HUGH HOGAN

Dear Friends,

This year’s annual report is about a vision for the future. It is a time capsule, in print, to which members of the North Star Fund community have contributed objects that symbolize their visions of a better future, and why our mission is so vital.

My object for the time capsule is the novel Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. The novel relates two possible, very different visions for the planet’s future. In one future, and on part of the planet, our descendants value people and the environment above self-interest. In the other, an elite society has destroyed part of Earth and has been forced to live in space stations, reliant on an underclass of slaves and robots. I first read the novel while living and working with rural farmers in a Senegalese village. Reading Piercy’s work in that setting strengthened my resolve to help create a world of self-determination but also one that values community above the interests of a privileged few. North Star enables me to do this every day.

The New York that I know and love is made up of villages—only we call them neighborhoods. Some neighborhoods have wonderful amenities. Parks. Lots of trees. Good schools. World-class hospitals. Other neighborhoods suffer from chronic poverty and neglect. North Star and the grantees we support work to ensure that all New Yorkers enjoy a better quality of life in a healthy environment, and have the opportunity to prosper.

This year, 2011, was North Star’s most successful ever, measured in terms of new donors who joined our circle, donations made to the fund, and grants and training for outstanding grassroots groups. North Star grantees won victories on many fronts, including a wage theft bill, tenants’ rights, police accountability, a reduction in racial profiling of immigrants, and renewed protections for community gardens.

But we weren’t able to do enough. For example, 38 groups applied for our first-ever Movement Leadership grant. Twenty were equally-deserving. We had to pick five. Meanwhile, Occupy Wall Street has presented new opportunities to make progress on the social justice struggles that our grantee organizations have been leading for decades.

My heartfelt thanks and congratulations to all of you who helped with this year’s success. If you have not done so already, consider becoming a member of our community of philanthropic activists. We cannot build a future of community and justice without you.

My great thanks,

Hugh Hogan
Executive Director