My word, how is it 2026 already? It feels like just yesterday, I was a little babe in the woods pestering everyone I know about whether there was someone — anyone — out there thinking about how to do endings well in civil society. And here we are, two years into this project and every morning I wake up and the response keeps being, “The work is still on you, boo, it’s on YOU!”
Fortunately this past year was another amazing one of continuing to find the scattered others out there who are working on wind downs, sharing about shutterings, and seeking out sponsors for sunsets. So I wanted to take a second to capture a brief rundown of The Wind Down’s second year of operations — the highlights, the low points, and what is on the horizon for this bright year 3 of its life.
The Bright Spots
The People
As mentioned, I met so many fantastic people this last year. Between hosting the monthly community sessions and attending the fantastic Deceleration Assembly, I met and got to deepen relationships with so many fantastic people who incepted new ideas into my gray matter and pointed me in cool new directions or even just went along with me on wild goose chases and flights of fancy (I am looking at you, Tess!).
Some of the folks I am most grateful for are all the fantastic folks in the Slack community, Jessica Meyerson at Educopia, Katya Fels Smyth (who fearlessly shuttered Full Frame Initiative this year), Naomi Hattaway, and the intrepid Kate Harris, Nonprofit Merger Mistress Supreme, who saw my museum and decided to close hers. If you’re looking at this and thinking I should have named you here…I did! It is in *invisible ink*. Yup.
I am also grateful for the leaders who contacted the hotline or worked with me on longer engagements,shared so openly. and insisted that I (finally!) start charging for this work. I wasn’t sure when the time would be right, but folks just told me. They were like, “We are giving you money, and you can’t stop us.” Thank you for helping me put a dollar (or pound or euro!) amount on this work.
The Places
In 2025, I was able to take my work and ideas to the streets. In June, I was honored to sit on a panel for the great Women’s Leadership Council. In September, I facilitated a session at The Sidebar event that the Skoll Foundation supports on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Then in October, I hopped across the ocean to Birmingham, UK for The Deceleration Assembly hosted by our UK frenz at The Decelerator. I was stoked that my good (above-mentioned) pal Katya was there too. It was way too short but marvelous (my full review is here). I love being out and about amongst the people!
The Things
When I started working on The Wind Down, I jotted down a dream list of publications I would love to write for or be written about in: Stanford Social Innovation Review, Devex, and Nonprofit Quarterly. This year, I was in ALL THREE! What a thrill. I was even mentioned in Chronicle of Philanthropy. Look at me, ma, I;m in the papers!
Last year, I invested in my tech stack, upping my game to use bespoke tools like Harvest (for invoicing and time tracking), Bigin (for tracking opportunities), and also moving over to Mailpoet for my newsletter. I also totally overhauled this here website. Hat tip to the great Joshua Christman for the website and the snazzy logo and the unwavering friendship and support (hire this man, y’all!)
The Hard Knocks
The Money
This was probably one of the toughest years for me, financially. I just didn’t make much money on this and this was pretty much all I worked on last year. I had hoped my engagement with Joseph Rowntree Foundation would grow into something more fruitful, but they cut me and the Community of Practice project they were supporting off in February. It was a hard pill to swallow, but I soldiered on.
Previous to this project, I spent more than a decade in tech where salaries and benefits and snacks (!) are a-flowin. The precarity in the social sector has been hard to wrap my mind around and I refuse to get used to it.However, I did have to accept it last year and do my best to live a full life on my savings and resourcefulness.
The Supportive Community
In 2024, the launch of TWD was coupled with the launch of another group called the IMMA Collective, an organization founded to give social impact solopreneurs a sense of community, support, and accountability. Being a part of IMMA gave me colleagues, cheerleaders, and people to share resources with and bounce ideas off of. Unfortunately, in April of 2025, I hit a wall with the group and couldn’t work things out. I stand by my decision to leave, but I also ache for the community I lost. I am a member of many groups, but none of them have (so far) filled the hole that IMMA left in my days and my heart.
Hopes For Year Three
I took my lumps this last year but also had some solid wins to build on. Moving into this new year, I am already entertaining some interesting opportunities.
- Speaking – I have two speaking slots already, but I did have to turn another cool looking one down because they didn’t offer much in the way of travel support. Like I said, I love the peoples and the streets, so I will be out amongst them one way or another
- Writing – I hope to post more here on this blog and also continue writing for civil society publications (and even publications not in this sector!). In a move that hearkens back to my punk rock youth, I am exploring doing some zines with a friend. I look forward to sharing those with you and leaving them at conferences and libraries and stuff!
Hit me up if you wanna do in-person or virtual writing sessions. I need accountability partners! - Video – I started experimenting with video last year and still really believe the format has potential for spreading the word I am hoping to mess around with shorter form, especially if I can find some open source/non-algo-driven platforms to post them to.
- Get paid or grow increasingly exasperated trying – Nothing more to really say here. I am gonna keep putting myself out there both for closures work and also non-closures paying work.
What about you? How did it all turn out last year? What are you up to this year? I wanna know!
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