The Coco Canary Monthly Newsletter
May & June 2021
Summary: A grounding (Winston “Boogie” Smith, Deona Marie Erickson, and Native unmarked graves), Speaking about community centrism and culturally responsive approaches, and more.
Welcome to Coco Canary!
If you’re new here, read this section! Otherwise, skip on down.
Hello from Molly O’Connor, the CEO, and founder of Coco Canary Consulting, LLC (CCC), an evaluation firm.
We are based in St. Paul, MN, and we acknowledge that we are on stolen indigenous lands. Home to the Dakota and Anishinaabe people. These people were the first stewards of the lands we occupy, and they are still here. We honor their connection to this land and their ongoing resilience in the face of violent colonialism.
You may ask, how do social justice and racial equity relate to evaluation or communication? Well, from our experience, we have seen evaluations designed and communications reported in ways that harm, undervalue, and take advantage of the communities being served. This is our current status quo, and it is not okay. It has to change. This is why we do our work differently because we want to be a part of the solution, not the problem.
Please visit Community Centric Fundraising for more information. It is a new movement that has inspired thousands (including Coco Canary) to do better. For extra credit, visit Consulting With a Racial Equity Lens too.
A Grounding: Black Lives & Native Lives Matter
In June, two murders happened in the Twin Cities. One by police and one by a white supremacist. Winston “Boogie” Smith was a local comedian, musician, and father and was unjustly murdered by US Marshals. Deona Marie Erickson, a social justice advocate, holding space for a Winston Boogie Smith protest, was murdered by a white supremacist via vehicular homicide. This is not okay, and I grieve for their families, friends, and community. Things have to change. This is why it is so important we keep supporting systems change work and mutual aid efforts.
It is also important to note that in May and June, nearly 1000 unmarked graves were found near Native American boarding and residential schools. If you are unfamiliar with this, I’d recommend reading this, reading this, and listening to this for a brief catch-up on the forced cultural genocide and assimilation of indigenous people in the USA, Canada, and across the globe.
In love and solidarity,
<3 Molly
Business Updates
1. Three Presentations in Two Months: All About Community Centrism & Using Culturally Responsive Approaches
Grant Professionals Association Annual Conference
I had the fortune to co-present with two amazing ladies: Lesa-Kaye Holtham, the Senior Associate Director of Institutional Giving from The Catholic University of America, and Kim Tso from Velocity Ink. We spoke at the Grant Professionals Association’s Annual Conference, where we shared stories of how we as professionals have incorporated community centrism into our work. Lesa-Kaye and Kim are grant writing professionals, while I come with the lens of a grant evaluator. Our presentation was titled, “What Does It Mean To Put Community At The Center Of Our Work?”
The funny part is when I first heard of this speaking opportunity, I offered to be the moderator. Since I didn’t see myself as a “grant professional.” Yes, I have applied for grants and have gotten comfortable writing the program evaluation section. Still, I didn’t think about myself as someone to speak at a grant professional conference. When Lesa-Kaye, Kim, and I met for the first time, they agreed right away that it would strengthen our presentation to have the evaluator lens. And when our proposal was accepted, it reaffirmed that.
Quotes from Participants
- “This is the best webinar I have attended this year!”
This is the second time I have spoke to one of SEED SPOT’s business development cohorts. In this conversation, we talked about basic evaluation practices and introduced the idea of culturally responsive approaches and arts-based methods. It was a great conversation with an inspiring group of social impact leaders.
Quotes from Participants
- “I feel relieved to know there are different methods for gathering data.”
The Gratitude Network reached out to me to speak to at their Gratitude Network Leadership Summit about evaluation and collecting data. Like the SEED SPOT presentation, I touched on culturally responsive approaches and arts-based methods. Much of the conversations centered on making your evaluation practices more community-centric. It was an honor to be there and speak to such dedicated social impact leaders worldwide.
Quotes from Participants
- “This [presentation] also pushed me to think about some of the cultural methods we use in Sierra Leone and incorporating more in our evaluation. Drama; Dance; Song”
2. A Story About Why Speaking Up Matters When Applying for Requests for Proposals (RFPs)
As many of you know, I have spent the last year learning a lot about how white dominant and white supremacy culture shows up in myself and in evaluation. Well, something else I have been working on is becoming more comfortable with the uncomfortable, and one example of that is to speak up to power (even if it may cause tension—which, I have learned that tension is usually a good thing). I want to share a brief story of how my calling out white-dominant language in a Request for Proposal (RFP) resulted in a conversation with staff from a large foundation about how to do better. If you don’t know what an RFP is, check out this link.
I’m not usually one to apply for an RFP, but when Jenna Sethi from Informed Change sent me an RFP from a well-known conservation foundation, and well, I was intrigued. (Fun Fact 1: I’m on Informed Charge’s website now; Fun fact 2, Jenna and I met through the Creative Evaluation class I took a few months ago).
