Blog home Tips & Training Responding in real time: Candid’s 2020 annual report

Responding in real time: Candid’s 2020 annual report

Suzanne Coffman (she/her) and Zahra Hassan (she/her)
March 23, 2021

When we sat down last fall to consider what should be included in Candid’s 2020 annual report, we independently came up with the same list:

Candid’s first anniversary (for those of you who came in late, Foundation Center and GuideStar joined forces on February 1, 2019, to create a new organization, Candid)
Candid’s response to COVID-19
Candid’s response to increased calls for racial equity
Publication of our vision statement, Candid 2030
Becoming “one Candid”—i.e., rebranding legacy websites and services in Candid style and migrating business systems from our legacy organizations into unified solutions across Candid

Deciding how to present this information was more challenging. Candid’s 2019 annual report was fun (not something you often say about annual reports!). It was styled like a newspaper, featured bite-sized content readers could pick and choose from, and even had a crossword puzzle.

We loved the 2019 report, but we felt its approach wasn’t right for 2020, a year in which millions of people died in a pandemic; COVID-19 highlighted inequities in our society; and the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, George Floyd, and so many others revealed even more starkly the systemic racism our economic and social systems are built on.

We also faced the reality that the pandemic and racial inequity affected everyone in some way in 2020. We decided to focus on how Candid responded as an organization to these events and how they affected Candid employees. The report isn’t all doom and gloom, though. The photo essay on Candid’s first anniversary is cheerful, and several employees share amusing anecdotes about working virtually. And it made us happy to carry the 2019 annual report’s focus on the people who make Candid work over into the 2020 report.

When we say we, we’re not just talking about the two of us listed in the byline. Many people contributed to Candid’s 2020 annual report. We (now meaning the two of us listed in the byline) thank you all. And we thank all of our stakeholders, who let us know daily that our work matters.

Read our 2020 annual report

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About the authors

Suzanne Coffman (she/her)

Editorial Director, Candid
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As publisher of the Candid Blog and Candid Newsletter, Suzanne strives to give Candid’s stakeholders information to help them do good. As chief writing guru, grammar and style maven, and English usage referee, she works to help her colleagues communicate effectively.

Suzanne followed a circuitous route to Candid. Each stop enabled her to strengthen her research, writing, and editing abilities. Early in her career, she was a research assistant and then historian at the U.S. Department of State. She left this position to undertake doctoral work in American history. As part of her doctoral program, she received formal editorial training at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History. After completing her doctoral exams, she was assistant editor at the Papers of John Marshall. From there, she moved to the Publications Department of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, where she served as associate editor and then editor/writer. In November 1999, she joined GuideStar, where she held a number of roles: web content coordinator, managing editor of the GuideStar website, director of communications, and editorial director. She retained the position of editorial director when GuideStar and Foundation Center joined forces in February 2019.

Suzanne holds an A.B. in English and history from The College of William and Mary and an M.A. in American Civilization from The George Washington University. She abandoned her doctoral dissertation after a computer crash ate some of her research and led her to reevaluate her career goals. It was the right decision, but she regrets it.

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Zahra Hassan (she/her)

Development Manager, Candid
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Zahra is an experienced fundraiser and has been on Candid’s development team since 2015. In her role, she works closely with leadership and other members of the development team to cultivate institutional donors and secure funding. Prior to joining Candid, she was a development consultant for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and a corporate partnerships consultant for the World Food Program USA. Zahra also worked as a program associate at the Greater Washington Community Foundation, where she managed their scholarship and sponsored program funds, and coordinated the annual discretionary grantmaking program. She holds an M.P.A. degree in human rights and humanitarian policy from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a B.A. in economics and mathematics from New York University.

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