Page 3 - 2022 January Report

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
It’s January, the start of a new year. We’ve been busy planning for a promising year with a tremendous number of opportunities. We have meaningful grant dollars (over $11 million) to
deploy and exciting new grants (like ANSEP) to follow and pursue. The December Convening left us with real insight and some promising ideas (like PACKS) for future programs. The Grant Program Committee meeting brought about the exciting concept of formally targeting the search for promising startups.
We will spend the coming year in discussions over these important items. But before we close the door on 2021, I can’t help but look back one more time.
The evening of Friday, December 3, 2021, was a special moment in the life of the Foundation. It wasn’t the elegant room, delicious food or the program agenda that made it special, but rather, the subject matter. Decades of impact from a maturing organization under the leadership of Malcolm Macleod. I’m sure we all had our own takeaways, but I suspect they would cut across some common themes.
We’re in the people business. While our work requires a lot of reading, reports, numbers and evaluation, and though we hear from a miniscule percentage of the people our partnerships impact, it is the people who make it meaningful. It is also the people who make it effective. The comments shared both in person and through the video shown that night testify to that.
During that night, we heard the expressions of intelligent, engaged, committed people pursuing something good – people who at some level all share the priority of serving disadvantaged individuals. People who were empowered to pursue a calling through their engagement with JSF. They were better from our partnerships and so were we.
Robert A. Krause
Our work matters because it matters to people. Our partnerships and funding have the potential to bring about real change. It’s change not only in the lives they lead, but for the children they raise, in the dreams of those children and for the communities in which they live. Let that sink in.
Being a part of the Johnson Scholarship Foundation is a very special experience. We see and hear that thought from Directors, Consultants, Staff and Grantee Partners. The privilege is real for many reasons, but chief among them is the opportunity we have to work with gifted and impassioned people who are committed to serving others. We are invited to share in the life’s work of some remarkable people for the good of others.
And finally, we are never very far from handing over our platform of opportunity to the next generation.
Reflections like these bring about both appreciation and urgency. Friday night reminded us all of the tremendous opportunity that being a part of the Johnson Scholarship Foundation presents. Like you, I am so very grateful to be a part. There is much to do in 2022.
30 years - Our Journey Continues
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