Place and Presence: Clapham’s Commitment to the Physical in our Work
The end of a calendar year is a busy time for everyone. For the Clapham team, this has been heightened by the election season, where in DC, there’s an abundance of conferences and gatherings seemingly over all of life’s issues in preparation for the new administration. Candidly, we are part of the culprits…
As an organization founded on the most productive social groups of the 18th and 19th centuries (The Clapham Sect), who engaged in all spheres of London’s pre-Victorian society to produce social change, we, too, value the opportunity to work directly with people across all political persuasions on areas that fall into our scope of work often with a long-term view in mind built on trust. We in fact go out of our way to engage with people at political gatherings as we see it as part of our responsibility to foster community, to find common ground - building strong and trusted relationships with a diversity of coalition partners to advance the common good. This is especially when it is most challenging to do in such polarizing times. Additionally, in a time that is becoming ever-reliant on the virtual sphere, we have doubled down on valuing the physical.
Signpost from the church of the Clapham Sect, image provided by Wikimedia
This year marked the 13th annual Great Objects Gathering, held two weeks before the election, where we brought together a small group of faith leaders, pastors, thinkers, influencers, and journalists, to pray over the election and engage with a diverse representation of the church community across America. As it has been said, proximity breeds empathy, and this in-person event allowed for leaders with different and even conflicting opinions to develop relationships despite their opposing beliefs.
The online realm is ever so convenient and most useful for connectivity and bypassing the limitations placed upon us of time and space, but consequently, there’s a trade-off to authentic engagement. One cannot put a price tag on our proximate, tangible relationships. This is why, as part of our scope, we often include representing our clients at conferences or preparing them to be conveners, sponsors, or speakers at various conferences. People value in-person buy-in, especially when we have become accustomed to solely engaging with another person through the online realm, whether that’s Zoom or email exchanges. These challenges are not just theoretical; we’ve seen firsthand how intentional, in-person engagement can make all the difference. Take, for example, two recent instances where we helped clients navigate the complexities of connecting authentically in both digital and physical spaces.
Neighborhoods to Nations
When your client is based out of Bakersville CA, and their president, Dave Donaldson, gets a chance to come to town, you bet we make the most of it. Over the past two years, I’ve helped with arranging scores of congressional meetings along with NGO leaders and federal agencies. Our inroad connections (thanks to our affiliates and Mark) allows us to initiate important conversations that advance our client’s profile while strengthening the advocacy component of our work with them. At a meeting with our contact at the Veterans Affairs in March, Dave’s vision for theDay of Gratitude, of honoring our Veteran community at the Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium, was met with such great enthusiasm that they jumped right in. Their involvement helped make the event anationally recognized success, with future partnership opportunities still being presented even amidst appointees' transitions.
Convening of Stakeholders Interested in Family Policy
Clapham helps facilitate monthly calls on family policy. This is a space for stakeholders to discuss bipartisan solutions and programs focused on children and families, ensuring their continuity as long as they are meeting their needs, rather than being influenced by fluctuating political climates. In February, we hosted an in-person gathering that involved stakeholders traveling from across the country. More people showed up to the in-person than attended any of the virtual calls. As a new face in the group, I felt like I did not know these people due to solely seeing them virtually every so often, but relationships quickly evolved as we sat in a room together. Due to the success of the February convening, we’re having a post-election meeting in DC this very week with record turnout once again.
Clapham’s annual End of Year Celebration is next week, which is a night of celebrating the Christmas season with our partners and sharing the good work the Lord has given us to undertake. It is an invaluable time that we all look forward to. Our partners have various faith traditions and political backgrounds, but they all know where Clapham stands on our issues and why. We’re blessed to have stewarded robust social capital within the DC arena, where relationships are so easily won and lost over political differences.
The Clapham Tree, based on a tree in the Clapham Commons area, points to our namesake and represents the value of finding common ground.
In 2025, I expect plenty more in-person gatherings as we help our clients find a seat at the table in various settings. Frankly, this is why I love the sort of work I get to be a part of and am hopeful that next year will build off in 2024. And I hope to meet more of our local readers in person.
The week before Thanksgiving, a small band of the Clapham team were at The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREE-OP) Conference to support a research paper we commissioned for a client and engage with the ideas of a heavily free-market crowd. Attached is a policy paper we supported by a remarkable economist, Aparna Mathur. It was launched at the FREE-OP Annual Conference. We are proud of this effort to raise the attention of ensuring citizens can more conveniently file their taxes accurately and receive the tax credits they’re eligible for through exploring much needed updates to the tax-filing system like the new Direct File and other innovative solutions.
At this conference, I met a student who shared much of the same political and philosophical interests as me. While discussing integralism, a guest speaker introduced himself to us asking where we’re from and my new friend responded emphatically “New Rochelle, New York!” I was humored knowing that this formal lawyer type did not mean place but occupation and organization. While seemingly naive, his home town was in fact the right answer. Where we’re from - our family and locale - is more intrinsic to us than occupation. It is just that in DC, we belong to our work as that is what brings you to the nation’s capital. Much of the modern world resembles this reality, too.
At Clapham, I’m valuing the incarnate more and more each day.