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.

join us for the 2027 safe haven for funders

On January 28-29, 2027, we’ll be back in Sarasota for the Third Annual Safe Haven for Funders. This is not another conference. This is a special gathering of funders like you who are trying to catalyze deep, lasting change. It’s designed to leave you refreshed, regrounded, and re-energized.

This gathering is especially important in these challenging times. There’s a lot of pressure on funders right now to meet this moment as divides deepen and it becomes harder than ever to make progress.

Participants will examine what it really takes for communities to transform themselves and how funders can actively support those efforts in ways that go beyond financial capital through meaningful conversations around:

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
Finding 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 when you don’t know where everyone stands
How to be catalytic in the way you fund things in our community

learn more and register

rich’s appearance on the catalytic philanthropy podcast

In looking to rebuild your community’s civic culture, give yourself permission to start small. But be intentional in how you grow your efforts over time.

That’s something Rich emphasized in speaking to lean funders when he was invited on Exponent Philanthropy’s Catalytic Philanthropy Podcast. Exponent’s network is made of nearly 1,500 organizations nationwide, all seeking to become more catalytic in their efforts to build stronger communities.

To better engage our imaginations about how we move forward together, he also emphasized this. For any leader seeking to be a catalyst, ask yourself: Who are all the people, groups, networks, and informal things that make up a community? It’s easy to lose sight of them. In the case of a funder, you may just be focused on your grantees. But your community is far broader than just grantees. How can you use your work to activate and engage and unleash the potential of your community even if your work occurs primarily through grantees?

When you stop to consider such questions, pretty soon you begin to see an entire range of possibilities for who to engage in order to get your community moving forward again.

Listen to the full episode—what Rich talks about with Exponent Philanthropy is a precursor to the kind of conversation we’ll have at the Safe Haven.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

why funders look to the institute

This summer, the Institute held a special virtual space for funders focused on how to get nonprofits to work together.

Philanthropic leaders representing practically every state signed up to join. Because at a time when so much of society feels stuck, people across this country yearn to get their communities on a better trajectory. They’re in search of how to find the energy necessary to keep going. They’re in search of how to get different groups and organizations to work better together. They’re in search of a more hopeful way forward.

And they’re looking to the Institute for support in that journey. During the virtual event, Rich provided two tools that will help funders create a sense of possibility for the nonprofits in their community. Both are free and can be used without any specialized training.

Get in motion with the nonprofits in your community by:

Viewing the recording of the virtual event
Downloading and using the Two Lists and Aspirations exercises

rich’s message to united way leaders

United Ways are one of the last boundary-spanning organizations in so many American communities. They’ve been involved in practically every major initiative the Institute has undertaken in recent years.

So Rich was deeply honored to keynote the United Way Western Regional Conference in Portland, OR. Hundreds of United Way professionals from across the western United States showed up. Here’s what he asked them to keep in mind as they seek to make a difference.

When we’re facing challenges, we tend to hunker down. We turn inward and focus on our own survival. But now is precisely the moment that we must recommit to making the community our focus. That requires that we Turn Outward and keep what matters to people in our line of sight.
Do you want a perfect world or do you want to make progress? It’s natural to strive for grand plans or utopian visions but we need to let go of the burden of seeking perfection. What we need right now is to make progress that grows our belief and builds momentum over time.

We can’t wait to see what chain reactions of change United Ways across the west unleash next. And we’ll be there to support them as they do. If you’re a United Way looking to deepen your involvement with the Institute, just reach out and let’s start a conversation about how we might work together.

talk to our team

THE INSTITUTE’S WORK SPREADS IN NORTH CAROLINA

We recently launched a new community initiative in Rockingham County, NC, just northwest of where we’ve been in Alamance for the past few years. Rockingham County is a deeply proud, rural, and conservative community. Our work there, in partnership with Reidsville Area Foundation, seeks to help the community shape its own future by building on the good that already exists. The regional Fox outlet, Fox8, covered the initiative’s launch.

There is something special about people’s commitment in Rockingham. They yearn to come together across political, faith, geographic, racial, and economic differences to help move their community forward.

Rockingham County already has a strong ethic of people stepping up to help each other. Indeed, it was a key finding in our report, Better Together: Creating a Shared Direction for Rockingham County. Now there’s an opportunity to extend that ethic of helping to create a stronger community rather than just individual efforts.

What’s more, our country desperately needs more examples of communities of all types—but especially rural communities and the funders supporting them—coming together to create a common future amid people’s real differences. Rockingham County has what it takes to be one such example.

READ THE REPORT