I2I’s Heart-2-Heart on Power, Summer Vacays, and the Audacious Project

Hey there,

Welcome to Intention 2 Impact (I2I’s) Heart 2 Heart (H2H) newsletter - where we share what’s on our minds, in our hearts, and up-our-sleeves. This is an archived newsletter from July 2023. Want to read the newsletter in real time? Click here to subscribe!

Hopefully you’re reading this at the pool, on a hammock, or at least in-between fun summer activities.🌊☀️

This month, we contemplate power, relive summer memories, and shout out one of our favorite clients, The Audacious Project! (PS. all our clients are our favorite 😉 )

On Our Minds

We’ve been thinking a lot lately about power. Who has it, who doesn’t, who gets to decide? What is it, anyways?

As 90s kids, we grew up thinking power was reserved for superheroes - specifically Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. 👊🏽

Now, we know that power, specifically political power, is the influence of people and resources to shape policies, systems, and culture. Martin Luther King Jr. defined power as “The ability to achieve a purpose. Whether or not it is good or bad depends upon the purpose.”

In a recent article in Stanford Social Innovation Review, Richard Healy discusses what it takes for progressive philanthropy to build power against systemic racism and injustices. Rather than thinking about community organizations as businesses or campaigns, Healy posits that the social sector should take notes from military strategy to build long-term political infrastructure for power building.

According to Healy, political infrastructure requires: a deep understanding of oppositional forces, proactively building alliances, shared values and ideology, identifying levers for change (e.g., supportive laws or winnable campaigns), overlapping and interconnected organizations, leadership training, and of course, sustained funding.

It’s about strategically winning the war, not burning out with every single battle.

I2I is currently working with The California Endowment to learn from and evaluate their social bond strategy, which focuses on building power infrastructure and leverage.

Turns out it is going to take more than the red, pink, yellow, blue, black Rangers to build and sustain progressive power needed for racial and health equity!

In Our Hearts

Summer Vacay 2k23 is here

Even though things are heating up in the I2I virtual office, the team is still making time to get off Zoom and go out into the world this summer! We asked I2I team members to share their top summer getaway spots.

From Quintana Roo, Mexico to Maine to Visakhapatnam, India to Colorado to Ponte Vedra, Florida, the I2I team’s summer vacay spots all had one thing in common: FAMILY TIES!

Sahiti: My absolute favorite was devouring the sweetest of mangoes while spending the summer months at my maternal grandparents' ancestral home in the beautiful coastal city of Visakhapatnam, India. My grandma would take it upon herself to bargain and buy the BEST ones from the BEST vendor in town so I could indulge in them limitlessly. It helped that I was the youngest of all the grandkids ;) Mangoes aside, everything about being in that home with my most favorite people on earth was enriching. I hold on tight to that time and those memories.
Ashley: My favorite summer vacation spot is the state of Quintana Roo. Every year, I take on a new island to explore, learn more about the Mayan culture and ruins, and I get to visit family that lives nearby.
Blake: My favorite summer vacation spot is Austin, Texas, where I go yearly to visit my fiancés’ family. Great people, great food, great street art, welcoming culture, great beer, and all the live music you can handle.
Nina: My favorite summer vacation spots are Deer Isle, Maine with my husband's family & the Outerbanks in North Carolina with my family! They have very different vibes (in ways that match our families), but both deliver in terms of relaxation, quality time, and fun in the sun!
Maria: Ponte Vedra, Florida is my favorite summer vacation spot to visit with my family, where we have been going for the past 25 years. It always symbolizes the start of summer and is the perfect place to catch up on my reading list, play cornhole, and enjoy fresh seafood.
Kathleen: For me, summer time always signals adventures in the Colorado mountains! It is a time to reconnect with nature, my family, and our ancestors. Every year I make an evening picnic pilgrimage to Maroon Bells, CO with my parents and brother…and this year I got to take my own family (husband and dog) there to experience the magic of the Bells!

Up Our Sleeves

CLIENT SPOTLIGHT 🔦 The Audacious Project 🔦

I2I recently partnered with the Audacious Project to complete an 8-week rapid evaluation of the past 2 cycles of grantees and projects. Housed at TED (sorry not sorry for sending you down this TEDTalk rabbit hole), The Audacious Project is a funding initiative that encourages the world’s greatest changemakers to dream bigger.

Each cycle, the Audacious Project works with about 10 social innovators to shape their ideas into viable multi-year plans and launch them to the world alongside visionary philanthropists.

This past year, Audacious Project catalyzed more than one billion dollars (!!!) for the newest cohort of projects. If that’s not audacious, we don’t know what is.

It was a joy to support the Audacious Project in their program learning and we cannot wait to see the 2023 cohort continue to tackle some of the most complex and urgent challenges of our time (you go, Glen Coco)!