A year end message from our founder and CEO, Carrie Fox

As we come to the end of another year, I find myself reflecting on the state of our collective health. In some ways, it is hard to see anything but the harsh realities of our current existence: now more than 800,000 lives lost to COVID in the U.S. alone and cases on the rise as the Omicron variant scales in cities across the globe.

But as mask mandates are returning and with mental health worries real, I find myself also reflecting on the many ways we collectively turned the challenges of these times into opportunities for impact.

Working in partnership with our employees, clients, partners, and community members every step of the way, we used the power of communication as our tool to advance justice:  We led campaigns designed to eliminate misinformation in public health. We launched initiatives designed to shift philanthropic dollars to historically underfunded communities. We amplified issues that resulted in federal policy change in support of local news. And, we helped organizations re-orient their brands to be authentically aligned with their missions.

Looking back on 2021, it’s clear that we did all we could, with all we had, to change and challenge the inherent power in communications, for good. Together, we worked to make every step an intentional step toward our vision for an anti-racist future.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

At the start of the COVID-19 crisis, and in service of justice, our leadership team at Mission Partners made a commitment to deliver $50,000 in resources towards Black- and women*-led organizations, acknowledging the broken and harmful systems that contributed to Black and women-led organizations being among the most negatively impacted during the ongoing pandemic. As we close out 2021, our actual impact is more than triple what we set out to accomplish. This year alone, as part of our ongoing COVID response strategy, Mission Partners donated $250,000 in skills-based pro bono, with $140,000 of that going to Black-led and women-led nonprofit organizations.

The vision of a just, equitable world is what drives us and our work. And its why we are getting even more explicit in what we intend to do with our collective resources over the coming year.

Our 2021 pro bono commitment, borne out of the COVID pandemic, is just the beginning of a much larger commitment we have made, to invest at least $1 million in Black-led and women-led organizations by December 2025. I invite you to learn more about our commitment, and reach out to me at [email protected] if you are interested in collaborating with us in the year ahead.

Tools to Activate Social Change Communicators

Reflecting on this year, and the themes we’ve heard among many of our clients, has also led us to double down on the growth of our Mission Forward community, which we first launched in 2014, and now largely operates as a podcast of the same name. Mission Forward is a free, accessible resource for inclusive and thoughtful communicators who wish to advance social justice through words, design, and policy. Each season, we deliver practical insights, and expertly produced content, while amplifying fresh voices and thought-provoking content along the way. The podcast now has a new home at missionforward.us where you can join the community, get early listens of content, and be among the first to benefit from new offerings coming in 2022.

A Purposeful Pause

As our Mission Partners team prepares to take a collective year-end pause (as a reminder, the office will be closed Dec 22-Jan 2), I’ll close with a simple thank you. Thank you for letting us be on this journey with you, for inviting us into your work and for trusting us as your partners along the way. Thank you for being willing to think big and boldly, together, in service of justice.  While the troubles of this time are all around us, so too is hope, hard work, and optimism for what lies ahead.

With my deepest gratitude,

Carrie Fox (she/her)
Founder and CEO
Mission Partners, Benefit LLC