When I first read the RFP, I saw A LOT of red flags. Especially since they wanted an evaluation based in equity, but the language, blatant assumptions, and pre-prescribed outcomes said otherwise. I saw they were hosting an RFP Q&A session and decided to join in to see if they named any of these concerns.
In their public RFP webinar, they did not bring up my concerns, so I asked a question in the chat, pointing out that if they wanted an evaluation that uses culturally responsive and equitable approaches, that their current RFP language and project design was not conducive to that. And I added if kept in its current form, it would likely perpetuate white dominant culture and further harm the communities they were hoping to survey (BIPOC youth). Fortunately, during the call, they thanked me for my comment and named that they recognized the RFP was not perfect and that they are open and interested in having the chosen agency help them reshape and rebuild the project with an equity lens. Their response was promising, and I felt more comfortable submitting an RFP.
Later that day, a couple of foundation staff sent me an email where they requested a conversation about my comments. Where they wanted to know more about how to do better regarding equity and justice in grantmaking and evaluation. I agreed to the conversation, and when we met up, we first touched on white dominant and white supremacy culture in RFP language. This then led to a conversation about how white supremacy shows up within as an organization and us as individuals. In the end, it was a raw, authentic, and emotional conversation. And, I recognized that me being a white cis-women was a likely reason that they felt so open in sharing their own assumptions and racist tendencies. It was in this conversation that I brought up CCF and how there are so many other people like them trying to do better and that it is better if done in community. At least, that was an important part of my process of trying to do better.
This conversation was an important learning opportunity for me too because I learned that speaking to power can be done in many ways. I am much more used to being in real-life or virtual protests, chanting and lifting up community organizer voices who are living and breathing this kind of work every day. Before this year, I didn’t feel confident in my ability to articulate what needs to be changed in evaluation, grantmaking, etc. But thanks to CCF and my culturally responsive and equitable evaluation trainings, I have learned language, but most importantly, I have learned that the most important thing in any conversation is to be vulnerable. Share with whoever you are talking to about your journey and your #failbetter stories. Because we are always learning and unlearning, even the ones who have been doing this work for decades.
Other Business Updates
Two Projects Ending & Two Projects Beginning
I have two contracts ending in June: Morrison County Drug Court and The Remember Project. I learned a lot through these contracts and truly enjoyed collaborating with both teams.
Two new contracts coming in:
The University of Minnesota – Extension reached out to me to assist in an evaluation/applied research study. They are bringing me in for my equity lens and my experience with qualitative methods.
Background Stories and Coco Canary are partnering on an upcoming project. I’ve been following their work for years and am excited to be brought on a project where I am helping them design, interview, and write a story for one of their clients.
As for the rest of my projects, I am also helping with a Strategic Doing (SD) economic development project with SMIF & UMN Extension for an MN county. AND I will be co-leading an SD workshop with Andreas Dewald and Scott Hutcheson in July.
Social Enterprise MSP Directory
You can find Coco Canary in the Social Enterprise Directory! And, while you’re there, check out the other great social impact businesses and organizations based here in the Twin Cities.
Check Out These Amazing Trainings by Becky Schueller!
Becky Schueller is an amazing trainer, strategist, and social justice advocate. I’d highly recommend you check out her website:
Personal Update
With Vaccines Comes Band Practice. And, With Band Practice Comes New Music!
Something you may not have known is that I am the vocalist and songwriter in a band, and our band name is…drum roll, please… Coco Canary! Yep, you read that right. My consulting firm is named after my band. When I was trying to figure out a name for my business, I kept going back to Coco Canary and thinking, gosh, would it be too weird of a business name? In the end, I took the risk and, honestly, I have loved it! And, I have gotten some great compliments from clients and peers! It is also always a fun ice breaker conversation. 🙂
I have the honor to write songs and sing with the talented Matthew (Hope) Gogola (Spotify and his website). Before COVID, we were in the process of recording, and now we are finally back together, trying our best to get back into tip-top-singer shape (which, yeah, I hadn’t been doing my vocal exercises, so I have a lot of catching up to do).
One of our goals this year is to get our EP ready for recording in a studio. Wish us luck! Here is the Coco Canary Sound Cloud with two songs (one recorded on my iPhone and one recorded from Matt and my partner’s home “studio” equipment).
Let’s Stay Connected!
To keep up to date with my business news, connect or follow me on Linkedin. Don’t forget to follow our newsletter (or share with others), as well! And, of course, if you know of anyone who may benefit from our services, send them our way. Referrals are what make the world go round.
Much love and in solidarity,
Molly O’Connor (she/her/hers)
CEO – Evaluation & Communications Specialist
direct: (612) 868-0364
email: moconnor@cococanary.com
website: cococanary.com
Black Lives Matter
Justice for Winston “Boogie” Smith & Deona Marie Erickson, and so many more
