Dear Friends –

As Sofia and Arianne are now fully settling into their role as EDGE co-Executive Directors, I’m writing with a last message of thanks and appreciation for your friendship and support over these many years. As trite as it sounds, it really has been a great honor and privilege to have undertaken this adventure together with you.

Indeed, this hit home for me this summer, when the Board asked me to reflect back on my past two decades of working with funders and civil society allies. Delving back into the files and reviewing the journey embarked on with so many of you was instructive. It was encouraging and inspiring too.

Not because everything or even most of what was attempted over the years was successful. But because issues raised and questions put on the table by the founders and members of Grantmakers without Borders, the Funders Network on Trade and Globalization and then EDGE have grown in relevance, and are increasingly being taken up by our wider community. Progressive philanthropy clearly grasps the systemic nature of our interlinked crises, and is more willing and better able than ever to engage respectfully with social movement partners developing alternative paths forward. This is significant, and a testimony to your work and that of so many other members and foundation allies.

My reflections are too detailed and inwardly focused to be of interest to more than a few (although I or EDGE is happy sharing them with those few who are interested). In my closing paragraphs I expressed my profound appreciation for having been able to work with so many dedicated and engaged funders and movement partners, and note that EDGE’s brilliant, passionate and committed new ED leadership team are superbly positioned to help guide exploration of the boundaries of radical grantmaking going forward.

I ended by quoting founding EDGE board member Imad Sabi, who’s answer to the question What Does It Mean to Engage? filmed during our inaugural 2012 conference seems particularly apt. For him “To engage” means “to maintain that glimpse of utopia in front of my eyes.”

My permanent contact information here in Marseille is below – Please look us up if you are in the area, so I can share with you my deepening passion for this city, its region and its artisanal fisheries and maritime ecosystems, as I engage locally at last.

In retiring from the EDGE community, I too will keep that glimpse of utopia in front of my eyes, and invite you to do so as well. I ask that you continue engaging with EDGE, in support of its new leadership and its ever more relevant mission of increasing resources for communities and movements building systemic change alternatives locally and globally, across the planet.

Sincerely,

Mark

Contact Information 
Mark Randazzo l 2 Rue Antoine Perrin l Marseille 13007 l France
mark.randazzo@mailbox.org l Mobile: +33 (0)6 49 55 10 68 l Skype: markrandazzo