In this episode, we are joined by Deepa Iyer who played many roles over two decades supporting social movements: weaver, frontline responder, storyteller, and guide. Her political and community homes include Asian American, South Asian, Muslim, and Arab ecosystems, where she spent many years in policy advocacy and coalition building in the wake of the September 11 attacks and the ensuing backlash. 

Today, Deepa is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Building Movement Project, a national non-profit organization that catalyzes social change through research, relationships, and resources. Deepa is also a writer of three books including We Too Sing America and Social Change Now: A Guide for Reflection and Connection.

Most recently, she is bringing her social change ecosystem map to young children and their caregivers in a new children's book, 'We are the Builders', with learnings about social change.

In this episode, we discuss:

·   The components of the social change ecosystem map – core sacred values, showing up in the ten roles of the ecosystem, and understanding connections between the roles

·   The importance of funders being open to exploring new directions with their nonprofit partners and approaching funding through a multidimensional framework

·   How funders and nonprofit partners can both be storytellers who talk about the work they’re doing