Recap · Aperio team retreat 2022
Our team flew in from all over the country to come together in Nyack, New York in August for our first in-person retreat since the pandemic began. Many of us met in person for the first time despite countless hours spent together on Zoom. We got to know each other, celebrated what we have achieved together, reflected on what we can do better, and planned for where we are headed.
Celebrating our growth
Aperio began as a bold idea in 2018. In just a few years, we have established ourselves as a comprehensive fundraising consulting firm partnering with organizations nationwide. We have served over 80 nonprofits across 26 states and Washington D.C. through strategic advisory, capacity-building projects, and embedded fundraising support.
We have grown into a team of 27 members living in 13 states and Washington D.C.—including nonprofit leaders, frontline fundraisers, database administrators, writers, designers, and more. Our community of fearless fundraisers has grown to a network of more than 2,000 nonprofit leaders and fundraisers—creating spaces for honest conversation, new ideas, and resource exchange.
Shaping our future—together
Aperio was founded by fundraisers who believe nonprofits deserve more—and need more—to thrive: more visibility, more influence, and more investment. Only with the support and resources they need can nonprofits truly thrive. And when our nonprofits thrive, our communities thrive.
Our community at Aperio is you. So we asked ourselves: How do we continue to show up for you as partners, as peers, as people, and as a community? How do we ensure we are achieving our purpose of seeing nonprofits move from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset? How do we get there?
Our time together as a team provided an opportunity for us to explore how to meet that challenge and that opportunity. Together, we envisioned the investments we need to make, beginning within, to best serve our nonprofit community.
In true retreat form, we pulled out a sticky-note easel pad and broke it down: We explored the ‘I’, the ‘we’, and the ‘it’ as areas to invest our energy in order to best serve our nonprofit community.
The ‘I’
When we understand what each team member needs on the individual level, we can start thinking about what we all need as a team to thrive. Understanding the ‘I’ means acknowledging where each person on our team is coming from personally and professionally.
The ‘we’
If we can have a strong team, everything else falls into place. When there is a strong ‘we’ mentality and framework as an organization or a company, team members feel heard, supported, and empowered to drive a mission forward. [Learn more about our team members]
The ‘it’
The ‘it’ is our work. What do the communities they serve need, and what do our partners need in order to show up for their communities? How we can support our nonprofit partners to achieve the greatest impact?
Taking the next steps
Every day, our team’s work is strongly driven by our “why”— as individuals and as a firm. Our team was founded to meet a growing need for nonprofit organizations to break out of survival mode and begin to thrive. Today, that work is more important than ever.
Gathering in-person as a team deepened our personal drive to do this work, and enabled us to find clarity and insights for how to serve you, our community, most impactfully.
