I'm not sure about you, but when I think about strategy, I think about long, drawn-out documents with best-scenario guesses about what's going to happen in the next 3–5 years. I think about countless meetings that go on for hours, sometimes ending with the same questions that got them started. And I think about the lack of follow through on the plans that were made with seeming earnestness.

In her new book, Becoming Wise, author and “On Being” podcast producer, Krista Tippett shares the quote above. Dorothy Day, a woman who helped found the Catholic worker movement, shared these words with the world. Although they appear short, they have such depth that when I read them, it was hard for me to let them go. Even though I helped start a nonprofit in the fall of 2007 and even though I’ve been leading that same nonprofit since the spring of 2009, I’ve never quite crystallized in such a clear and compelling way, as Ms. Day has, the work that we do. But there it is. 

We are leaders, fighters, world-changers, organizers, unstoppable gusts of passionate wind. We are students. We are SPARTANS.

Although everyone is in love with startups and entrepreneurship, the real place we're going to add value is working with grassroots, community-based organizations. The grassroots is where it's at!

Even though it's not yet Christmas, I can't help but think of the phrase, "although it's been said, many times, many ways." To be honest, I think of that phrase every time I sit down to write a thank you note to someone who has given to our organization.