GOOD NEWS: Bullies Aren’t Invincible
Good News: An enewsletter for donors and nonprofits
on strategic planning, governance, fundraising, and executive leadership.
Bullies Aren’t Invincible
For the last several weeks and months, I’ve been listening to my donor and nonprofit clients describe the anticipated and actual fallout from recent federal government and extra-governmental actions resulting in abrupt firings, unannounced closings, sudden budget shortfalls, and other unnecessary and dangerous disruptions to the critical services they provide.
My clients are on calls with the State Department trying to reinstate USAID funded HIV clinics in Uganda. They are attending workshops on how to prepare for ICE raids on their elementary school campuses. And they are bringing or defending lawsuits or other attacks related to how they broadcast mission-driven intentions to level playing fields and create more robust talent pipelines which we need now more than ever.
Like the State Department, school leaders, and civic minded law firms, they are necessarily diverting huge amounts of time, energy, and money from literally life saving direct services for the most vulnerable. It is not hard to imagine what isn’t being addressed because of these haphazard disruptions - assaults, really - on the lives of those with the least material possessions brought on by the wealthiest, most privileged, and powerful people on the planet.
What to do? A few thoughts:
Fight for What You Believe In: Whether on the middle school playground, in the high school cafeteria, workplace or social club, bullying happens. Bullies thrive when those around them cower. They count on not even having to fight because others capitulate in advance of their aggression. Changing policies, taking down language from websites or social media, eliminating positions in advance of challenges, resigning instead of getting fired and suing in response only embolden the bully’s spirit. Yes, tweak or make wholesale changes to your policies, procedures, personnel or even missions but only because you believe changes are in order to further your belief system and mission, not to appease an adversary. Don’t fall for the falsehood that if you come up with a more palatable way to say or do what is important to you that those who don’t share your vision will go away. They won’t. Make your case with courage and clarity. Sometimes we simply need to stand our ground and get our nose bloodied. Or at least threaten to.
Be Smart: Bullies thrive on chaos and misinformation. They revel in confusion and distraction. Only give those who don’t support you the amount of attention that is necessary. Of course the most vulnerable and those working on their behalf need to pay a lot of attention. But those in relatively strong or immune positions cannot get caught up in the tweet, press conference rant or office memorandum of the moment. Keep your eyes on the prize and put all of your considerable energy and expertise into where they can have the greatest impact. No one person meets big challenges alone so we need to rely on all of us doing what we can, when we can, without distraction or lamenting that the challenges exist in the first place.
Self Care: As is the case when an airplane is going down, put on your own oxygen mask first. We are of no use to others if we don’t care for ourselves. This is often a hard lesson to learn for people who devote their professional lives to the care of others. But just like during COVID, the Wall Street created financial crisis of 2008, and previous calamitous events, self care is paramount if your goal is to run the marathon of doing meaningful work that matters in a hostile environment. Take time each day, week, month, and year to break from the struggle and replenish the reserves you will need for the long haul. Don’t feel bad for spending time with family, friends, and doing things for yourself and those you care about. That’s what will fortify you for the next round of contest.
All of this is easier said than done, I know. But those who do not share your world view count on you to accommodate, swing at every pitch in the dirt, and run yourself ragged until you can’t run any more. Remember, every breakdown has the seeds of what is needed to recover.
Stuff Steve Is Watching, Listening To, and Reading
Don't Get Mad, Get Smart (8 minute watch)
"The first thing that popped into my mind was the spiritual, Lord, I don't feel no ways tired. We have come too far from where we started from. And nobody ever told us that the way would be easy, but I don't believe he brought us this far to leave us. I'm not worried. I'm not anxious. It's just another struggle."
Ambassador Andrew Young, PBS NewsHour
Watch Here
The Soul of Money (30 minute listen)
"What you appreciate, appreciates. True abundance flows from enough, not from more. The mindset of scarcity always leads to lack. The doorway of sufficiency and sharing and contributing, leads to true and overflowing abundance. " Lynne Twist with Oprah Winfrey
Listen Here
Nowhere Else To Go (10 minute read)
"I think Bill Clinton was the pivotal figure of our times. Before he came along, the market-based reforms of Reaganism were controversial; after Clinton, they were accepted consensus wisdom. Clinton was the leader of the group that promised to end the Democrats’ old-style Rooseveltian politics, that hoped to make the Democrats into a party of white-collar winners, and he actually pulled that revolution off. He completed the Reagan agenda in a way the Republicans could not have dreamed of doing—signing trade agreements, deregulating Wall Street, getting the balanced budget, the ’94 crime bill, welfare reform. He almost got Social Security partially privatized, too. A near miss [Miss Lewinsky that is] on that one." Seymour Hersh, Ordinary People By the Millions
Read Here
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Steve Filosa
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