The call to serve

The coming Independence Day weekend gets me in a mood to cogitate on democracy, freedom, and all things core to the American political ideal. I was a political science major in college, so I read tons and tons of books, essays, and treatises on American government (as well as other forms). After all that though, the shorter, simpler documents are the ones that stick with me. The Declaration of Independence itself and the Constitution are both masterful works, especially important because of their emphasis on congress and shared empowerment.

From Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary: “con·gress (noun) 1 a: the act or action of coming together and meeting; 2: a formal meeting of delegates for discussion and usually action on some question.” Their congress was about meeting and taking action, just like our Nonprofit Congress. From the beginning we’ve had an emphasis on hearing the voices of people from all over the country, in all sorts of nonprofit organizations. In fact, the first year of the effort consisted almost entirely of Town Hall meetings where people voiced their opinions about the priorities of the nonprofit sector. This year and last year, we sponsored another round of Town Hall meetings where people talked about improving our collaborative efforts and created action plans around the Top Three Priorities. Why is this so important?

For me personally, it means the work I’m doing is driven by the people, for the people. It means the work has purpose and a clear end result: a strong nonprofit community. It means our work is democratized across all nonprofits. And it really means those folks have an actual voice in all of this.

All of us in the nonprofit sector have been called to serve. We answered that call by starting or joining organizations, working our butts off, and helping others. Sometimes though, it’s hard to hear that call when drowning in the day to day. I like to think that Town Halls and the Nonprofit Congress provide chances for us to hear that call again and to answer it with a strong, united voice.

We are acting collectively for positive change. We are driven by shared values and priorities. We are what democracy is all about.