The Brightspot partners recently jaunted up to Portland for an overnight retreat. There were a few business-related topics we hoped to touch on, but primarily, the goal was to be together. When we planned this a few months ago we hadn’t realized that our retreat would be a few days after the election.

So we ate great food (Evo, wow), found relaxation (go to Soakology), and shared some major laughs trying to learn the choreography to Texas Hold ‘Em (no, there are no photos). During these moments, and the spaces between, we also did a lot of processing. Alongside the context of the election were our own recent ponderings on the effects of media, mostly social media. These were informed by The Anxious Generation, last year’s Surgeon General’s warning on social media, mental health, and older adults’ loneliness epidemic, and other more intuitive shifts in how we use and value this tool. So while we know social media is damaging - and really hugely enormously damaging to kids - the confluence of events brought this more sharply into focus.

It led our team to a meaty discussion around what it would mean for Brightspot to abandon our social media presence. And let’s be real here - this is small potatoes. We definitely don’t think our periodic Instagram and Facebook posts have revolutionized anything in the sector, drawn us legions of new clients, or provided earth-shaking morsels of knowledge to our followers. So, why are we there? What are we doing? Chasing the algorithms is not a game we want to play and keeping up with trends (reels! TikToks!) to boost our presence just isn’t in the cards for this team of mostly introverts. And more importantly, we’re finding it harmful to ourselves personally to be there. 

At the same time, for some of us, our initial reactions over the past couple weeks have been to draw inward, to focus on ourselves and our loved ones in a time when, honestly, the world and people beyond that just seem too confusing to understand.

But when we founded this business, we were adamant that the community be at the center. We wanted to partner with local clients on a project basis, but we also felt strongly that we wanted to provide something to the organizations and people not on our client roster. Brightspot Community Calls were a place to gather when folks needed each other during Covid, and even though it’s a tiny virtual microcosm, our social media presence served as a community of sorts too. Both aren’t as relevant as they used to be. Things evolve, people evolve, needs evolve.

We remain committed to retaining that community – we’re showing up in more places out in the physical world and striving to share, learn, and engage with other aspects of the sector (like Community Centric Fundraising!) as we work to understand what these shifts mean for our work and nonprofits in general. We’re also doubling down on distributing some of those same articles, workshops, grant opportunities, and musings through our e-newsletter, disseminating this information directly to our clients past and present. More than anything, we want to be here for you and for nonprofits (who will need everyone and everything over the next few years), but we need to do it in a way that is true to our values and who we are as people.

We recognize that speaking up and speaking out is a unique privilege we hold—one that many others may not share. To honor this responsibility in a way that feels authentic to Brightspot, we must reimagine where and how we engage with our communities and continue to explore how best we can support and contribute to the sector.

All this to say, you’ll likely not see as much of us on Instagram and Facebook, but we’ll plan to pop up in your email inbox (so make sure you’re subscribed!) to say hello and let you know where we’ll be so you can say hello back. Most importantly, we will still be championing the nonprofit sector and the amazing people who keep it running. They are the real story here.