rootid began the year with a call to action asking everyone to examine their commitments to equity and inclusion. The year of the great follow through allowed us to focus our efforts on facilitating spaces to inform, strengthen our community, connect individuals across differences, and nurture preexisting relationships. This year we asked difficult questions, held space for discomfort, deeper dives, and educational opportunities. All as we elevated conversations and best practices around building capacity, and communications.
Most importantly, as an organization we also held ourselves to the same standard as our community…..so how did we do ?
B U D S & G R O W T H
what did we accomplish this year?
in 2022, we served
almost 400 organizations
From 2017 - 2021, rootid served 382 organizations.
This year, we DOUBLED the # of organizations served!
706 RSVP's -for- 15 events
165 of the 393
attended multiple events
53 Individuals RSVP’d for our events
109 people RSVP'd for 2 or more events
380 new orgs signed up for one of our events in 2022
157 people from over 100 different organizations attended live, virtual events
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"I appreciated the interactivity, the hard questions, even the challenge of sharing the vulnerabilities and realistic next steps I can take for our organization with other strangers, the deeply-provocative principles."
FROM THE ROOTS
hear from team rootid
How has ensuring rootid implements equitable practice helped you to grow in your leadership this year?
It reminds me to intentionally build space for ideas and listen to everyone that will be impacted by these decisions. Bringing a diverse set of ideas to the table is really important. Moving quickly based on the opinions of a few rarely creates the most sustainable results.
Because Rootid keeps equitable practices at the forefront, they are intentional with their actions and the process they build. This intentionality reminds me to be intentional in my learning and unlearning towards anti-oppression and equitable practices in my own life.
In the spirit of our community agreements, I've been able to embrace the complexities of our work and reimagine how processes & practices can really center our work WITH people, versus working FOR outcomes. It has allowed me to build better skills as a project manager and be more effective as a thought partner & facilitator with my team and our community.
How does your work at rootid give power to those voices that traditionally have not had power?
Within our discovery process and research we often hear feedback and gather quotes from surveys, focus groups, and interviews. We are able to decipher -what is being said vs what they might actually mean or intend to share. We are also listening for flags when clients are speaking or sharing what they think the perspectives of their community members are. In these moments, we have the unique opportunity to ask thought-provoking or reflective questions. We are listening and working to understand those marginalized voices more deeply in order to honor and amplify their experiences.
We've made a concerted effort to keep our pricing at a level that smaller nonprofits can afford, while providing services at the highest professional level. By choosing this path I can make sites for people that otherwise wouldn't have as high quality of site, which helps them to be taken more seriously.
As a designer, I hone in on details that contribute to an overall visual message. For instance, are the colors, contrast, and font size accessible? When selecting photography, are they relatable and authentic to the intended audience and the message the design needs to convey?
ECOSYSTEM
our partnerships
Giant Rabbit, Palantir, UpMetrics, Kalamuna, Evergreen Collective, Radical Communicators, Ian Madrigal, Center for Story-based Strategy, Reflecting Justice, Alison Traina, Amar Al Hosini, Caitlin Brune, Natasha Aruliah, and Michelle Muri
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"The materials provided and the in-depth information about ‘cornerstones’ opened my mind around ways my org. could build out our storytelling strategy."
PLANT A SEED
what's next
Team Rootid
I'd like to continue to grow our community roundtables, trainings and events to create necessary conversations and skills in our community.
I'm looking forward to working with more diverse (in all aspects) communication teams and maybe being able to measure how we're contributing to missions more.
I’d like to see more sites with ‘storytelling’ elements; using varied design to creatively present information.
I am extremely excited about the growth of our Community Education programs and supporting more organizations through our membership model.
Rootid is getting more involved in organizational culture shifting work. Our communications and brand strategy work gives us a unique vantage point of the inner workings of each organization that we partner with. We get insight into their power dynamics, their equity challenges, their self-awareness of those challenges as well as their lack thereof. It gives us an opportunity to help shift them towards more inclusive and equity-embodied practices by inviting them into our process and providing them moments to slow down, reflect and notice some of the nuances of their organization's culture dynamics.
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"Beautifully organized, amazingly skilled presenters and facilitators, easy-to-use and actionable resources, lots of collaboration time with co-participants instead of all lectures."
Interested in supporting our community engagement work? rootid now has a fiscally sponsored project with the Rose Foundation.
