At the end of a beautiful paragraph from Mahatma Ghandi about the formative forces in our lives come these words: “Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.”
Your values become your destiny. I find these words powerful and convicting. I do not think they are prescriptive, recommending that we live more into our values. I think they are descriptive, naming an honest reality that whether we like it or not, our values inform our actions, reflect our priorities, and pave the paths we make for ourselves.
This has been true for the Murdock Trust for fifty years. As a nonprofit foundation strongly committed to the donor intent of our benefactor, Jack Murdock, we have remained rooted in the values that Jack lived out and communicated to the three original Trustees. Times have changed, but these values have continued to shape Trustees and staff decisions as we evaluate grants, design programs, and find new ways to support the social sector.
As we progress now more than a half-century following Jack’s passing, it becomes increasingly important to be united around and transparent about the values that guide us now and will guide our work into the future, rooted in legacy, and life. We want applicants and partners to know our priorities and the lenses through which we make decisions. At the most practical level, that can be found in our Eligibility Guidelines. At a higher level, we are also guided by these six organizational values:
- Stewardship
- Relational
- Innovation
- Data-Informed
- Faith-Informed
- Humility
To read more about these organizational values and how they connect to our benefactor’s donor intent, see the About the Trust page of our website. You may also hear our team reference them as context for how we prioritize our efforts moving forward. Know that these are the values that have been guiding the Trust and shaping our decisions for years. If our values truly become our destiny, we believe that these values guide us forward along a well-paved path toward a bright future as a region.
-Romanita Hairston, CEO