Dear Comrades:
At the deepest level of RoadMap’s DNA and origin story, we are driven by our commitment to doing all that we can to flank movements in a time when anti-democratic, authoritarian and white nationalist forces are highly mobilized. Providing holistic and values-driven capacity building support to movements, organizations and leaders is not just our mission, but it is also at the core of how our collective hearts and minds work across our RoadMap team.
Over the last several years, we have been asking ourselves some big questions such as: What is the strongest and most transformational version of RoadMap for these times? What allows us to be strategic and emergent? What are the best ways to fully support our beloved clients and network of badass consultants?
At many points over the past 13 years, we’ve kept coming back to an overarching issue that has long limited our collective imagination and our ability to truly practice holistic capacity building — RoadMap’s lack of independence. That’s because we’ve been fiscally sponsored. And while fiscal sponsorship in and of itself is not problematic, in RoadMap’s case, it added layers of complexity to our work and daily operations that impacted our resources and limited internal capacity in a variety of ways.
After three years of collective soul searching, deep strategy and internal capacity building, RoadMap is an independent entity as of July 1st 2023!
As we know from experience with our clients over the past decade, making BIG, bold and strategic decisions is not easy. The same can be said for the intentional and thoughtful process we have undertaken to make this decision. In order to do so, we too had to put on our “geeky” capacity building hats and turn inward. We left no stone unturned in our strategic analysis and dreaming for what might be possible.
We mapped the heck out of this process — we ordered more flip chart paper than we care to remember and we retreated year after year like it was nobody’s business. With each twist and turn — legal, financial, strategic, political — a plan emerged. Nothing was a given and every pathway forward was on the table until it became very clear what we needed to do.
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I share all of this for two reasons:
1. To our Clients. We want you to know that you are not alone in tackling big, bold and strategic questions. RoadMap’s well of empathy and solidarity comes directly from the fact that we are working beside you. The questions you are asking, we are asking. Together, we are learning and co-creating transformational movements that build collective power.
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2. Gratitude. There are so many people who have been involved in helping RoadMap to make this transition. From beginning to end, this process was packed with deep wisdom, struggle and principled conflict, questions we could not answer until we could, sleepless nights, hard work, deep relationship and trust building, laughter and joy. It has truly been *all the things*. I can’t express my gratitude enough for the many hands that made this work lighter.
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And now, RoadMap is ready to cause as much good trouble as possible in its next chapter. Our hearts and minds have been expanded. Our tools sharpened. RoadMap 2.0 (as we lovingly call she/they) is ready to dream, scheme and fight alongside you just as we have always done. The big difference is that RoadMap’s newfound self-determination has prepared us to bring the best version of ourselves to the movements we love.
In solidarity,
Lisa Weiner-Mahfuz
Director
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