Session 4: Flourishing Queer in Philanthropy: New Stage, New Challenges - Growing Through Career Transitions

This session welcomes:

• Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and/or LGBTQ+ professionals working at MCF member organizations 
• Members of MCF’s new People of Color and LGBTQ+ Community of Practice

Session 4 Overview: Flourishing Queer in Philanthropy: New Stage, New Challenges - Growing Through Career Transitions

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In these words, Herminia Ibarra captures what she observes in her research on career transitions – that meaningful change happens through experimentation rather than introspection alone.

For many LGBTQ+ leaders and/or professionals of color in philanthropy, this discovery resonates with our lived experiences of being and becoming ourselves. Many of us know intimately that flourishing in our leadership journey in philanthropy emerges not from following predetermined paths. Instead, it develops through cycles of learning & adapting, finding a trustworthy community providing a combination of challenge and support for becoming aware, using self as learning territory, and experimenting with our possible selves.

Shigehiro Oishi’s research and recent book “Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life” further shows how the gifts and challenges of authoring a flourishing life is a portal to a psychologically rich life. 

Whether you’re stepping into greater influence, moving between organizations, or reimagining your current role, each transition invites you to engage in what Odets calls "self-witnessing"—to grow beyond familiar patterns and to be able to risk who you have been for who you are becoming next. 

Our lived experiences navigating the tensions between visibility and invisibility, autonomy and interdependence, present and future, become unique assets as we grow through career transitions. Odets describes how LGBTQ+ people often face what he calls the “trauma of ordinary development” —the unique challenges of being and becoming ourselves in environments not designed for our flourishing. We continue to navigate American institutions and society where unearned advantages and disadvantages have often required us to develop extraordinary capacity for creativity in authoring our lives. These same skills are valuable for navigating today’s increased complexity and uncertainty we’re experiencing. 

Pre-Session Reflection Questions:

• What have you learned from your journey of being and becoming yourself as a leader in philanthropy that might inform how you approach your next career transition?
• Where do you find support and spaces for experimenting with new leadership approaches?
• What strategies, practices and relationships create the conditions to help you risk who you have been for who you’re becoming? 

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We’re grateful to have Eleanor Savage and Alfonso Wenker help set the context for our collective exchange of experiences and learning by sharing their reactions to this session and to our 2025 theme - Different Voices, Shared Journey: leadership without easy answers.

Session 4 Runsheet 

Optional Pre-reads:

• “Out of the Shadows: Reimagining Gay Men’s Lives” (2019) by Walt Odets 
• “Working Identity: Unconventional Strategies for Reinventing Your Career” (2023) by Herminia Ibarra 
• “Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life” (2025) by Shigehiro Oishi  

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Logistics

●    Zoom link provided upon registration
●    In-session materials and resources shared afterward
●    Session is NOT recorded 
●    Closed captioning provided

Questions or Accessibility Needs?

Please contact Awale (Wally) Osman at [email protected] with any questions about the program or registration process.

This program is part of our two primary strategies for growing the capacity of our members to operationalize equity and belonging in outcomes: organizational learning to strengthen policies, practices and resource flows, alongside leadership development to provide a combination of challenge and support. We create conditions for becoming aware, using self as a learning territory, and experimenting with constantly learning and adapting to foster a culture that increases the likelihood of equity and belonging in outcomes.