Let what you’ve experienced in the months after the uprising enrich your ‘RealLIST Connectors’ nominations

On Wednesday, May 27 we published a call for nominations for a planned Generocity RealLIST to showcase nonprofit “Connectors.” Two days before, on Monday, George Floyd had been killed by police in Minneapolis, and the protests that started immediately after his death had, by May 30, become massive and nationwide.

It was the start of a historic uprising, and our tiny staff scrambled to pull together stories and columns that would not simply document, but accurately reflect the nonprofit sector’s thinking about this hugely consequential movement for racial justice.

The RealList Connectors compilation, naturally, was pushed to the back burner.

Two months later, it is time to relaunch and reopen our call for nominations —  this time enriched and informed by what we’ve learned, experienced and witnessed (and what’s been put in motion) in the intervening days, weeks and months.

From our original call:

There are people in every sector who have the knack for forging connections.

They’re plugged in to the ideas that are percolating above and below the surface of things. If you are new to the field, they’ll point you to the important conversations that are taking place. They’ll know just which parties to bring together to move your project forward, or to get your next one started.

We’re putting them all on a list. A RealLIST for which we are inviting your nominations … [of] connectors who are involved in philanthropy and fiscal sponsorship organizations, social impact investing and nonprofit service providers; folks engaged in social enterprise, community organizers, activists and mission-driven folks who shape what we talk about and with whom.

Who’s connecting the area’s nonprofit sector in the Philadelphia region? Come the beginning of October, when we plan to publish our list, you will know.

What to do now: Submit up to 10 names, with titles and organizational affiliations (plus, your rationale for why they are connectors who should be included in the final list), by EOD Monday, September 7. Use “RealLIST Connectors” in the subject line. And, yes, it is okay to self-nominate.

We will consider your nominations (along with the nominations we got immediately after our first call) when we make a final selection for the list. Those who make it onto the final RealLIST Connectors will be invited guests at our ADVANCE conference in November.