At Openfields, our mission is to help visionary leaders imagine and accelerate a more creative and just future. We start with a fundamental commitment to respect all people.
We believe each person - regardless of age, gender, race, ability, class, wealth, family, community, beliefs, education, or culture - is full of dignity and worthy of respect. Each person contributes to our shared life and community and we can learn from each other’s
life and experience.
Understanding another person takes investments of time, patience, and physical and emotional energy – acts of care and attention. Because such acts are full of hope of connection and community, they are also full of risk. Assuming this risk is inherent and vital in building trusting relationships which we see as the basis of all human flourishing.
We acknowledge that we live in a society that makes building trusting relationships hard. We work in economic and social systems that are biased and inequitable. Our society, in dark times and places, fosters violence and coercion, and willfully ignores injustice.
We believe these systems must change to protect all people, provide fair access and opportunity, and cultivate a culture of belonging and agency.
We have a responsibility to advance this cause in the work we do, the relationships we cultivate, the money, resources, and influence we steward, and the ideas and issues we speak about. In all contexts we want to cultivate a culture of respect, trust, openness, and kindness; one that encourages acts of selflessness and solidarity. This is the hopeful path we choose individually, and collectively, in our time and with the communities with whom we work.
We acknowledge individually and as an organization that we are limited in our experience and knowledge, and that we have blind spots. We believe that we, like all people, can change and grow, and we are committed to continuing to learn and to grow together.