Friday, October 29, 2021
The 2021 City Club Annual Report
Dear Friends,
It’s almost painful to cast our minds back twelve months and think about just how difficult and uncertain everything felt—really at almost any time in 2020, but especially after Covid began dominating our lives. In retrospect, Covid was really just one layer among a host of challenges we faced—the economic uncertainty, the demand for racial justice, the rising tide of climate change, and the threats to the very fabric of our democracy and the foundational principles of our republic.
And if any of you had told us that we would come through that crucible a stronger, more agile organization, having created one of our most successful and innovative years of programming ever, we would have been skeptical, to say the least.
But that’s what we did. Together. With you.
And that’s really what’s at the heart of everything you’ll see in this annual report. We were with one another all the way through the year. In spite of social distance, quarantines, lockdowns, and all the other public health concepts we’ve gotten to know so well. We joined together. We listened to one another. We challenged the status quo and examined our swiftly shifting reality. We created conversations that seemed even more consequential than we would have imagined because the stakes were so high.
Think back to some of those conversations—about racial justice after George Floyd’s murder, about fractures in the GOP, about the state of American democracy, about the specific economic and social burden women were bearing through the pandemic, about education’s massive digital divide, and the conversations we had with the many candidates who wanted to run for mayor of Cleveland. When there was an issue our community needed to discuss, we did that together.
And together, we spoke from experience, we listened, we asked questions, and we sustained one another. The City Club was a place to tune in and stay connected to one another at a time when we were physically so far apart. In these pages, you’ll see that story, and you’ll see your part in it.
So thank you. Thank you for being part of the conversation, for continuing your support in such uncertain times, and for standing with us in this work that we do. Because we know that we are stronger together, stronger in conversation, and stronger in community.
With Gratitude,
Dan Moulthrop, CEO
Kristen Baird Adams, Board President
View the 2021 Annual Report here.
Watch the 2021 Annual Meeting here:
