2025 was a year of both/and, holding tensions and paradox while moving toward a hopeful vision of the future.
It was a year of agility and challenge, of purpose and uncertainty, of honoring the past and leaning into the future. Across the social sector, from the national level down to our own neighborhoods, organizations navigated shifting funding landscapes, rising service demand, and the real weight of weariness. And yet we showed up as a sector for each other and those we serve. Leaders did the faithful work of staying focused on mission and community.
Our engagement with each of you bolsters our belief in the potential of human flourishing for all, not just as a vision statement, but as a reality we can work towards together.
2025 also marked the Murdock Trust’s 50th anniversary, and that milestone was its own kind of both-and. We paused to honor five decades of stewarding Jack Murdock’s resources for the common good, and we turned our eyes to what comes next. Listening sessions across the region gave us the gift of your candor and feedback, and our inaugural Jack Murdock Innovation Symposium brought us together to dream about what’s possible. The anniversary gave us permission to celebrate, and the moment gave us reasons to keep asking the right questions about the future.
As I reflect on this past year, what fills me most is gratitude. Gratitude for a social sector that has always held the tension between the limits of any given moment and a sustaining vision of what our communities could become.
We invite you to explore this report as a celebration of the fruitful work done by nonprofits across our region, and with gratitude for the places the Murdock Trust gets to intersect with it. Behind every inspiring story there is a whole set of questions and uncertainties that go unnamed but are just as much a part of the story we are all building together.
Thank you for being part of ours. For the last fifty years, and for the next fifty together.
Romanita Hairston
Chief Executive Officer
