The garden of earthly delights

My annual purchase of gardening delights was thwarted by lockdown doom. Fortunately the garden centre came to me instead this week via Plant Savers.

The Edelman Trust Barometer Spring update reported that 67% of respondents to their annual survey believe that those with less education, less money and fewer resources are bearing an unfair burden of the suffering. Maybe understanding the issues better will lead to future action. We can hope.

This Economist article on what a smaller (90%) economy than pre-Covid could be like was very interesting, again underlining the effects on those who already have less.

I’m working with several charities on Diversity and Inclusion projects at the moment. It’s really positive that organisations are continuing to prioritise this work and I’m really proud to be working with them. The words diversity and inclusion are thrown around a lot and it’s very important to be clear about what they mean. This Forbes article is useful.

Although it wrongly defines lagging indicators as slow. Lag indicators measure something affected by what’s happened in the past, as opposed to lead indicators which measure data as an indication of future results.

Lucy’s lecture on Key Performance Indicators are coming to a super cool TED talk soon 😎.

This is an important article for white people in the charity sector to read and reflect on.

The Ubele Initiative launched its campaign for an independent public enquiry into why People of Colour are disproportionately affected by Covid 19 so that the tragic figures can be fully understood. In tandem there is excellent work underway in the charity sector to ensure that funders are held to account in terms of the proportion of emergency funding that is distributed to BAME led organisations. Funders are 99% white and their track records regarding funding BAME led orgs is poor. The inequality is similarly stark in the US.

In order to help funders be more equitable in their funds distribution, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) coalition led by Fozia Irfan at Bedford and Luton Community Foundation have developed some resources and tools.

It was really good to see that BLCF has been shortlisted for a Charity Governance Award in the Managing Turnaround category, winners to be announced on 21 May.

Learning points:

We’re all exhausted by all the virtual meetings we’re taking part in. In pre-Covid life, there would have been breaks between meetings. Moving between meeting rooms or travelling to other organisations. In our current mode, it feels less like zoom, more sit-rooted-to-the-spot. Here is a useful article from Beth Kanter with some thoughts that might explain why this is so draining and some tips to combat the real virtual fatigue.

What am I reading?

Shashi Tharoor’s excellent Inglorious Empire: What the British did to India about how the British shamelessly plundered India for centuries, whatever the sepia-tinted myths we tell ourselves.

What am I listening to?

Kaytranadas 2019 album has me dancing round the kitchen too. (But not on Zoom).

Joy-giving things

If I can’t go to Wales to look at ospreys at least I can watch them eating a fish supper from my desk. The live cam is here. Eggs hatching soon, hopefully.

Happy weekend, friends.

P.S. The real Garden of Earthly Delights in the Prado.