The Gates of Hope

Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of Hope—

The Power of Philanthropic Partnerships

This special supplement looks closely at the lessons the Orfalea Fund has learned about how to create effective partnerships with nonprofits, government agencies, and other philanthropies.

• “Where Two Rivers Meet, The Water Is Never Calm”

   

• Migrating a Partnership Ethos

   

• The Pillars of Partnership

   

• Accepting the Challenges of Partnership | 2

   

• Valuing Stakeholders in Early Childhood Education

   

• Early Lessons Propel a Movement | 3

   

• Building Disaster-Ready Philanthropy | 1

   

• Strengthening Santa Barbara County’s Disaster Resilience

   

• Choosing the Right Partners for School Food Reform

   

• A Changing Landscape for School Food

   

• Lessons From a Sunsetting Fund

   

• When to Lead, Follow, and Let Go | 1

   

• The Gates of Hope | 3

   

Not the prudent gates of Optimism,

Which are somewhat narrower.

Not the stalwart, boring gates of Common Sense;

Nor the strident gates of Self-Righteousness,

Which creak on shrill and angry hinges

(People cannot hear us there; they cannot pass through)

Nor the cheerful, flimsy garden gate of

“Everything is gonna’ be all right.”

But a different, sometimes lonely place,

The place of truth-telling,

About your own soul first of all and its condition.

The place of resistance and defiance,

The piece of ground from which you see the world

Both as it is and as it could be

As it will be;

The place from which you glimpse not only struggle,

But the joy of the struggle.

And we stand there, beckoning and calling,

Telling people what we are seeing

Asking people what they see.

Read more stories by Victoria Safford.