Rising to optimism: An end of year letter from innoFaith
Dear friends,
At an event I attended recently, one of the speakers, in reflecting on the post-election moment in the U.S., invoked the concept of chardi kala from his Sikh faith tradition. Chardi kala means eternal resilience, or as this speaker described it, “rising to optimism.” As he shared, I felt multiple layers of gratitude–for this particular gem of wisdom from Sikhi and how essential it feels, for the way it helped deepen for me the concept of eternal hope from my own Catholic tradition, for God as the source of that eternal hope and resilience, and for all the people who have inspired hope and resilience in me this past year.
In a year when politics have felt all-consuming, I have been reminded of why, 25 years ago, I took a job in the social innovation sector—because I found it powerful to work with people across the world who are creating solutions to social problems regardless of what their governments are doing or not doing. In pursuing that path, I found myself in a largely secular sector. But this sector is in many ways the legacy of faith communities who have long forged solutions to social problems as they sought to live out their values in community. Of course, much social harm historically has been done in the name of religion, but our ancestors in faith also pushed boundaries to develop early forms of social welfare, human rights, civic infrastructure, social movements, and more.
Today, we continue to see religious and other ideologies causing social harm in various forms around the world. How will history show that we led in this moment? What solutions will we develop for our communities and our society? What will we build out of our love for the divine, for each other, for our planet, and for future generations? Trying to beat back ideologies can just embolden them further, so I look instead to the leaders rising to optimism and creating a different way, putting their values to work for good in big ways.
At innoFaith, we believe that faith-rooted leaders are drivers of innovation that matters, innovation grounded in deep wells of wisdom, vision, imagination, and commitment in service of a world in which everyone thrives. Our society needs such leaders to be their best, most creative selves right now, and innoFaith is here to support them to do so. As the world and religious landscape shifts, leadership looks and feels different. We know people can feel ill-equipped or off-balance, living in tension between what they're expected to do and what they sense the world needs. In that tension lies enormous opportunity to rethink, reimagine, and realign. We aim to help people lean into that opportunity. To that end, we curate content, connections, and collaborations for people who want to use the wisdom and assets of faith to create a better world.
We’re proud to share that over this past year, we:
Started expanding our NYU Certificate Course in Faith, Innovation, and Social Impact, thanks to a grant from Trinity Church that is allowing us to build a partnership model to reach more people with the course. We look forward to launching multiple cohorts of the course in 2025.
Hosted multiple events including an exclusive storytelling workshop for our network as well as three virtual public events in collaboration with partner organizations:
How Cogenerational Innovation Can Strengthen Faith Communities and Society in partnership with Co-Generate
Faith and Innovation in Turbulent Times in partnership with NYU Bronfman Center
Let’s Talk: Faith Communities Fighting Isolation in partnership with Weave: The Social Fabric Project at the Aspen Institute
Co-led a national field study on spiritual innovation with our partners at Glean Network, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab, and Faith Matters Network. The study seeks to understand the presence and collective impact of spiritual innovation in local communities and economies and to build networks to engage in coordinated efforts and greater collective impact. The research report will be released in early 2025, followed by further writing and convening work.
Celebrated the fruits of a partnership we initiated and funded between the Interfaith Coalition of Bowie, Maryland, and the Giving Square to pilot the Giving Square's innovative Kids for Kids Fund initiative in an interfaith setting. We are pleased that the partnership will continue in 2025.
Engaged 5 contributing editors from various religious backgrounds and areas of expertise. They helped us source over 200 resources, initiatives, stories, and more, rapidly growing the scope and diversity of our content.
Produced 12 monthly newsletters full of curated stories, resources, insights, fellowship and grant opportunities, and more for our core audience, including featuring 12 leaders of varied faith backgrounds in our Meet an innoFaither series to highlight the many ways people embody faith and social innovation.
More than doubled our newsletter subscribers, grew our social media presence–including a new LinkedIn page–and made numerous connections for people across our network.
We’re excited to build on all of this in in the coming year. In 2025, we plan to:
Continue to grow our audience and network of leaders and support them with the most relevant content, connections, and opportunities to advance their work and leadership.
Host more regular events to provide opportunities for multi-faith audiences to engage with innovative, high-impact ideas for change. Stay tuned for an early 2025 event on local civic engagement innovations.
Launch multiple cohorts of our NYU Certificate Course and grow our pipeline of partners to bring this unique innovation leadership training to more faith sector leaders.
Foster a national conversation about faith-rooted social innovation through the release of the spiritual innovation field study and related activities.
Develop a new Faith in Change series that will include mapping and analysis of faith-rooted innovation in different issue areas, public conversations about ideas for change in those issue areas, and ultimately a multi-faith series of stories featuring innovative ways that individuals and communities are using their tradition’s wisdom and assets to help address complex challenges of our time.
innoFaith is a small organization with only two regular part-time team members. We are able to accomplish more than that capacity would suggest because we believe in the power of collaboration. Indeed, we don't think big things can happen without it. The problems we face are too daunting, the opportunities too abundant. So let's do big things together! If there are ways you think we might partner with you to create change, please reach out to me at danielle@innofaith.org.
I also invite you to partner financially, investing in spreading innovation that matters, at whatever level you are able. You can donate here or reach out to me. Also, would you mind thinking about who in your own network might be interested in our work and share this letter with them?
Thank you for everything you do to rise to optimism and build a better world. You are making a difference, and I am grateful for you. May the holidays bring you great joy and inspiration!
In faith,
Danielle
Photo by Ankush Minda on Unsplash