What We’re Thankful For

Long on interest but short on time? See below for a summary of this newsletter:

1. New strategic plan: Click here to read the plan.

2. New website and logo: Click here to check it out.

3. Giving Tuesday: We’re doing it to support our student interns! Click here to read more.

4. Leadership Academy: Welcome & farewell to two of our latest Leadership Academy members.

5. Belated AB 2873 [Victory Alert]: Click here to learn more about this and other legislative efforts.

6. Guest Blog: “Can we talk about interest rates?”

7. Explanation of the header art: Here’s a short explainer on the new homepage graphic.

Lots to be thankful for! Also, coffee soon?

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Happy November! Considering the just-passed Thanksgiving holiday, this newsletter will focus on sharing what we’re thankful for. Before we get to that though, we do want to apologize for the radio silence these past few months. We’ve been busy working on a few projects which have taken up a ton of our bandwidth but — until now — haven’t been ready to share with the broader network.

I am very thankful to share that CCB has a new – and first ever – strategic plan! To mark the occasion, we also thought it’d be fun to throw in a new logo and visual brand, plus a new website, just for kicks.

PLAN: STRATEGIC

Our new strategic plan, which you can read more about below, was a labor of love for us and something which we believe articulates how we plan to grow and evolve over the coming years (1). It was also, to be frank, really fun to put together. Overall it was a great way to get our staff and board together and have a series of big-picture conversations about who we’ve been as an organization, who we are today, and who we could be in the future. On top of that, we also got to share it with some external colleagues that we think very highly of, to get their arms-length perspective (2). I hope you’ll take the time to give it a read!

Part of what made this such a special process was that we got to bring together an amazing support group of professionals to help us put all this together. I’d be remiss if I didn’t shout out Preeti Vissa-Kristipati (3), my former boss and current organizational-development-consultant extraordinaire who led us through the process; my long-time colleague Bruce Mirken (4), who even from his retirement home in Hawaii has done an amazing job editing and helping us to shape our thoughts into coherent sentences; and our newest, most graphically-minded colleague, Michelle Nazzal. Fun fact: Michelle is not only an amazing designer, but also the chef-founder behind the preeminent Palestinian-food pop-up in the Bay Area, Mish Mish.

GOOD THINGS TAKE TIME: NEW WEBSITE LAUNCHED!

Separate — but very much related – we’re super excited to share our new logo and color scheme (above in the header), and website! We thought that since we have a modestly updated vision/strategy, it’d be fun to also to launch a new website that reflects our path forward. I want to especially shout out Michelle who, after an unexpected roadblock (5), dusted off her web-development skills and stepped up like Lebron James in the 2016 NBA Championship to get the project done. I also want to send a special thank you to our Summer Associate and favorite New Yorker, Riena Parente Ribeiro, for her hard work during the brand-design process. Her design and project management skillsets were amazing!

COFFEE SOON?

Lastly, we’re all starting to hit that part of the year where we slow down. Before things pick back up again in January it’d be great to connect with anyone who has actually taken the time to keep up with news from our small (6) organization over the past 12 months. If you’re in the Bay, I hope you’ll reach out (abriones@ccbuilders.org). If you’re not in the Bay, that’s ok, I hope you still reach out!

Have a wonderful week everyone, look forward to checking in again before the end of the year!

PS - You can read the full newsletter here!

Adam Briones

CEO, California Community Builders

NOTES

Photo credits: Header collage designed by Michelle Nazzal, based on an original idea by Riena Parente Ribeiro; “Standing Tall Through It All” mural created by @GirlMobb.

(1) I’d like to formally apologize to any foundations or funders that I met in my first six months of being CEO. In retrospect, my pitch was… not good. I’m much better at it now, please reach out!

(2) Special thanks go out to friends-of-the-org who were interviewed or provided feedback on the plan: Lavera Alexander, Melissa Breach, Xiomara Cisneros, Lindsay Haddix, Vera Moore, Janaya Nichols, and Aysha Pamukcu. You’re all the best!

(3) Here’s a picture of Preeti and I about 15 years ago with our former colleague Keesler as well as our good friend and former Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke.

(4) Here’s a picture of Bruce responding in real-time to all of my last minute copy-editing requests.

(5) We had to switch our planned web platform more than 3/4ths of the way through the project, which was not ideal.

(6) Small organization, but we punch above our weight.