I have often signed off on notes and letters to you “always with a grateful heart.” This letter goes out with that as a starting point as I share with you that I will be leaving this position at AAPIP at the end of 2014.
With a heart full of gratitude and appreciation, I want to express my deep thanks to each of you – the national Board members who have served and led over these past years, former and current staff, chapter leaders, giving circle donors/organizers, community leaders, institutional members, allies and friends. Together we have built our beloved AAPIP and together we will welcome a new leader.
For the past 12 years I have had the enormous pleasure to travel across the country multiple times a year always eager to see you and to keep learning about issues, challenges, and opportunities in your regions so that AAPIP could amplify your voices at the national level. Thank you for your amazing perseverance in ensuring we demonstrate that our national voice is most powerful when it is inclusive of our diverse communities and from all sectors.
During our 20th anniversary year in 2010, we leveraged AAPIP’s broader asset base of human and social capital in order to reflect and think more ambitiously about the possibilities for change. This would not have been possible absent an intentional strategy to see the organization’s far-reaching network in totality – a powerful network that includes members, institutions, communities and individuals.
Although this is truly a bittersweet moment for me, looking forward – 2015 will be AAPIP’s 25th anniversary and a watershed moment to reflect on AAPIP’s contributions towards democratizing the field of philanthropy, finding ways to disrupt the status quo and look for bold and creative opportunities to bring more resources into the AA/NH/PI communities. The up-coming anniversary represents the perfect platform for a new leader to take the organization forward and work with all of you to ensure AAPIP’s relevance in critical thinking, problem-solving and investing resources for a just democracy.
AAPIP has strived to serve as a model to define the role of an affinity group in order to lead, to leverage, to learn, to bring like-minded allies together and to impact some of the most perplexing challenges facing immigrant and refugee communities. I look forward to being a strong ally, generous donor and biggest cheerleader.
In the coming months, I will continue to meet, strategize and share meals with you as we plan the smooth transition of a new leader. I am committed to doing whatever is needed and identified by the Board and staff in ensuring a successful tenure of the next Executive Director of AAPIP.
Always with a grateful heart,
Peggy