09/06/2026
You know that thing that happens when you're starting a seed, and you mist it, and you warm the soil, and for weeks it does nothing... and then suddenly there's a sprout! And when you go to transplant it, the seed plug is just filled with roots? You know that feeling?
Well, I'm getting that feeling right now about our nonprofit.
We’ve been pretty quiet for a few years. It's been out of respect for some partners and clients who get skittish about extraction and appropriation. But I think there's such a thing as too quiet, and I worry that I've fallen behind.
The saddest thing for me to hear as a founder happened last year when I was talking to a person who goes to church with me and I mentioned Clement Waters, and she said, "oh, is Clement Waters still a thing?" I had to swallow my anguish.
Some other folks who have run into me at community meetings have a warmer reaction, saying things like, “Joy, where have you BEEN?”
The short answer is: We took the time to examine how some shy voices are doing our mission just naturally. And then my personal life changed, and the work we accomplish with others looks so much different now! And it's the kind of work that we can't just go take pictures of, because that would be creepy. So we're adjusting so that our mission work can be known ... somehow.
I'm going to tell you something from my perspective as the administrative push behind Clement Waters.
After the pandemic plummeted our reach and activity, I took Clement Waters part time and focused my personal efforts on being able to earn a living for my family. For five years, I worked as development director for an energy nonprofit, helping bring about $33 million of federal funding into healthier buildings and electric vehicles.
Then I broke my foot at work. It never healed quite right, and suddenly I had to rethink the working life that I had always assumed I'd have available to me.
One thing that experience clarified is what I’m actually good at. I can help small, scrappy organizations grow.
I did it with a rural CASA organization serving children in foster care. I did it with my energy-focused nonprofit employer. And before COVID, I grew Clement Waters from a hope for the world into an organization that introduces people to practical tools for nature-supported wellbeing.
So I let Clement Waters keep evolving.
Along with our usual nature therapy sessions, home food growing kits, and outdoor volunteering for our 4-acre food forest project, we now give technical support to grassroots organizations sharing our mission.
We now steward an indoor community wellness space focused on mindfulness and movement for practitioners who don't see their friends and family participating in the wellness industry, but would really like to.
And we’ve just launched a public-education media effort around practical prevention and simple supports for mental and immune health.
So after a lot of thought about what this should look like, I’ve come back to something so basic it's obvious:
Clement Waters needs to balance its care for the world with its care for the people doing the work inside of Clement Waters. That's right. I'm inviting the help of people I can hire.
Our song and dance is changing from 100% volunteer sweat equity to "we hire caring folks to get the job done right, quick." That appropriately cares for the work already in our hands, and uses professional preparation to make new good ideas reach farther, faster.
And that brings me to why I’m posting this.
We’re holding a fund drive.
Right now, small donations can pack an "oomph" far beyond the dollar amount. Larger grants and sponsorships loom on our horizon. We need to grow our small circle of supporters and show funders that many people believe in this community-driven work in nature-reliant, low-cost wellness.
Because nowadays crowds prove worth, even a $7 monthly gift can help Clement Waters seem more fundable at first glance, whether we go after $7,000 or $70,000 from a grant funder.
We’re inviting people to let us share nature's ways toward wellness with more people, thanks to a monthly donation.
If you’ve followed us through one of the many chapters that led here and you’re thinking, “Alright, Joy. I’d like to help,” comment as much below. I’ll send you a way you can do your small but mighty part.
And if you mostly want to know what we've grown into while we’ve been so quiet, I can send you some info. There is quite a lot to show you. 💚🌱
