias, Clare, Dionne, Dolores, Jesse, Sara, and Satonya
—The PEAK Grantmaking Team
