At a time when the entire world was thinking about endings and beginnings, two annual conferences offered opportunities to take stock of our nonprofit sector and the challenges it faces. Pablo was the executive director of the Center for Community Change in Washington, D.C. for nearly 25 years. He founded the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy and is a nationally known champion of philanthropic reform who challenges foundations to give the public greater access to information on priorities and procedures, and who encourages grant-makers to address the nation's most serious issues including poverty, inequality and the need for social change. Preserve and promote democracy Preserving and promoting democracy should be our main mission. Poverty is a major problem and has fallen off the radar screen.
Advocacy is the heart of democracy and public policy.
Without advocacy we could lose the nonprofit sector and democracy itself. Advocacy can be done on many levels and should be taught by management support organizations. Lobbying laws need to be updated. We need to become more political, take a stand and reject neutrality and fear. We have a current opportunity to be proactive and define what we want our leaders to do.