Windows of Light: Annual Letter to our Partners

Canyon country in the winter will teach you the importance of chasing light.  Sheer rock walls bring a solace of shade on our western river corridors during the summer heat, but winter is a different game.  Narrow windows of light last in some places for only minutes.  Bearing witness to these moments is a matter of luck.  Right place, right time, sure.  What is most important is paying attention to the changing landscape in front of you and recognizing something significant is happening when you see it. 

A lot of the work within Mighty Arrow is about recognizing something significant when it appears before us.  As we wrap up the close to our 10th year, our total giving has now surpassed $16 Million.  That’s a big deal for our little family.  It’s also a big list of partners who have shown us their light along the way. 

Zooming out on the scale of time, this next year, 2024, feels like an important window for us to also recognize.  In the coming months Mighty Arrow will be focused on defending democracy and building momentum behind critical climate solutions.  To our philanthropic partners who are “Sending Up the Bat Signal”, we hear you, and are building our plan to fund voter access and civic engagement work in a big and early way next year.  And to our partners at 1% for the Planet and the Global Returns Project, who called for philanthropy to step up at the forefront of climate change solutions, we understand your urgency and echo your call.

Equally important to our work this next year is finding the moments for rest.  A friend pointed out to me that winter solstice is when the Northern Hemisphere is at "maximum full tilt away from the sun."  I was intrigued by the visual of leaning away from something so hard it triggered darkness and hibernation.  And at the same time, darkness carries with it a sense of relief.  An allowance to slow down and open space for tenderness within ourselves and our kin.  A moment of pause to rediscover balance. 

Six months from now will be the counterbalance, when the growing seasons are in full swing, the rivers at peak flow and the political primaries wrap up their candidate selections.  That is when we must lean in, “full tilt” back toward the thing that creates heat, but also lights up our sky.  

We spent the last year sharing stories of the people and partners who are leaning in and chasing light.  The least we can do is lift up their work and perhaps inspire you to lean in too.  

Get some rest friends, next year is gonna be big.