Northern California Grantmakers (NCG) President and CEO Dwayne S. Marsh grew up in communities where investing oneself in social justice work was the norm, merging empathy with determination. “And then I went off to college and found out most people don’t actually do that,” Marsh recently told PEAK President and CEO Satonya Fair. “But I decided I wanted to stay in this work. I knew the impact I could have as an individual in an organized framework to improve society and create the kind of communities that everybody deserves.”

He has since focused his career on merging empathy with determination through advancing racial and economic equity through coalition building in the public, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors. Before joining NCG—through his roles as codirector of the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) and vice president of institutional and sectoral change at Race Forward—Marsh grew a network of local, regional, and state entities from a dozen early adopters to more than 200 jurisdictions committed to make policy changes and public investments that advance racial equity.

After earning her doctor of law degree at the University of Cincinnati in the mighty Midwest, Satonya Fair, an emergent learner and deep listener, immediately began to apply those skills to create strategies for transformation. Her decades of leadership within the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors at organizations such as the Executive Leadership Council and the Annie E. Casey Foundation have grounded her in values of equity, inclusivity, and agency, shaping the way she leads the PEAK community of changemakers.

Over the course of their conversation, Fair and Marsh reflected on how to build personal and professional communities in order to move the sector forward, what it means to be a leader in times of extreme uncertainty, and the need to create space for the next wave of sector leaders to innovate and reimagine philanthropy. Edited highlights of their conversation follow.

Fair: I want to begin this conversation with what connects us and hear more about your leadership. How are you leading courageously in this moment?

Marsh: Particularly in this moment, it can feel risky to lean into our values, and doubling down on the values that connect us is putting people up against tremendous headwinds. But as a leader, you have to recognize that risk is a unifier and weigh what it means to be on the right side of your stated values. We have to recognize, from wherever we sit in our organizations, how to mitigate risks and know when to stand up. Philanthropy has the privilege of having a livelihood that can improve lives and shape the direction of society. You can’t do it all, especially right now, but make sure you’re doing enough. Speak truthfully, if not loudly.

Read the full article about merging empathy with determination by Satonya Fair and Dwayne Marsh at PEAK Grantmaking.