The Seasons Fund For Social Transformation Arises From A Realization That Action Is Not Enough

No matter how many projects and campaigns and initiatives and alliances we set in motion, we won’t find fundamental solutions to societal ills until we learn how to approach this work with greater awareness, compassion, and humility.

Wider access to management training and leadership development can help overcome some of the internal problems that weaken and limit social change organizations, from poor planning and weak strategic analysis to lack of performance standards. But it’s going to take more than technical interventions. We must also bring the right intention and presence to our jobs. Many of us can point to a formative moment or experience that awakened our political consciousness, often leaving us wounded and angry. Such pain is often translated into the fuel that powers transformative approaches to social change, but when we leave these negative emotions unexamined, unexplored, and unhealed, the solutions we devise can be fraught with resentment and bitterness. We may even end up reproducing the divisiveness and hate we set out to mend.

But there is another way. Our best hope lies in combining our passion for justice with contemplative practices and the best possible management and organizational development skills. Some people may swear by a particular technique, but there are enough alternatives – from every tradition-to suit almost anyone. Incorporating these practices into daily life, reconnecting with our values and motivations, and creating more alignment between inner and outer work can result in radical transformation for men and women laboring on the front lines of social change. Over time, they can deepen their capacity to lead and achieve more sustainable results. We can also utilize these approaches within our organizations to achieve the same results on a much larger scale.

History shows that personal and social transformation are inseparably linked and mutually reinforcing, and that it’s vital to move from contemplation to action and back again. Gandhi, fasting on the final night of the Salt March, knew this. So did King, engaging in solitary prayer just before he gave himself over to the Birmingham City Jail. But it wasn’t just them; many of their movement colleagues embraced these practices too. The challenge now is to identify, and make more widely available, a range of tools and resources that can help social change organizations integrate this approach into their work. To that end, the Seasons Fund mobilizes resources, makes grants, and supports learning activities to strengthen and shed new light on the connections between personal and social transformation.