MLK Day and This Moment of Consequence

“Justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

On this Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, these words feel less like reflection and more like instruction.

History tells us that when despair threatens to take hold, communities have always risen with signs of hope. They respond not only by naming harm, but by practicing care, solidarity, and imagination. These moments are often mischaracterized as disorder, when in truth they are expressions of justice powered by people insisting on dignity, accountability, and belonging.

Across the United States, including in places like Minneapolis and Portland, we are witnessing something transcendent. We see communities showing up for one another. Neighbors are caring for neighbors, organizing for safety, and choosing connection over fear. They remind us that justice is not a fixed ideal, but a living practice shaped by people who refuse to give up on one another. This is the work of love practiced in public and sustained in community.

And love, as Dr. King taught us, is not passive or sentimental. It is disciplined and courageous — rooted in action, fueled by joy, and powerful enough to confront what harms while building what heals.

2026 is testing us. 2025 tested us! Our sector was tested! Philanthropy, especially Black-led, justice-centered philanthropy, was targeted and politicized. Communities already carrying the weight of inequity were asked, once again, to endure more with less. We heard that even some progressive donors were pulling back from racial justice commitments — not because the need has diminished, but because the work did not arrive through familiar or comfortable pathways. That moment calls us to reflect honestly on what and whom philanthropy is truly designed to serve. History and Dr. King’s wisdom teach us that progress is carried forward by those who stay in the work when it’s hard, when the path is unclear, and when the cost is real. And in the face of despair, Tides stayed and is staying.

Thank you, donors and doers, partners and friends! Together in 2025, we moved more than $370 million to 3,370 grantees across 72 countries, supporting organizations advancing social, economic, and environmental justice. And in the face of attacks against our sector, Tides stood in solidarity with philanthropic foundations and nonprofits to defend the freedom to give boldly and stood boldly in speaking out against the barrage of attacks designed to halt the work of building a more just and equitable society.

As we step into 2026, Tides’ 50th anniversary and my fifth year leading this organization, Tides is being called to meet this moment with courage, clarity, and action. Institutions must be willing to transform themselves to meet the magnitude of the harm they name. That understanding shapes my responsibility as Co-Chair of Martin Luther King III and Arndrea King’s Realize the Dream initiative. Realize the Dream is not about revisiting Dr. King’s legacy as history. It is about carrying it forward as a living call to action, rooted in both justice and joy, especially through the leadership, voices, and civic power of young people. To realize the dream today means meeting this moment with courage and imagination, grounding our work in truth while sustaining it with hope and refusing to let justice be separated from joy.

At Tides, we know that philanthropy must be willing to undo its own traditions if we intend to serve justice. What does it mean to pursue social justice if philanthropy only adapts to unjust systems instead of transforming them? For us, the answer is to ground our work in both justice and joy — justice that tells the truth about harm and power, and joy that sustains communities through the long arc of change. Joy is the insistence that communities fighting for their lives are entitled not only to justice, but to fullness, imagination, and rest. Joy is what allows people to remain in the work without surrendering their humanity to it.

On this MLK Day, we double down on a vision of philanthropy led by those closest to the challenges and the solutions — one that trusts proximate leadership, shifts power, and responds to this moment with action rather than symbolism. We are grateful to all who understand that this day calls for action, not only reflection, and who stand with us in moments of consequence, not just commemoration. The work continues. And together, we will keep pushing toward justice, toward joy, and toward the world Dr. King called us to build.