Dear Friends and Colleagues,
As we stride into 2020, Equal Measure is celebrating 35 years as a catalyst for social change. This year also marks a personal milestone, as I enter my 17th year with the organization, and my seventh as president.
Over these decades, we have contributed to powerful transformation among our clients, partners, and the sector. We have evolved Equal Measure into a dynamic, resilient organization with a talented, dedicated, and diverse staff and Board. We have professionalized organizational systems and infrastructure, codified project practices, and cultivated a national network of like-minded firms and individuals whom we regard as critical partners in advancing field-level change. As we enter the third year of our five-year strategic plan, we have a robust pipeline of projects and stand in an exceptional financial position. It is no understatement to say that Equal Measure is experiencing one of the strongest, most vibrant periods of mission-aligned growth since our founding.
And so in this milestone year, the time is right for me to step aside and bring on a new leader who will build from our deep history, leverage our strong position, and take the organization into the next 35 years of advancing social impact.
Supported by the entire Equal Measure team and board, I will step down as president of Equal Measure in December 2020. To ensure a smooth succession, the Board and Equal Measure executive team have designed a thoughtful, well-paced process. We have engaged NPAG to conduct a national presidential search, and look forward to working with their team over the course of this transition.
When I arrived at what was then the “OMG Center for Collaborative Learning,” I joined an organization that was already decades into shaping the disciplines of evaluation, strategy, and capacity building as we know them today. I joined colleagues passionate about helping our clients adopt new ways of advancing social change—in education, housing, economic mobility, and community health, among other fields—always with an eye towards supporting a vibrant nonprofit, public, and philanthropic sector.
During my tenure at Equal Measure, we have worked alongside more than 150 clients on a wide range of social change efforts—from supporting a start-up afterschool program in Camden, NJ to multi-million-dollar national policy and systems change strategies—and every configuration of change effort in-between. We continue to learn and evolve our understanding of what it takes to advance complex social change efforts; and how to move the proverbial “needle” on the issues we care about. And we continue to do so with a stalwart commitment to our founding values—applying an equity lens to our work, addressing structural barriers rooted in local context and history; and advancing interdisciplinary solutions in partnership with those most proximate to the issues at hand. I am privileged to have learned from and grown professionally with peers—with partners like you—who have inspired, challenged, and brought counsel to our work…and who have become lifelong friends.
While I confess it will be difficult to step away from a place I lovingly called home for 17 years, there is a time in every organization’s evolution where fresh perspectives and different approaches to leadership are needed. That’s a healthy, necessary practice, for which I believe Equal Measure is well-positioned. So I end with my grandma’s sage counsel to “leave the party when you are having the most fun,” knowing that I am fortunate to have had such a great time in such a long stay at Equal Measure.
With gratitude, appreciation, and excitement for what is next,
Meg Long