Graphic illustration by Taslim Van Hattum
It’s been a little over a month since we hosted and facilitated four discussions as part of Disrupting the Path: A New Way Forward for New Mexico’s Social Sector in early December 2024. These “disrupting” conversations were the first step in envisioning how the sector could be more equitable, rooted in justice, and have a larger impact for communities here in New Mexico, improving the sector for all of its stakeholders. As each day passes now in 2025, it seems this is a more and more important conversation to have … and to continue.
When our team pauses to think about what the conversations were like we’d say they were honest, thoughtful, engaging, and vulnerable. We were happy to see that individuals from a wide range of backgrounds and roles in the sector, including executive directors, program staff, marketing staff, nonprofit consultants, funders, and more, took time to participate. Here are just a few of the things we heard:
“We need to align funders’ goals with nonprofits’ needs and priorities.”
“New Mexico has been colonized many times–we have to address the intergenerational trauma that comes with that; we haven’t done that head on, and it’s the root cause of lots of our problems.”
“A transformed sector would use privilege to help others without those same privileges.”
“A transformed sector would have leadership by people with lived experience.”
Jotboards, graphic documentation, and surveys were, and still are, being used to capture the conversations (if you work in the social sector in New Mexico you have until the end of January 2025 to add your voice here [edit: this survey is now closed]; please feel free to share this with your colleagues, as well). And, to encourage transparency and easy access to information, we’re sharing the information as we compile it. For example, you’re welcome to download and read more from the session jotboards, here.
What’s next? Once the survey is closed, we’ll be taking the time to really take in what everyone has shared and begin looking for themes of what everyone has shared. Here at Prospera Partners we are committed to emergent processes and these conversations and survey are rooted in really modeling that which we want to see, especially in terms of inclusion, equity, and justice. We don’t know fully what comes next as we haven’t yet fully listened. Once we read the survey results and look back on all that we learned from the conversations, we expect to compile a report and offer recommendations for next steps. Thank you to all who have been a part of this process and believe in a world where we can have a social sector that works for all of us!
