Where there is goodwill, anything is possible.

For the past month I have been traveling through Catalunya. I say Catalunya instead of Spain because in many of the areas here, the residents do not consider themselves Spanish but instead Catalan. In the more remote areas of this country, the locals don’t even speak Spanish. So for the last few weeks I have been making an effort to learn more of the language and the truth is it has been going, well, malament (badly).

This is the country of my father and my youngest brother. They have always lived here. In my lifetime I have returned to this country seven times. Each time I learn a little more Catalan and each time I return home, I forget even more than I learned.

On my very first visit to Catalunya I met a woman named Conxita, who would eventually become the mother of my youngest brother. She is a beautiful woman and has always been patient and generous to me. She speaks very little English and spoke virtually none when we first met. My Catalan, as I have discussed, is an embarrassment.

Nevertheless, in all the years that have passed, we have communicated like close friends.

This may not seem so impressive with the advent of Google Lens and Google Translate – some miraculous inventions might I say -  but even before 21st century technology we understood each other perfectly. We were admittedly assisted by a few exaggerated gestures and shared phonetics, but Conxita and I have had some of the most intimate conversations one can have with a person, all without any fluency of the other’s mother tongue.

The other day I gestured to her about this fascinating ability of ours and she replied:

“On hi ha bona voluntat tot es possible.”

("Where there is goodwill, anything is possible.")

What a beautiful sentiment.

With good intentions, seemingly impossible things are achievable.

Please understand that my musings here are not meant as some rose-colored glasses about the state of the world today.

We all know what the world looks like.

Rather, they are meant to explain my stubborn commitment to my faith in humanity in spite of devastation.

Some incredible things can be achieved with the power of kindness and mutual intention.

Here are a few that I have observed:

• During the COVID pandemic, the largest educational institution in the country became one of the largest food relief programs in the country. When the pandemic required schools to shut, the lifeline of school breakfasts and lunches was also broken. Within a week of school closure, LAUSD, the largest school district in the county, set up a food relief program that provided meals to anyone who showed up, not only students.  By 2021, they had served 100 million meals across 63 campuses, ensuring that families and children would not go hungry.

  
  

• A nurse started an international nonprofit to cover the medical treatment of those ignored through years of political conflict. In 2006, an Australian nurse named Kanchana Thornton set up the Burma Children Medical Fund (BCMF) to help pay for the medical treatment of those living on the Thai-Burma (and yes, I know it's now Myanmar) border. As years of strife have led to neglect in the health care system Thornton has adapted the services offered by BCMF to address the changing health needs of the community. She now crafts prosthetic limbs by way of a donated 3D printer and is working to make each printed limb even more functional than the previous one. She does all this with little fanfare and a shoestring (and I mean shoestring and paperclips) budget.

  
  

• Every year, volunteers leave water and other life-saving supplies for people they will never meet. Although the numbers are difficult to ascertain, it has been estimated that hundreds of migrants, fleeing violence and unsafe conditions, die in their attempt to cross the desert for better opportunity. Many of these deaths are attributed to environmental exposure and/or dehydration. Border Angels is a nonprofit organization that leads teams of trained volunteers into those same deserts to leave water, emergency blankets, and canned tuna in stashes in the hopes that they are found by those who risk their lives taking the journey. The volunteers never know if these stashes are found and never meet the individuals who might receive them.

  
  

***

I believe we have all seen this type of magic - the magic of transcending expectation.

And I believe for those of us who specifically work in the nonprofit space, we firmly tie ourselves to such moments.

Often, those outside the nonprofit world view life-long nonprofit professionals as naïve, overly idealistic, or self-sacrificing. I’ve frequently heard comments like, "You must have a heart of gold. I could never do what you do."

However, I think what sets us apart is not our commitment to our efforts towards martyrdom, but instead our unyielding certainty that through sheer will we can make good things possible.

It is also true that in the nonprofit business, bureaucracy creates undue burden towards effectiveness. The politics of funding creates unneeded obstacles towards success. And unfortunately, there are real moments where our hatred and anger for each other blinds our functionality.

But none of this changes our stubborn belief in the strength of good intention.

So to all my nonprofit professional peers, and to all those who believe in the faith of humanity, let us hold on to our obstinance.

“On hi ha bona voluntat tot es possible.”