Winter is coming: End of Year Reflections on Wins, Resources, and Growing Cynicism
By Rudy Espinoza, Executive Director
On Wednesday, Inclusive Action closed for the holidays.
I sensed that many of us were desperately awaiting the year end break. I giggled as I saw one of my team members walk into our lobby with a surprisingly renewed swagger. He had a huge smile on his face as he greeted other team members on his way to crack open the first bottle of beer for our staff holiday party. “What’s gotten into you?” I ask. “You seem extra happy!”
“I just finished my last project of the year. I’m done.”
What a relief it is to close something so definitively.
As we close a year, many of us are rushing to get to our proverbial finish line. We begin to realize the limits of our energy. We’re clawing and scraping to finish what we can; in hopes of leaving on holiday with that gratifying and joyous feeling: I’m done, I’ve done what I could.
Personally, I’m ending the year proud of what we accomplished and some of the loose ends that we tied. I’m also at peace that we didn’t get through everything, mindful that there truly is always work to be done.
2023 was a year of growth and infrastructure building for Inclusive Action. We approved a three year strategic plan - the organization’s first - and prioritized new investments in organizational development, programmatic efficiencies, and impact measurement. We’re ending the year with renewed clarity on the improvements we need to make to our micro-lending, methods to be more efficient financial intermediaries for our coalitions, and even how we can be better teammates to each other at Inclusive Action.
Why is this “internal” work important? Because we want to help our community more effectively. Because we are here to address the racial wealth gap. And more frankly, we’re here to get money and power into the hands of our community members. As I’ve been telling friends lately, “I just want to cut more checks to our people.”
And in 2023, we did. Our team is still closing loans, and it’s looking like we deployed almost $900,000 in micro-loans (average loan size is about $12,000). We also leveraged our network of small businesses, to be a strong and effective *grantor,* issuing over $500,000 in grants that ranged from $400 to $5,000 that were used to support everyone from businesses who were being displaced, to those who needed equipment for a new product, or those who were simply struggling to keep a roof over their heads for their families.
Inclusive Action also established a new division called “Community Innovation,” a new space that will be working to organize community members to lead research and develop innovations that advance economic justice. This team launched an important participatory research effort dubbed “the People’s Lab,” and spent a good portion of the year queueing up an important effort that will position Inclusive Action to serve as an intermediary for another form of capital - real estate. (more on this soon)
We also contended with something important: we not only continued our policy advocacy, but we leaned into something arguably much more difficult - policy implementation. Organizers and advocates know that the struggle continues beyond a political victory; this year, our team waded into the waters of bureaucracy to help our region operationalize the vision street vendors have had for years - of legalization and respect. Following the passages of two state bills to support sidewalk vendors, we leaned in despite our hesitations. Countless meetings with public officials, governments departments, and advocates, resulted in the beginning of what we hope to be an on-ramp for hundreds and even thousands of new sidewalks vendor permits. We were able to get hundreds of vendors trained on the new law along with getting their first ever food handlers certificates. This implementation work is tedious, thankless, and invisible….who knew the press didn’t like to cover project management victories?
I’m proud of our team for refusing to stay on the sidelines and daring to work on the “inside” to move a big system like the County of Los Angeles - the 19th largest economy in the world. We have so much work to do here, and though we often don’t feel like victors, I am proud that we’re in the arena as opposed to just a spectator.
Next year is set to be an important year for our organization, but also for the larger movement for economic justice. Allies have passed important measures like ULA, which will bring an unprecedented amount of resources for housing, and a new measure seeks to ensure resources are available for housing and social services for the unhoused. LA’s City Council is preparing for a major shift in its redistricting process (if the voters agree), and we will not only have some major federal elections to participate in, but also local ones that can move our local government in a meaningful way for our community members.
There is no doubt about the major opportunities for meaningful change in our communities, but this year, I began to see some concerning “writing on the wall” that will make next year difficult for social justice organizations. It certainly feels like a winter is coming…
One of my chief concerns is an emerging contraction of giving from foundations and donors. This year, we received an unusual amount of messages from funders and donor allies who signaled that they would have to defer a donation, take a giving break, or reduce their giving portfolio. The reasons behind this seem to be vague in most cases; perhaps the Fed’s interact rate hikes and stubborn inflation? Or, perhaps donors are fatigued from pandemic-relief investments? I know we’re not the only organization that has begun to receive these signals.
Many organizations, including Inclusive Action, have grown methodically to meet the demand for our services after a devastating pandemic. Over the last three years, funders have stepped up in different ways to help us. In 2020 and 2021, it wasn’t uncommon for a funder to proactively call to see how we were doing and offer ways to help. Those calls are rare now, and for the first time in years, more than a handful of foundations are scaling back their giving.
But in our communities, the pandemic isn’t over. The demand for rent relief, small business grants, and more is growing, compounded by a forecasted state deficit that will certainly impact social services. If the 2008 recession is indicative of what we will face, the impact of COVID-19 on the poorest will be severe and long-lasting. Poverty is wretched and stubborn. It will take steady treatment with a higher dose of investment, not less.
As a manager, I’m also worried about our team. I work with 27 high-caliber professionals who are deeply committed to economic justice. They wake up everyday considering how they will help their community members. They have good hearts and sharp minds. And in my awe of them, I realize that they deserve more. Their commitment to justice should not compromise their own ability to earn enough to care for their families.
As we enter an economic “winter,” I’m thinking about how to continue to carry out our economic justice work, keep our team together and create opportunities for them to grow meaningfully. My team….a team full of immigrants, kids of immigrants, and professionals of color shouldn’t have to worry how they’ll cover an emergency or take care of an ailing parent. I want them (and their families) to be proud of their career choice, not only because they are helping others, but because they can actually make a decent living for themselves and those around them.
This will require more than new donors, it will require a paradigm shift in our society…a shift towards a new, higher valuation of public service. Valuing our public servants must also come with celebrating their work. We see heroes everyday in our communities, but I see heroes everyday at Inclusive Action too.
Lastly, I’m worried about the state of our world and the cynicism we have with our leaders. The deep-seeded distrust of our government feels like it’s growing here and abroad. This distrust and cynicism could lead to disinvestment in public programs and broad limitations on the imagination and optimism we need from our government. We need a strong government to address the historic inequalities in our society and to scale the innovations that community-based organizations are prototyping. We must do what we can to support our public sector, holding them accountable to the demands of community members, and setting high expectations for them to carry our the public’s directives with excellence and impact in mind. But we also may need to “lock arms'' with them (as Mayor Bass says), to help them succeed.
In our work for justice, we are not only building the plane as it’s flying, we’re also looking for the fuel we need, while designing the runways and airports. With all of this in mind, I’m taking this holiday break to intentionally evaluate our wins, learn from our shortcomings, nurse some ideas, and recalibrate my routines so I’m ready for my team in January. As we approach the “winter” that is coming to our field, we’ll need to dig deep to find new ways to serve our communities, take care of each other, and also envision the future together. I still believe in us more than ever.