Reflection

As we start a new year, it’s common practice to take inventory of our lives and make commitments to things we’d like to do better for ourselves and others. It’s a chance to reflect on where we are and where we’d like to be; to give ourselves another chance toward a lifelong goal or to develop a new one. Although hard and fast resolutions tend to fade away, slowing down to take stock and reflect is a way to continue the conversation and recalibrate our course toward better days.

The Community Foundation has been engaged in a multiyear process of recalibration, looking at our current model of philanthropy and reflecting on what is and isn’t working. It is a constantly evolving process and one that we push ourselves to continually evaluate. We recognize that if we ever feel we’ve found the answer we will surely stagnate. I believe accomplishments result from a circular kind of process that involves slowing down and creating a strategy of small steps and reflection. Reflection by looking within and reflection by looking up and out. It seems this is just as true for individuals as it is for organizations, governments and communities; every aspect of society tends to get caught up in the importance of action, always moving forward toward a goal that was created with our eyes downward on the day to day needs. Without looking up to the horizon to course correct, it’s painfully easy to get off track. This year the individual vows to stop smoking, the company pledges to create employee appreciation events, the government promises to protect more green space, and the community announces they will reduce crime. Without pausing to build these commitments from a shared vision of the future, understanding past limitations and future challenges, they will become merely more resolutions that fall by the wayside. The commitment cannot be made to the thing itself, but to the ideals that structure it.

As the Board of Directors of the Community Foundation began their process of review, they looked internally at the ideals of the organization while also scanning the landscape around them for how these values matched the needs of our community. Their work led to last month’s launch of a revised framework for our grantmaking that we’re calling Vibrant Community. The design is aspirational, asking community members and local organizations to work in partnership with us to create and develop a vision for Pierce County. The possibilities of what we can create is endless, but only if we take the time to reflect on our history and ask the right questions about our future. Understanding how the past lives in the future, how our actions must evolve within a new context, is wisdom often hard to come by. It is a wisdom I am confident the Community Foundation is working toward: taking small steps while remaining future focused, inviting others into the conversation, exploring new models and being open to change. In exploring its role in this inquiry of vibrancy, the Community Foundation will certainly take some missteps; but by building on our ideals and our belief in possibilities, the future goals will continue to materialize. I look forward to what this year will bring to Tacoma: innovation, vitality and compassion.