The Empathy Agency Inc.

CELEBRATE OFTEN! Life is short. We are celebrating with our founder, @nnekaallen today! See where she is and what she is looking forward to. "I turn 50 today and I feel joy about every mini and major celebration I've experienced leading me to this stage of my life. My best friend Andrew kicked off my 40s by throwing a dance party for me and my family and friends. Anyone who knows me knows that gathering with my lovelies is my favourite thing. There is nothing like the joy of eating, drinking, dancing, and laughing with friends and family. I couldn't have imagined a better way to enter my 40s than in a dance-off with my favourite people. This is what celebrating looks like to me and I believe it is a critical element to our living. All of our living, which includes our work. As I wrap up coaching sessions, I often ask a question that surprises my clients “How will you celebrate?” This question is powerful because it invites us into the present moment to acknowledge and honour our progress, big and small. Presence is a gift of celebration. At the beginning of this year, I asked myself this question. How will I celebrate the beginning of this new decade? The celebration culminates in the homeland of my ancestors. Accra, Ghana. Today, I touch the soil of my home. I don't yet have the words to express what this feels like, but they will soon come. As I move into this next decade gratitude guides me. To be on the Continent with my family is a gift of a lifetime and I know that every day of this birthday festival we will conjure celebrations for all things big and small." 'Moon marked and touched by sun    my magic is unwritten but when the sea turns back it will leave my shape behind.'  ~ Audre Lorde, A Woman Speaks Cheers! This is 50.

COURAGE CLEARS A PATH TO PURPOSE In this final post before our founder, @nnekaallen turns 50, she shares the powerful role courage has played in her life and work. "I thought I knew my purpose as I stepped into my 40s. That felt simple. It was fundraising. I loved the work, I was always excited about philanthropic impact and I was good at it. Except for one thing, I could not escape anti-Black racism in the organizations I worked for. The people I worked with were predominately white and were steeped in white supremacy culture. I couldn’t escape it seeing more and more of it among my melanated colleagues. Remaining a fundraiser became unsustainable for me. That's when courage stepped in and shoved me toward an even more meaningful mission. I began sharing my lived experiences as a Black woman and opportunities emerged. First, the creation of Our Right to Heal, and then the publishing of Collecting Courage. In between and since I’ve been engaged in a myriad of truth-telling to challenge and transform the charitable sector. This I know now is my truest calling and it takes many forms. Coaching is one of the beautiful conduits of truth. The invitation to be a thought partner with those who want to transform themselves and their work is a responsibility and a gift. Good coaches are great mirrors. Inevitably and wonderfully each of my clients' stories sits at the center of their transformation, if they dare to harness what they see, feel and sense. It is true, that with courage we can do great and meaningful things. Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Power is the relative ability to achieve purpose.' To be powerful, we will always need courage." Are you feeling trapped in your current circumstances and want to step out in courage to see your full potential? Book a Discovery Call with Nneka to learn more about how coaching can support you. https://lnkd.in/g64iBfUM.

OUR BODIES KNOW FIRST. "Our bodies communicate to us clearly and specifically if we are willing to listen." ~ Shakti Gawain In another reflection, our founder Nneka Allen, CFRE, COC, PCC, is joined by a dear friend and colleague Nicole Jamrozinski from Ember 2 Action who is looking back on her 30s, for a conversation about their relationship with their bodies. Below are Nneka's initial reflections on her relationship with her body in her 40s. "I didn’t appreciate this until my mid-40s. I find there is an over-emphasis on the cognitive in the white-dominant culture and I allowed it to pressure me to spend a lot of time in my head. However, once I began exploring somatics through my coaching practice, the insight that my body was regularly communicating, expanded my awareness and appreciation for the emerging wisdom. Last year, my somatic therapist shared this truth with me. Our minds time travel, but the body only knows the present moment. Her words challenged me and began to change me. I began to feel differently about my body's wisdom. Recognizing and listening to my emotions, sensations and intuition is as much about hearing the wisdom in my body as it is a practice of presence. I think we all know people who primarily live in the past. That is exhausting. Capitalism has many other folx constantly reaching for the next best thing, strictly future-focused. Also exhausting. But I have found a place that is nourishing and powerful and that is the present. As my Momma would say, "We are only promised today." In the present, our human needs can be acknowledged and met. Making us happier and more contented. While coaching is future-facing, it always first invites the present moment to reveal its truth. That's what makes coaching so impactful." What is your body communicating to you? Book a Discovery Call with Nneka to learn how coaching can support the mind and body connection. https://lnkd.in/g64iBfUM To listen to Nneka & Nicole's entire conversation visit https://lnkd.in/gxMFVW6y

LET GO! You’re not really in control anyhow. For an A-type, like our founder Nneka Allen, CFRE, COC, PCC, this is no small order. This month she is sharing lessons from her 40s. Surrender was a big one! Here's her reflection: "The perception of control comforted me for much of my adult life, but it also exhausted me. As I began to realize how little control I truly had fear washed over me disguised as anger. For anyone intimate with anger, you know that it is not sustainable for long periods. Only through the wisdom and direction of my elders, community and my body's wisdom did surrender become a focused practice for me. Surrender began for me through dance. When I was 46, a sister-friend challenged me to record myself dancing for 30 seconds and post it as an Instagram Story. Everything inside me hated this idea, yet I found myself taking on the challenge. I was petrified the entire time, but I did it. I blared my favourite Beyonce song, Freedom, in my kitchen and hit record. I still cringe a bit when I watch it, but I also feel joy from the freedom letting go offers. I found myself focusing on the act of surrender again this year. I was drawn to lean into surrender in even more intentional ways that opened me up to a more expansive way of being in this world. These last 11 months have stretched, pushed and challenged me. Emerging is a new liberated sense of myself. An autonomy that makes me want to keep dancing like no one is watching." If you resonate with Nneka's experience, let us know your relationship with surrender in the comments below.

