December Funders Newsletter
The Harwood CIRCLE is a growing national network of funders coming together to discover and explore how philanthropy can unleash the potential of people and communities. This quarterly newsletter is the CIRCLE’s latest offering to help you discover new and deeper ways to take action in your community.
FINDING A NEW CIVIC PATH IN CHALLENGING TIMES: SECOND ANNUAL SAFE HAVEN FOR FUNDERS
You’re invited to join us at the Second Annual Safe Haven for Funders, which will take place on January 22-23, 2026 in Sarasota, Florida.
So many of us feel hunkered down, even turned inward. Our communities are increasingly fragmented and siloed. The question is: How can we find a new civic path forward?
At a time when we can feel stymied, it’s critical to have space to explore what it really takes for communities to transform themselves and how we can actively support those efforts in ways that go beyond financial capital.
That’s why the Harwood CIRCLE of Catalytic Funders held the inaugural Safe Haven last year. The event sold out, bringing together a diverse group of funders from across the country to benefit from the Institute’s 40 years of experience, what we’ve learned about how change actually happens, and what it takes to make community work for all of us
This is not another conference. Rather, as one attendee from last year said, “It is a space marked by honesty, vulnerability, and an unwavering sense of purpose.” We will spend our time together in deep, real conversation about topics including:
What it takes to productively engage people in this environment
How you can set realistic expectations about who is willing to run with you and under what conditions
How you can find the sweet spot between your organizational priorities and what it means to grow your community and meet people where they are
How to move forward in a catalytic way when you don’t know where everyone stands
How you personally can keep going amid external and internal challenges
Thanks to generous support from The Patterson Foundation, our long-term partner, there is no registration fee. We will only collect a small fee of $199 to cover session expenses.
DITCH GRAND STRATEGIES AND FOCUS ON HOW CHANGE REALLY HAPPENS
Over nearly four decades, Rich Harwood has worked to create change in nearly every sector of society, in communities of all shapes and sizes. Time and again, he’s found that our instincts around how to create change tend to take us in the wrong direction.
We craft sophisticated programs, grand plans, intricate strategies. We obsess over tactics and timelines. We call for endless research and planning. All well-intentioned. But so many change efforts start with a big splash only to fizzle and fade.
If we’re serious about moving forward today—as individuals, as communities, as a nation—we need a different approach that intently focuses on what it takes to build momentum over time. That’s what Rich argues for in this piece published by The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
THE HARWOOD SCHOOL: BUILT FOR TODAY’S CHALLENGES, BACKED BY DECADES OF SUCCESS
These days, it can feel downright impossible to find a more hopeful path forward. Our Campaign for the New Civic Path was launched expressly to help individuals, organizations, and communities forge a new way forward. We’re not stopping anytime soon. But that’s just one part of our larger strategy to help the country meet this moment.
Enter the Harwood School: built for today’s challenges, backed by nearly four decades of innovation and experience. Our School has equipped thousands of leaders with our time-tested, practical approach and transformed hundreds of our country’s most important civic institutions, including philanthropic organizations like yours. That’s because our approach is rooted in how change actually happens. Leaders who attend the school have an innate drive to create change. Our School helps them push through barriers, accelerate their impact, and find a new more hopeful and effective way forward. It’s here to guide and support you too.
Explore our School Catalogue for stories of impact from the Harwood School in communities like Eugene, OR; Fort Collins, CO; Alamance County, NC; and elsewhere. They’re just a snapshot of the communities in all 50 states using the Harwood approach to create transformational change.
HOW THE POOREST COMMUNITY IN AMERICA CATALYZED SYSTEMIC CHANGE
The Institute teamed up with the Courageous Conversations About Our Schools podcast to tell the story of Reading, PA, like never before in a two-part podcast series. It features eight different Reading leaders, who collectively tell the story of how the community created systemic education change around early childhood education, English as a second language, and after-school activities. Notably, four of the leaders represent the group of funders who stepped forward to unleash this impact—Centro Hispano, United Way of Berks County, the Berks Alliance, and the Wyomissing Foundation.
Over a decade ago, Reading, PA, was declared the poorest city in America. It was a place many people had written off, even those within Reading itself. And our work there began at the height of the national culture wars around education. But residents and leaders in Reading refused to settle for the status quo. They used the Harwood approach to come together in a new way, discover what really mattered to the community, and unleash a chain reaction of change that continues to grow and spread to this day.
Reading proves that, no matter where your community is starting, it’s possible to get on a new civic path and create transformational change today in America. And funders like you were essential to catalyzing this transformation. It started when they embraced a different approach. Reading did it. Your community can do it too.
The Harwood Institute in the News
Rebuilding Democracy from the Bottom Up via The Civic Bargain Substack
Gathering at the Heart of Civic Hope via BCTV
Harwood Institute partnership helping Owensboro strengthen collaboration, civic culture via Owensboro Times
Follow our revamped social media presence for hope, inspiration, and connection.
Forward this to a friend! Together we can create a more equitable, fair, just, inclusive, and hopeful path forward.