"I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in my search for reality, rather than climb upon the rattling wagon of wishful illusions." ~ Zora Neale Hurston In her last blog of this year, The Age of Truth, our founder, Nneka Allen, CFRE, COC, PCC, looks back on her 40s as she enters the next decade of her life. "...I don’t believe there is one way to prepare for what age and wisdom bring. But I think an open heart and a willingness to do things afraid is a good orientation..." ~ Nneka Allen Take a moment to read her blog reflections this month here: https://lnkd.in/ga4XjP6x

GRIEF IS A WISE TEACHER. In her first reflection this month about her 40s, our founder Nneka Allen, CFRE, COC, PCC shares some of the lessons she's learned about grief. "I was first confronted with this truth a couple of years ago when a friend recommended a little book called Holding Change by adrienne maree brown. The chapter called To Give Your Hands to Freedom, First Give Them to Grief shuffled my emotions. It swung open the gate of my heart to consider the relationship grief has with freedom. brown writes, “As we seek to breathe a new world into being, being an effective changemaker demands the right and power to feel our losses rather than escape them. We must give our grieving bodies what they need, individually and collectively.” The connection between grief and freedom was a relationship I had felt in my body but didn’t have words for. But I knew that with every loss in my life, especially in my 40s, there was a deep need to release the emotions within. Thankfully, my family makes room for grief's expressions and our necessary healing. But white dominant culture does not and I feel that oppression and the pressure to conform. The last time I worked in an environment governed by whiteness was when I was 45. Since then my expressions of loss and grief have been set free, allowing its wisdom to teach me and shape me and my activism." 'To have a movement that breaths, you must build a movement with the capacity to grieve.' ~ adrienne maree brown What is grief teaching you?

“Charity is no substitute for justice. If we never challenge a social order that allows some to accumulate wealth - even if they decide to help the less fortunate - while others are short-changed, then even acts of kindness end up supporting unjust arrangements. We must never ignore the injustices that make charity necessary, or the inequalities that make it possible.” ˜ Michael Eric Dyson How are we challenging the social order? First, we must understand the social order before we can challenge or change it. What do you understand about the current social order? We believe the current social order is rooted in capitalist, patriarchal and white supremacist systems and structures. Scrutinizing and examining these ways of being require a rigorous consciousness and brave allegiance to abolition. Raising our consciousness is daily work. To maintain this practice we need to be awake to the reality of injustice around us. At The Empathy Agency, we work with leaders and their teams to better understand and explore the social context and the relationship we have with it so that we can change ourselves and our organizations in ways that cultivate more dignity, safety and belonging. To learn more about our work, DM us and we'll share a link to book a free Discovery Call.

In my community, Black generosity is always abundant and radical and doesn't only involve money. It is not necessarily the result of excess resources but frequently comes from a familiarity with not having enough; an intimate experience or understanding of the feeling of unfilled needs. I see the Black people in my life, share what they have even when it means they wouldn’t be satiated. This is a discipline of generosity that is rarely seen among Westernized philanthropists. Philanthropy is the root of Black life. “One of the things that I began to realize over the past 15 years is that you have to make your life philanthropy, in the sense that the greatest philanthropy doesn’t always involve money. In fact, when all you can use is money, you see its incredible limitations.” ~ Strive Masiyiwa, Founder and Chairman of Econet Wireless Group We invite you to expand your understanding and knowledge of Black philanthropy. Look for examples around you. Read our recent blogs, Leaders in Giving: Celebrating the Philanthropic Power of Black Women here https://lnkd.in/gD5_vXyp or The Indomitable Black Spirit: Black Philanthropy in British Columbia here https://lnkd.in/duUDi6E4

This week, our founder @nnekaallen will take the stage with her brother and colleague Tyrone McKinley Freeman, Ph.D. in Chicago at North Park University to speak at their conference, More Than Money: Philanthropy, Fundraising & Justice. Earlier this year, the North Park University team asked Tyrone if he would kick off their gathering with his vast thought leadership. With the theme of justice headlining the conference theme, he insisted that Nneka be invited. Nneka is always honoured to have an opportunity to explore the intersection of the work she loves and is passionate about - fundraising and justice. With immense joy, she will be joining him. We invite you to read our latest blog this month to learn more about Nneka and Tyrone's exploration of the Black philanthropic tradition and the powerful relationship between justice, fundraising and philanthropy, called "Without Justice, Is It Really Love?" https://lnkd.in/gEVXyKPm

Do we love people? Philanthropy is the love of people, but do our philanthropic acts emerge from a place of love? Tough questions! But once we’ve wrestled with them and find alignment with the will to extend ourselves to nurture people (M. Scott Peck's definition of love), we can ask, how do we invest more of our resources towards the betterment of the people around us? At The Empathy Agency, we believe this begins by embracing abundant radical generosity. The belief that we have more than enough. From this frame of mind and heart, our generosity is transformed, freeing us to act and invest in the dignity and safety of those in need around us. And that is rooted in justice. Cornel West said, "Justice is what love looks like in public." Loving philanthropic acts require courage and a commitment to justice. What does your love look like? Tell us in the comments!